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January 30, 2008

Is Sphinn Bad For The Industry?

Over at TrulyBored, they're asking if Sphinn was the worst thing to happen to Search Engine Land due to the fact that it takes eyeballs away from the daily SearchCap.
Ooo, fight!

Seriously though, it’s a perfectly valid question from a bunch of angles. I’m sure there have been all types of side effects from the launch of Sphinn, both for Search Engine Land and the search engine optimization community as a whole. Without a doubt some eyeballs have been taken away from the SearchCap. I’m sure SEO bloggers have found that comments are down for sphunn entries. I’m sure less people are visiting blogs directly. I’m sure Sphinn is even stealing some links away from certain blogs. But is all of this “bad”?

Not even a little bit.

The author of the post comes to the same conclusion I have though he views it from a perspective that is quite different. He calls Sphinn is a testament to the importance of owning the social media site in your niche. I find that logic completely backwards, respectfully of course. ;)

Did Search Engine Land launch Sphinn to become the hub social networking site for the SEO community? Yes, I’m sure they did. But is that why it’s been good for the site and for the community? No. It has nothing to do with ownership; in fact, it’s actually about giving up ownership and allowing your audience to consume information via the medium that is most accepted by them. It’s about you giving up control of your brand and fishing where the fish are.

Sphinn and sites like it aren’t a detriment to their parent companies or the industries they reside in. They’re a sign that companies are maturing and realizing that sometimes it doesn’t matter how your customers found you, as long as they did find you. As long as they continue to seek you out. And as long as they took away a positive enough experience that they’ll want to associate themselves with you later. We’re leaving behind the false idea of “the all powerful Web site” and realizing that what’s really important is building engagement and, in time, conversions.

This is why you have big brand companies like Sony diving into Facebook and launching applications comprised of blood-sucking vampires. It’s why companies are uploading videos onto YouTube. It’s why social media sites are springing up. It’s why bloggers create a Twitter-based RSS feeds. It’s why email newsletters are still around and why some blogs offer email RSS feeds. It gives users options.

And quite honestly, these are the companies that I’m typically drawn to. And when you give me options as to how I can interact with you, I’ll often use every option available to me. I’m the person who subscribes to the SearchCap and subscribes to two Sphinn feeds. I read ResourceShelf via email and RSS feed. I’m insane.

The folks out there crying about a decrease in page views or a lack of comments on their blog are showing a clear sign of Just Don’t Get It. In 2008, it’s not about how many visitors you can corral to your site. It’s about making your brand relevant by becoming part of your audience’s every day life. Page views aren’t a good indicator of anything. Just because traffic has dipped doesn’t mean there aren’t more eyeballs looking at you and that customers aren’t more engaged than ever. Site traffic related metrics don’t take into account all the branding accomplished through RSS feeds, social networking sites, user generated content, etc. As long as people are interacting with you and continuing to value your brand, who cares what approach they take to do it? Your message is still getting out there.

Increase the reach of your message by inserting yourself into all facets of your customers’ lives and offering your content in a variety of ways. So, you have a blog. Do you offer both a partial and an ad-supported RSS feed for people like Michael? Have you allowed your readers to subscribe to email updates? Are there video versions of your content that your audience can view via YouTube? Are there podcasts? Is your content being submitted to sites like Sphinn, Delicious or StumbleUpon?

We’ve passed the point where companies can force visitors down a certain consumption path. If users want full feeds and you only offer partial, they’ll either leave you for someone else or they’ll develop some sort of hack to do it themselves. Remember what happened when Apple tried to lock iPhone users into AT&T? They took a hell of a lot of heat for something a college kid was able to “fix” over his summer vacation.

Sphinn hasn’t taken anything away from Search Engine Land or the search engine optimization community. If anything, it’s a sign that Danny was confident enough in his team’s content to allow it to be “unlocked”. You should be just as confident about your own. It’s not your job to tell your customers how they should interact with you. Lay out their options and let them pick the one they like the best.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/30/08 at 6:13 PM | Comments (6)
See more entries in Social Media

January 29, 2008

Hey Rand, Do You Mean Siloing?

Rand was over at SEOmoz yesterday talking about the process of “sculpting” where site owners and SEOs can use the nofollow attribute on boilerplate and unimportant links to control link flow and funnel PageRank to their most important pages. Sounds smart, eh?

Well, of course it does, Rand, and we’d like to formally welcome you to the PageRank optimization party! PageRank funneling, or PageRank optimization, has by and large always worked. It’s something we’ve been saying for a long time through our concept of siloing.

I kid. We love Rand! ;)

Truthfully, we were really glad to see the folks at SEOmoz talking about sculpting/siloing/whatever you want to call it and even more glad to see that people seemed excited about it. Siloing is an advanced search engine optimization technique that when used correctly can help solve the problems that occur when sites accidently dilute their available PageRank with erratic and unfocused linking.

Chances are that if you visit the blog, read any of the ongoing 6-part siloing series, attended SEO training or were there to listen to Bruce’s SMX Give It Up presentation, you’ve already heard about siloing and the benefits that creating a hierarchal organization structure can have on your site. We hope you’ve already taken steps to integrate siloing and weren’t waiting on Rand to give you the formal okay.

However, if you were and are now just educating yourself, you can learn more about one of our favorite search engine optimization techniques by checking out our newsletter articles Building A Web Site Theme With Silos (Part 1) and Siloing Revisited. However, I’ll also try to give you guys a simplified version right here. Both because it’s helpful and because I don’t do technical all that well.

So what’s siloing?

Siloing, as you may or may not know, is our way of categorizing content in your site based on a theme. The theme and sub-topics are obtained by the target key phrases for that content. Siloing categorizes the content both structurally and virtually. Structurally, it is how the content is categorized on the server which includes the directory structure of the site. Virtually, it's how the content is linked together in the site because PageRank also works for pages internal to your site, not just external links.

PageRank funneling is just one part of what we call siloing. It’s the ‘Virtual’ part. It works by using the rel="nofollow" on pages that are unimportant on your site.

This does two things for you:

  1. It decreases the number of counted links on the linking page because links with rel="nofollow" are not counted. This, in turn, increases the value of the links on that page.
  2. It allows the links to only go to important pages of your site.

Why does this help increase rankings? Because of the PageRank algorithm. Originally, the PageRank idea was developed as a way of modeling human behavior. It gives us an automated way to figure out which pages are more important than others on the Web. The assumption was that a human user is more likely to link to pages that are informative or valuable in some way. So in theory, a page that has a high amount of inbound links should also have a high value. However, this didn’t take into consideration the fact that most sites globally-link to pages that are only valuable to users who are already browsing their site (e.g. a Contact Us page). Adding the rel=“nofollow” to these types of links basically removes the PageRank from the pages they go to and redistributes it to other pages on the site.

Optimizing PageRank is a good starting point, but siloing takes the idea one step further by taking keyword relevancy into account. In a properly-siloed linking structure, the important landing pages have the most PageRank going to them, AND this PageRank is coming from pages that share a common theme and contain relevant content. Think about it… what is Google more likely to rank: A page with inbound links from random pages, or a page with inbound links from relevant pages?

That’s really the idea of siloing at its core. For more advanced information, I’d really encourage you to read all the siloing articles. And, if you have any questions, feel free to drop them in the comments. I’ll lock one of our analysts to a chair and make him help out.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/29/08 at 4:22 PM | Comments (12)
See more entries in Search Engine Optimization

January 28, 2008

SEO Weekend Update

Hi, friends. How was your weekend? It finally stopped raining in California. I hear The People Against Weather are happy about that. Weirdos. One mini rant and then I promise we’ll get to the headlines.

Am I the only one who found today’s Google Lego logo kind of ridiculous? [Yes. –Susan] I get that they’re celebrating 50 years in existence and all, but seriously, that was one pathetic looking display. Instead, Google should have created a logo to commemorate that it is 5 months until my birthday. Huzzah for Lisa!

Okay, moving on.

Target’s Insult Makes The NYT

Remember how we commented earlier that Target’s policy of ignoring “not participating with non-traditional media” was not so smart and that it would just anger, alienate and push people to take things to the next level? Yes, well we’re pretty sure Target does too, especially now that their little misstep has made the New York Times. Awesome!

Oh, what a mess they’ve gotten themselves in. Instead of just acting like a responsible, socially savvy company, Target put their head in the sand and invited an article from the NYT about how they think the blogosphere is irrelevant. Way to not reach out and engage your audience. Let’s hope their core audience really doesn’t check the blogosphere or use search engines, because if so, Target FTW!

As a result of the outcry, Target has decided to review the policy and maybe readjust it. I think that would be a good idea. Let’s all realize that this is 2008 and that users are finding out about you through multiple avenues, and yes, some of that includes the blogosphere. Connect with them.

Also a good idea is would be to not create offensive ads where you display the crotch of your core audience in the center of a bulls-eye in the first place. I’m just sayin’.

Microsoft adCenter More Effective Than AdWords & YSM?

More reports that Microsoft adCenter continues to convert better than both Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing. Sweet, now if only they could pick up half of Google’s traffic. Then maybe this would be something users could get excited about. Still, the chart below is impressive (and pretty):

It’s really sad. It sounds like Microsoft has found the sweet spot with ad targeting and yet it’s Google who continues to dominate the market because of their existing stronghold. Microsoft may be the superior ad platform, but if they have no audience, who’s going to invest their money with them? Would you rather get 5 conversions for 7 visits with adCenter or 500 conversions from 1000 visits with AdWords? You’d have to look at the numbers. Some food for thought, though.

Maturation Time For Twitter?

Over at Web Strategist, Jeremiah Owyang says its time for Twitter to knock it off with the kid stuff and mature into the adolescent it needs to be to feed its demanding user base. The post comes in response to Shel Israel’s recent Open Letter to the Twitter Guys where he tells them to fix the platform before he abandons ship.

I’ve been very much enjoying Twitter over the past few months (though sometimes I need to Just Shut Up), but it’s getting to the point where the quirks are overshadowing the benefit for me. I don’t want to leave the community, I like my Twitter group, but I don’t like having to deal with their quirks either. Especially when the bugs of Twitter are potentially damaging to my personal brand.

Twitter is either going to sink or swim. Either they’ll improve their infrastructure to the point where they can handle mainstream exposure, or the influencers and early adopters are going to start abandoning ship. They’ll either become synonymous with microblogging or they’ll be the early platform that sparked the real deal. I hope they’re able to scale and get their bugs worked out. But if not, maybe it’s time to give Pownce a try. Maybe they’ll have less downtime, fewer system glitches, be less likely to delete my messages, have better APIs and won’t make me look antisocial and let me manage my 170+ Follower Requests. We’ll have to stay tuned to see what happens.

Fun Finds

Robert Scoble stops talking about how cool he is long enough to share his recent experience with shy Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. A most excellent read.

Matt Cutts wants to know what Gmail feature you want the most. Apparently, Matt wants an “Oops” filter to allow you to delay sending out an email so you can fix a typo or remove the 8lbs of snark you accidently threw in. Seems to me they already have that feature, Matt. It’s called “save & send later”.  [I’d like one called ‘give me a reply window when I ask for one. Yes, every time.’ Is anyone else having this problem? –Susan]

Sarah Bird, Esquire gives us an update in RipOff Report Responds: You Be The Judge. I have to say, I’m falling madly in love with Sarah. Part of it is probably because I always wanted to go to law school, but most of it is because her ability to dumb down fancy legal jargon in a way that I actually understand is pretty awesome. Don’t tell Rand or Jabecca, but she’s my favorite blogging Mozzer. [Word. –Susan]

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/28/08 at 4:37 PM | Comments (1)
See more entries in Branding, Pay Per Click / Online Ads, Social Media

Blended Search Eats Legacy Rankings

A great, great post by Jeffrey Smith over at SEO Design Solutions warns sites against getting too comfortable at the top and we couldn’t agree more.

There’s a natural tendency to think that once you’ve earned your top rankings for your competitive keywords, that you can sit back and marvel at your own success. As if your competition has bowed down to your superior SEO skills and will happily live in perpetual runner-up bliss. Please, get serious.

As Jeffrey explains, this is some seriously dangerous thinking:

Resting on the laurels of yesteryear is a sure fire-method to find your “once relevant results” that ranked as if they were the very fabric of search engines (until now), replaced by more pertinent or relevant information from a savvy competitor or sophisticated new kid on the block who are hungry for a piece of your market share.”

Ah, yes. The quickest way to lose legacy rankings is to do nothing.

It’s the same discussion we’ve had a million times before, only this time it’s centered differently, and for good reason. Typically when we talk about search engine optimization as being an ongoing process we frame it in the argument that without constant tweaking, you leave yourself vulnerable to attack and for your competition to rise up and overtake you. And while that’s still the case and a very valid argument, now we have this whole blended search thing to contend with. Sites have to be even more proactive about staying up-to-date on their optimization efforts and must continually raise the bar in terms of what they’re offering to customers.

As the article suggests, blended search will change the way users interact with search engines and the kind of information and relevancy they’ll demand. You’re no longer taking up residence in the SERPs with the same old faces you’ve grown accustomed to and tolerated seeing. There are going to be new faces to deal with. If you want to beat these young whippersnappers, you can’t sit back and marvel at your static Web site. Not when they’ve integrated videos and images and blog entries and news stories that tie back to their core theme. You want to identify the sites that will cause you trouble and figure out how to become more relevant. As legacy as your rankings are, you have to start defending them with smarter search engine optimization. Otherwise, be prepared to lose them, Mr. I Haven’t Updated My Site In 10 Years.

The good thing about blended search is that it will encourage searchers to use the whole SERP. However, that’s also the bad part, depending on where you sit. Users are being re-taught to take advantage of that scroll bar they forgot was there in hopes that there may be a funny YouTube video hiding just below the fold. When they go hunting for it they may discover a cleverly written Title tag written by the site ranking below you and decide to click on them instead. Blended search is going to change that golden triangle where the first two sites listed got all the eyeballs. Attention is going to spread. If you’re that site ranking 7th or 8th for your keywords, this is good news for you. If you’re the top dog, it may not be.

And it’s not just new competition you have to think about. You have to keep in mind the new kind of users who will be searching for you, the one who will expect more, who will use different language in hopes of triggering a blended search result and who is looking for a niche specialist. Your search engine optimization campaign should take all of this into consideration.

And all of these elements are completely independent of the day-to-day algorithm pushes the engines are doing. You have to stay on top of things from a blended search perspective without forgetting your core search engine optimization goals. This means that you will never, ever be able to rest. Search engine optimization does not end after the first glimmer of rankings and page edits. Sites must continue to add fresh content, while experimenting with it in completely different forms. They must continue to go after expert links, while also pushing their content out to social media entities. They have to strengthen the theme of their site, while leveraging media in a new way. You’ll have to continue to do keyword research, now working in blended search-friendly search terms.

As Jeffery notes, it’s time for site owners and search marketers to look for increasing opportunities to leverage new media in a way that builds a bridge back to their brand. (Hey, have you seen our SEO Training video?) The puzzle is getting bigger and more intricate. I don’t ever want to read another thread of Search Engine Roundtable about search engine optimization is a one time deal. That has never been the case, and it’s definitely not now that blended search is here to stay

[Don’t forget, we need your SEO Charity contest submissions by February 11th in order for you to be eligible for more than $5000 worth of search engine optimization training!]

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/28/08 at 4:23 PM | Comments (3)
See more entries in Search Engine Optimization

January 25, 2008

Blended Search Is The Toy In Your Happy Meal

I missed this earlier in the week, but Barry Schwartz asked an interesting question over at Search Engine Roundtable that I think is worth responding to. The question was: Should Google give people a way to turn off blended search results if they just want the “classic” version?

Personally, I vote no. I mean, throw it out there if it’s easy to do and it will save loud people from complaining, but I don’t see any reason that blended search results would need to be turned off. Sometimes people just have to learn to adapt and evolve. Is that map showing you nearby locations for the business name you just typed in or the relevant YouTube video for the band you just queried really hindering your searching experience? If so, I feel bad for you. Life is so hard when you get exactly what you want.

In his post, Barry uses the example of how Google allows people to turn off personalized search. I get the comparison but that’s comparing apples to oranges, if you ask me. Personalized search and blended search is not the same animal.

When a user searches with personalized search turned on the results they’re getting aren’t true results. They’re skewed based on factors Google has determined are important to you. If you have a history of clicking on one site over another for a particular query, Google will recognize that and start placing that site higher in your results. But what if I want to see the whole newspaper, not just the parts my mother has caught me checking out in the past? As I’ve argued before, I think users absolutely have a right to ask Google not to reorder and restructure their results based on their assumptions.

But blended search doesn’t change the results you’re seeing, or at least not in the same way personalized search does. With blended search, you’re still seeing results in their natural order; you’re just also getting some extra flavor thrown in. If you’re doing a shopping search, you may see products listed. If you look for your favorite recording artist, you may get some YouTube videos. It’s added stuff, stuff that you never had before, but it’s still there because of its true relevancy to your query. The danger that you’re missing out on something because it’s positioned lower is much less, especially now that Google has taken their blended search offering one step further and started implementing ten local map listings + ten regular listings on the page. Hopefully they’ll start using that approach on a grander scale and then users won’t be missing out on anything. You’re getting the extra value meal of search, toy included.

I’m sort of at a loss for why someone would even want to turn it off. Clearly someone did because it came up in the High Rankings Forums. But why? Are they upset that the news article ranking at position 4 has moved one listing off the page? Dude, if you’re so bothered, just click to page two. That’s far less work than having to type in some fancy parameter or change your settings so that Google can help you pretend it’s still the year 2000.

I don’t see much value in offering users a way to turn of blended search. It’s really in everyone’s best interest just to adapt to the new style of search results. In the end, it’s going to give everyone a better search experience. Users get new, often more relevant, forms results appearing; the search engines get to highlight verticals and encourage searchers to use the whole SERP; site owners are able to use media to tie together their site; and search marketers get to learn how to optimize many forms of content. Why fight to go backwards?

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/25/08 at 5:44 PM | Comments (0)
See more entries in Search Engine Optimization

Friday Recap

Hey you! Got any plans this weekend? Have no fear, I’m here to help. You should spend tomorrow voting for Bruce Clay in the SEMMYS and then Sunday you can go ahead and write up your site review for the Bruce Clay SEO Contest. Productive, right? Get to it!

Oh, and if you have some time left over, you may want to listen to Danny Sullivan and Jeremy Schoemaker battle it out on the Shoemoney show. Good times all around.

Robert Scoble offers some tips for what to do if you’re laid off in 2008 recession. Apparently one of those things is to sell out and start running ads because your new company says so. Way to stop alienating people, Robert.

North South Media asked What if SEO & Search Had Action Figures and does a stellar job of finding suitable plastic-versions of our favorite search faces. Perhaps I’m partial because she’s my BFF, but Tamar Weinberg’s is dead on.

From The Old outlined the different types of bloggers. I’m not sure where exactly I fit in. Hopefully it’s one of the good types.

Anyone know what was up with Barry Schwartz this week? He kept asking people to pownce on him. I’m not sure what that was about. I wonder what his wife would say?

Cats had a really good week. First, 10 month old Gracie made headlines by jumping into her owner’s suitcase, hitching a ride on a plane, and then going home with a stranger. Luckily she safely returned to her owner. Ah, reunited and it feels so good.

After Gracie, we got to meet Charley, a kitty with cerebellar hypoplasia and a really big heart. Don’t you just want to adopt him and snuggle with him forever?

My friend Taylor Pratt (go check out his blog, too) brought my attention to a guide for what to do when you’ve had a little too much fun juice. We’ve all been there, like say, at a search conference. As the article describes, it’s really all about getting home without embarrassing yourself or the person you work for. How much longer til SMX West?

CoolStuff offered up some advice on dos and don’ts with babies. In case you weren’t sure, picking up a baby by the head, throwing it in the dryer (or 10 feet in the air), and putting it either a drawer or a cage are all bad. Unless you’re Britney. Then perhaps putting it in a drawer is the preferable option.

Problogger takes some time to talk about dropping the F bomb on your blog. Hi Rae!

Gentlemen, listen up. Valentines Day is approaching. Please take note of the wonderful post: Valentines Day, My Ass and avoid getting your lady friend a blender. Or a vacuum. No one wants a vacuum on Valentines Day, even if it is a really, really good one. Got it?

Teddy bears pulled inside out and then sewn back together. I can’t tell you how much sadness that causes me. Why would anyone hurt a Care Bear like that?

Trying to drum up sales by scaring people and putting them in vulnerable positions is bad. Especially when that potential customer then goes and writes about it in a post called Smart Glass Denver Sucks. Heh, she must subscribe to the Michael Gray style of blogging.

Just one more reason not to eat pickles—now they come with mouse feet. Yummy.

Things I Learned From BoingBoing This Week

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/25/08 at 1:25 PM | Comments (3)
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January 24, 2008

Vote For Us In The SEMMYS! Please?

2008 SEMMY Finalist

Matt McGee announced the finalists for the 2008 SEMMYS today, and much to my surprise, some of the Bruce Clay blog’s posts actually made it past the first round of nominations! Exciting!

You know where this is going, right? This is where I very politely ask you to (please) go vote for us so that I can prove to Susan that I have some value to this company and she’ll let me take a lunch break or buy me a cookie or at least take off these damn handcuffs so I can get up from my desk and relearn how to walk. The categories in which we’re nominated are Search Tech and LOL Funny!

You can go vote for us by following these links:

I know people like Barry Schwartz and Andy Beal are also lobbying for your votes, however, I am more important. Or at least more deserving. Andy and Barry win lots of things and they’re asked to speak on panels and they’re generally identified as Really Cool People. However, this is not the case for me. In fact, I’m still trying to get over my heartbreaking loss to Search Engine Roundtable for Best Conference Coverage. Do you know what it’s like to sit at home and eat tear-filled Ben & Jerry’s straight out of the container? I know Susan does. [You guys, seriously, please vote for her. I can’t take another loss. You wouldn’t believe the whining I have to put up with. –Susan] -- I’m sorry you find my heartbreak so annoying.

So go support your community by voting in all of the SEMMYS 15 categories and make sure you vote for Bruce Clay where applicable, that would be in the categories of Search Tech and LOL Funny.

You’re the best!

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/24/08 at 4:18 PM | Comments (2)
See more entries in Fun Stuff

Making Your Old Site Hip Again

Wake up, friends. It’s time to prove once and for all that old dogs can learn new tricks and make their sites hip again. They can and they have to. And which sites serve as the best examples for this? Newspapers’ sites, of course. So how funny is it that we heard from two big ones today? Let’s take a look.

First we heard the news that the Wall Street Journal, despite showing signs of intelligence back in November, has decided that they will keep most of the content on its site subscription-based. Two months ago Rupert Murdoch revealed he was contemplating removing the subscription pay wall, but then today we were issued this:

"We are going to greatly expand and improve the free part of the Wall Street Journal online, but there will still be a strong offering" for subscribers, Mr. Murdoch said. "The really special things will still be a subscription service, and, sorry to tell you, probably more expensive."

Lame.

On the other side of the coin you have The Atlantic who announced, that just like the New York Times did in September, they will be removing their pay wall and making the majority of the content on their site accessible to users free of charge. That includes 13 years of print archives, plus even more stuff dating back to 1857 that’s now in public domain. Sweet!

Wall Street Journal: Downgrade
The Atlantic: Total Upgrade

If you’re an old site trying to appeal to a new audience, my advice would be to follow the Atlantic’s upgrade and mature with the times. Here’s my advice to you:

  • Drop The Pay Wall, People: If you’re still charging people to access the content on your site, quit it. You’re only hurting yourself. I’m not sure why Rupert Murdoch thinks keeping the pay wall and raising the price for full site access is a good idea but I very much disagree. When you knock down pay walls you’re not taking money out of your pocket. You’re opening up your site, increasing traffic and creating better advertising opportunities. It also helps make old content relevant again when users can find it in their SERPs. Why leave that stuff collecting dust on a shelf when you can bring value to your readers and establish yourself as helpful and relevant and wonderful?

  • Experiment With New Content Offerings: I get it. You’re an old site and still under the impression that the Internet is a storehouse for static pages that never change and don’t evolve. Well, you’re wrong. If you look at The Atlantic Web site, they’re addressing their core audience but they’re also testing the waters in new areas.

    One of the coolest things The Atlantic has done was to bring in high profile bloggers to headline their Voices section, which is highlighted both in their main navigation and on the left sidebar. They’ve paired up with folks like Andrew Sullivan, Megan McArdle, Ross Southat and others to bring in new visitors, differentiate themselves from everyone else, get Atlantic content showing up in multiple places, and raise general site awareness. Super smart.

    They’re also doing some great things videos (like The Atlantic blogger political roundtable) and the were smart enough to offer not only full text RSS feeds, but have separate feeds for different blogs and content types.

  • Encourage Engagement: That means allowing comments on your blogs if you’re going to have them, encouraging users to submit your site to social media networks, joining conversations that are already going on, and really taking the time to nurture your own community. A lot of establish companies forget that the Internet is just as much about “reaction” as it as about presenting information. Not allowing for both elements is a mistake.

    This is actually one area where I think The Atlantic could improve on. There’s still a little too much talking at and not enough having a conversation with. I think they’re doing themselves a great injustice by not making it easier to have users submit their content to social news sites. Some of their blog entries would really be prime candidates for a lot of the sites out there.

If you want to change the brand DNA of your Web site, you have to give users what they want, which more often then not means easy access to your site and the ability to engage with your brand. Meeting these two requirements will turn even the oldest sites hip. You can no longer afford to have a sucky Web site.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/24/08 at 3:35 PM | Comments (1)
See more entries in Branding

January 23, 2008

Google Penalties, Keeping Customers & Finding Your Muse

Aaron Solves The Position 6 Penalty

Way back in December we started hearing talk of a “position 6 penalty” that looked to be punishing sites that normally ranked in the first two positions by banishing them all the way down to position 6. There didn’t appear to be many similarities between the sites affected, just that they once held very high rankings for their keywords. Aaron Wall commented early this year that he believed the penalty had something to do with phrase relationships where the links coming into a site were considered by Google to be too tightly aligned with the anchor text used. Matt Cutts denied such a rumor but it seemed that there were a lot of reports of the same thing for it to be totally false.

Well, despite Matt’s denials Aaron is back discussing the situation today in his post How I Got My Google Ranking #6 Filter Removed. It basically sounds like he was able to regain rankings by lowering the amount of SEO on this site. If that’s the case, there’s been plenty of threads about how sometimes Google seems to punish sites that are over-optimized. Could the position 6 penalty be just another sign of that? Take a look at Aaron’s post and decide.

Retain Customers, Make More Money

The Consumerist confirms what we already know telling us that it’s more profitable to keep an old customer (pdf) than to go find new ones. A bunch of really smart Harvard researchers discovered that by decreasing the number of customers you drive away by 5 percent, you can 35-95 percent more profit. The pretty chart below illustrates the fluctuations that occur between industries. People selling credit cards take note:

Didn’t I just rant the other day about the importance of customer service? Maybe it’s time to change the way we do business. Acquiring new customers is expensive and an unstable investment. I mean, who knows is that customer will stick around long enough to be profitable? Stop focusing all your efforts on the selling and work to strengthen the relationships you have with customers who have already put their faith in you. Happy customers are more likely to refer friends, spend larger sums of money with you, and typically use fewer resources. And really, it’s just a better way to do business.

Have You Gone MADD?

Over at Copyblogger Jonathan Morrow talks about MADD: A Writing Disorder That Stifles Your Creativity and helps writers determine if they have it. Symptoms include careless spellings and grammatical mistakes, blogging without a point, doing anything to avoid writing and others. Oh dear.

Hi. My name is Lisa and I have MADD aka Muse Attention Deficit Disorder.

Luckily for me, Jonathan offers up some “cures” for the disease that I will soon be working into my blogging diet. I can’t help but wonder if SEOs and Internet marketers have their own version of MADD. If they spend so much time looking at on-page SEO elements and trying to master everything social media that they’re boring their muse to death and dimming the fire that used to guide them. If you’re feeling a bit run down, I’d encourage you to give Jonathan’s article a read and adapt it to your own needs. That Feeding Your Muse one is pretty important. Sometimes we all have to step outside our box and ourselves to get back on track.

Fun Finds

Tamar says social media is not only about social media sites and you should listen to her. Tamar is a social media princess.

It’s National Pie Day! Go treat yourself with a little sinful indulgence.

Read through Rebecca Kelley’s post entitled Your Users Aren’t Intuitive, Which Is Why Your Forms Need To Be and then check out Pat Sexton’s comment in response. Water. All over the keyboard. Thanks, Pat.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/23/08 at 4:10 PM | Comments (1)
See more entries in SEO Tips & Tricks, Search Engine Optimization

2007: A Turning Point For Web Analytics?

ClickZ’s Neil Mason posted a great interview with Avinash Kaushik today where the Web analytics legend dishes on the state of the industry, what’s coming and why he feels that 2007 was the turning point for Web analytics. The whole interview was delicious but it’s that last part that really got my attention.

Was 2007 really something of a turning point for Web analytics?

Having attended exactly 4 million conferences last year, I can definitely say that analytics seemed to be getting far more attention from both business owners and SEOs themselves than it did in 2006. Not that that’s particularly surprising.

The Web has become big business. Site owners want to know what is happening on their site and what changes they can make to improve ROI. At the same time, SEOs are using Web analytics as their number one signal for understanding where improvement need to be made and for monitoring (and when necessary, proving) the effectiveness of a search engine optimization campaign. As the amount of dollars being thrown at the Web increases, so does the need for accountability.

And the increased interest in analytics gave way for a monumental amount of new tracking platforms to sprout up. Every time you turned around new companies were forming and consolidating, both in the States and throughout the UK. Omniture acquired Visual Sciences, Offermatica and Touch Clarity. Google acquired DoubleClick. Microsoft acquired aQuantive. And those were just the brightest spots on the radar.

The need for accountability combined with the availability of technology leaves business and SEO companies better equipped to fight for that all elusive single view of their marketing effectiveness. They have people breathing down their necks asking which is the most profitable sales channel, what consumers are most interested in, why no one is filling out that form on their Web site, how offline promotions are tying in with online creations, why newsletter subscriptions just died, etc. Web analytics provides an answer to things like traffic fluctuations, the number of unique visitors, abandoned shopping carts, conversion rates, etc.

But it can only do that when you use the information to effect change. You can’t just sit on it and congratulate yourself for being so proactive about your expanding data collection. Your company is not a museum. Stop storing things and putting them on display. Get someone in there who can read the numbers and decipher what they mean and then apply that to improve all site activities. There are different metrics for Measuring Reach, Measuring Retention, and Measuring Conversion. Learn it, live it, love it.

All that being said, I’m not sure people are any better informed this year than they were last about how to really use Web analytics, and that’s a problem. We know it’s important but it’s still something of an ordeal trying to collect the data and then figuring out how to use it in a way that is actually useful. That’s what needs to be improved upon in 2008—the education. I know Bruce has revamped the analytics section in our SEO training course and the numbers of Web analytics conferences are growing by leaps and bounds. Hopefully people will take advantage of the growing opportunity and really learn how to use these new analytics tools and what is Web analytics. It’s worth noting that we’ll also be adding the San Francisco eMetrics Summit to our liveblogging calendar this year and I, for one, am panicked. Not because I’m not interested in Web analytics but because I have very little understanding of how it works and what’s important and how I should be looking at all this new data I’ve collected. I think a lot of business owners are the same way and hopefully this year we’ll change all that.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/23/08 at 2:41 PM | Comments (0)
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January 22, 2008

No Links, Google’s Experimental Search & Fun Finds

Give Me The Web, Hold The Links

Well, this is new. Greasemonkey scripts are typically extraordinarily useful in helping users make the most out of their Web experience, right? Yes. However this recent one sounds a bit clonky to me.

Lifehacker highlighted a new Greasemonkey script named No Links Please! which actually strips links off any Web page (except Google’s) to prevent users from clicking on every link in the sight and mindlessly surfing the vast Intrawebz. Now users can “focus” on the page at hand. Wow. That’s amazing.

Wait, what? That has to be the most ridiculous script I have ever heard of. How ADD are you that you need someone to strip the links off your Web page in order for you to focus? Do I have to cut your meat too? Why not just print the Web out and make yourself a new book.

I actually think there’s one really cool use to this script. You know that client you have who’s afraid to link out to other Web sites in fear that people won’t come back? Make them surf the Web this way. Show them how ridiculous it is for sites not to link out and to remain completely disconnected from the rest of the online community. Once their frustration and annoyance level hits the appropriate mark it will really drive home the importance of outbound links! Huzzah!

Playing With Google’s Experimental Search

My friend Eric Lander alerted me to the news that Google is testing its Experimental Search within its own search engine results page. Huzzah for fun stuff from Google! Huzzah!

It seems users are now able to sign up for one of Google’s 5 experiments (but only one at a time) and bring it into their normal search results. Your experimental search options are:

  • Alternate views for search results
  • Keyword suggestions
  • Keyboard shortcuts
  • Left-hand search navigation
  • Right-hand contextual search navigation

I agree with Eric that the Timeline View appears to be the most impressive. It lets you view results on a timeline, map, or in context of other information types. It’s kind of cool to see all the ways Google is able to extract information. The rest of the “experiments” are really just different ways of presenting advanced searching techniques. For example, the fancy Right Hand Contextual Search Navigation experiment is really just Ask.com’s Narrow/Expand search feature. Google must get paid by the word when naming things.

Give Google’s Experimental search a try when you have some time. It’s kind of fun to play around with.

Fun Finds

Joe Lazarus says the MyBlogLog API Could Be A Game Changer and shows how the new Twitter API will be able to pull out all sorts of information about your visitors from third parties like Flickr, Delicious, Twitter, etc. Very interesting stuff.

Rand Fiskin offers advice for startup CEOs. My favorite part is in the comments when Rand calls Chris Howard “a really sweet guy”. Rand’s such a girl.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/22/08 at 5:52 PM | Comments (0)
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What To Do About Yahoo

Oh poor little Yahoo. This week there’s been nothing but rumors of massive layoffs, pitiful looking stock prices, and depressing marketing share forecasts. You’re all over the blogosphere and for all the wrong reasons. It’s turned into a tragic car wreck that people can’t help but slow down to watch. What in the world are we going to do with you?

Over at GigaOm, guest author Sramana Mitra is crying Yahoo, Please Put Up A Fight and near begging them to take advantage of the Web 3.0 jewel they’re already sitting on. That jewel being the popularly held belief that the new wave of the Web and search will be expanding and capitalizing off verticals, an area that Yahoo pretty much excels in. I find myself in total agreement with Sramana on this one. Yahoo either has to start fighting or get the hell out of the way. Do or do not, there is no try.

I think part of Yahoo’s problem is Jerry Wang. He has this fairytale notion that someday Yahoo will be “the most essential starting point for your life”. That’s a fine little mantra to hum to yourself before you fall asleep at night, but in the real world a CEO needs to set goals that a company can actually achieve. Telling your 5-year-old that someday he has to grown up to play professional baseball isn’t going to help him get there. First he needs to be able to hit a ball without whacking the tee. Yahoo needs some guidance. They need to find a niche and focus on filling it.

We keep hearing about these upcoming layoffs and how they’ll help to “refocus” and “restructure” Yahoo’s vision. That’s a bunch of crap. You know it’s going to be the wrong people getting the pink slips. You can’t change Yahoo’s brand DNA with Jerry Yang still in power. If Yahoo wants to grow and become competitive again, it’s time to put the people brave enough to effect change in charge. Something tells me the layoffs they’re planning aren’t going to affect the old-timers stuck in their ways with the big paychecks; they’re going to cut out the lower echelon. That’s not what Yahoo needs.

Someone needs to give Jerry Yang a good shake. Let’s drop these fairytales notions of where we want our company to be and focus on reestablishing the Yahoo brand. Yahoo has the vertical elements already in place to make strides and steal market share. They just need to strengthen them. Seriously, head over to the Yahoo home page and their underused properties are all listed there for you. There’s Delicious, Yahoo Autos, Flickr, Yahoo Answers, Hot Jobs, Yahoo Sports and about a million others. Everywhere Google is trying to get, Yahoo is already there. Why aren’t they being more aggressive about doing something with them? Okay, we’re starting to integrate Delicious results into the SERPS, but is that the best we can do?

Yahoo, stop trying to be Google and start using what you’ve already got. Be the place to go for vertical searches. Google’s left a huge hole; it’s their Achilles heel. Get your bows out and clip them there.

And this is an issue that is no way specific to Yahoo. The engine to become “the next Google” will be the one that stops trying to be Google. No one is going to take horizontal search from them at this point. Stop marketing to everyone. Establish your niche, overtake it, and then build out. I’d give the same advice to Ask.com.

Honestly, I don’t really care if Yahoo ever succeeds. I want someone to rise up from the ashes and become competitive, but if it’s not Yahoo, I’m pretty okay with that. I’d much rather see Ask mobilize their forces to steal the verticals away from Google and gain market share; however, I realize I can’t be picky. I don’t care who decides to get their asses in motion first, as long as someone finally does it.

I find it completely puzzling that neither Yahoo nor Ask, two companies with very strong specialized properties, have come out with their guns blazing in vertical search. There seems to be this held belief that Google is already there and rocking it, but they’re not! Google’s verticals are poorly developed and completely inferior to what Yahoo and Ask already having going. That space is still entirely open. Someone needs to get on the ball and do something with it. Either that or just fade away. If you’re not going to do something, I don’t want to hear about you.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/22/08 at 2:57 PM | Comments (2)
See more entries in Yahoo

January 21, 2008

SEO Weekend Update

Get Your SEO Contest Submission In!

We’re really excited about the feedback, emails and submissions we’ve already received in response to our latest SEO Charity Contest and here’s another reminder to YOU that you have until February 11th to give us yours! That’s right, Monday, February 11th is the absolute last day for you to submit your site analysis and potentially win yourself a free trip to Search Engine Strategies New York, as well as our new and improved SEOToolSet training and Advanced Certification course.

But don't wait until the last minute. Once you’ve selected your charity and gotten their okay, go ahead and write up your site review and send it on over to Lisa (that’s me) so she (um, I) can put it with the other contest winner hopefuls. Maybe I’ll be so blown away by your entry that I won’t even both reading everyone else’s.

(Okay, that’s probably not likely but you should still gets yours in early anyway.)

Will Making Yahoo More Delicious Help?

Yahoo has been caught testing Delicious integrated search results. Ooo, saucy! Lucky test victims will now immediately be able to see if a page is listed in Yahoo’s social bookmarking site Delicious and how many people have bookmarked it, arguably telling them how deliciously popular it is. Ah, there are so many fabulous plays on the Yahoo/Delicious mix I can’t even choose which ones to go with.

It’s somewhat of an interesting move on Yahoo’s part. Integrating social bookmarking elements into their SERPs is a good differentiator, but you have to wonder if most searchers will even know what that little icon means. If they don’t, is Yahoo doing themselves an injustice and confusing users by throwing it in there? Perhaps. Or it could turn out to be an excellent way to highlight and brand a really great bookmarking tool.

I like the idea of having it in there, but I can’t see how it would ever be successful. If they do it keep it, it’s only going to launch endless speculation that Yahoo is favoring pages with high Delicious activity. And once that happens the whole thing is going to be spammed to hell. Why even bother going through the trouble? Ah, no good deed, my friends, no good deed.

Google Modifies AdSense Referral Program. Again.

It seems like Google heard the outrage that broke out the first time they announced changes to their AdSense referral program so they went back to the drawing board and gave it another go.

This weekend the Google AdSense Blog issued a follow-up to their referrals announcement. Under the new rules, your ability to participate in the program will depend on where your audience is located, not where you’re currently sitting. Basically, publishers will earn $100 for every user they refer who is located in North America, Latin America or Japan and generates $100 in AdSense revenue within 180 days. However, publishers will not earn any money referring publishers who do not live within the three magic regions. Sorry guys, it’s better than nothing. Again, these changes will take effect at the end of this month.

Fun Finds

Fourteen percent of bloggers prefer to do it in bed. Good to know.

The rumor patrol says major layoffs are coming to Yahoo? Uh ohs. [Definitely not delicious. --Susan]

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/21/08 at 5:49 PM | Comments (0)
See more entries in Search Engine Optimization

SEO & Linkbait: When Is It Unethical?

Kelvin Newman asks When Is It Ethical To Criticize Other Companies For Linkbait?

Hmm, it’s a good question and one that’s constantly being brought thanks to bloggers who decide to launch into personal attacks for apparently no reason other than links. We see it happen all the time, but is it right?

Last March I wrote a post entitled Calling It Linkbait Doesn’t Make You Less of a Jerk and I stand by that post. Doing something that you wouldn’t do offline or partaking in behavior that you’d criticize someone else for doesn’t suddenly become ethical because you’re in the quest for links. It doesn’t give you the right to be “that guy”.

In this post last week, Kevin argued that it’s okay to use linkbait to criticize your competitors when:

  • You think they wouldn’t respond without the fuss.
  • They’ve called out people in the past.
  • The public needs to know.
  • You’ve exhausted other options.

To me, that sounds like a cop out.

Kelvin uses the whole Danny Sullivan/John Andrews melee to start the conversation about what happens when a company publicly criticizes another to attract links. However, that really wasn’t the best example. You have to consider the intent. Danny Sullivan definitely did not write that now infamous Search Engine Land post as a linkbait attempt. He was trying to highlight an error on Wired’s part, not start a flame war. There’s no way he could have predicted what would happen as a result of that blog post and he certainly didn’t want (or deserve) it..

If you ask me, if you’re trying to sell yourself as a legitimate business, I don’t think you should ever openly criticize your competition in hopes of getting links. Personal pettiness and vendettas simply have no place in business. Keep them out of your search engine optimization campaign, and if you can, out of your life. At some point linkbait has to mature in something much more than flame wars and top ten lists. It’s time we start demanding that it does.

However, there are plenty of people who subscribe to the line of thought that any press is good press. They’ve made a good living and whole bunch of money by calling people out publicly and getting everyone all worked up. That’s really not something I care to participate in. Not because I think I’m above it, but because I just don’t have the stomach for it.

You have to identity your own line of conduct. You have to know what you’re willing to do and not willing to do in order to be successful. Most know on a basic level where their line should be. They know that the ugly pang they just felt in the pit of their stomach is a sign that they’re about to step too far. You’re about to publish or say something that you shouldn’t. However, we often ignore it for possible fame, love, money, or even more importantly, links!

The best part of the whole thing is that there’s really no need for you to be calling out your competition. If they’re really doing something stupid, there will always be someone else to do the flaming for you, so why go soiling up your own pristine reputation? This is especially true if what you’re about to criticize your competition for is their flaming of you. Let your customers and supporters fight that battle for you. You’ll win much more praise and respect for taking the high road.

You have to ask yourself: Is it going to make you look good to your target audience for them to see you engaging in school yard bullying and name calling? If your audience has the smallest bit of integrity, then no, it’s really not. If you have a problem with one of your competitors, go to them directly. If it doesn’t work, keep trying. If that doesn’t work, perhaps a post about how companies can’t just stick their head in the sand is in order (email them the URL). Eventually they’ll get the message.

There’s only one time when it’s somewhat ethical to call out or publicly criticize a competitor—when the concern is genuine. There’s a difference between pointing out an issue that people should be aware of and engaging in a flame war because your PR dropped another point. There’s a difference when someone takes a stance over actual emotional or concern and when they’re doing it just to get links. And your audience can tell the difference. They’re not stupid. People don’t want to do business with vapid, petty people who don’t have anything better to do than nitpick and name call. Keep that in mind before you write your next blog post.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/21/08 at 5:15 PM | Comments (5)
See more entries in Branding, Search Engine Optimization

You Too Can Prevent Reputation Management Nightmares

With all that money you’re investing in your Web site’s search engine optimization strategy, you don’t want to botch it all up with poor customer service that crushes your branding efforts and disintegrates consumer trust, do you? Of course you don’t.

Reputation management is a lot like dating when you think about it. Your customers don’t want you to buy them an expensive gift or take them on exotic vacations; they just want your attention. All it takes to look like a hero in their eyes is to spend a little time being mindful and addressing their needs for once. You may be all into the conversion and closing the deal, but your customers and significant other are looking for some nurturing and understanding.

Good customer service establishes you as a thoughtful authority, as someone who will still be there in the morning to help solve problems and put out fires. It’s the fastest way to make friends and one of the most effective in establishing trust, loyalty and the total warm and fuzzies. I’ll give you some examples.

Good Customer Service

Despite all my initial knocking, I’ve recently picked up Twitter. But thanks to Marketing Pilgrim list of search engine optimization folks using it, most of you already know this. I say that because I currently have 101 Follower Requests on my account waiting for approval. Look:

The problem is I can’t approve them because there seems to be a bug in Twitter’s system preventing me from getting to the Accept/Reject page. It’s somewhat problematic because I’m likely coming off as entirely antisocial to the swarms of people who attempted to follow me once Marketing Pilgrim let the cat out of the bag.

I’ve contacted Twitter about the bug many times and each time I do, I get a personal email from support explaining the issue and assuring me that they’re working on it and offering workarounds. Now, it’s been two weeks since I’ve been able to accept a Follower Request. Am I getting a little restless? Of course. But I’m also content with the communication that has gone on between Twitter’s support staff and myself. I haven’t been blown off. They’re listening. And they’re very understanding of all my rage. As a result, I’ve stuck around and I haven’t blogged death threats.

While Twitter hasn’t been able to solve my problem (yet), they are forming trust. When I receive non-templated emails, I know that they are working on my issue and are genuinely trying to help me. And really, that’s all I’m looking for when I voice a complaint. A signal that you heard me and you’ll do your best to help.

It’s when you ignore your customers' concerns that you get into problems and undermine your entire search engine optimization investment with a reputation management nightmare.

Very Bad Customer Service

I signed a new lease on my apartment recently which will keep me there until July. However, I still continue to pretend-apartment hunt on Craigslist. It’s like a tic with me. I can’t go a week without checking the apartment rentals to see what’s available. I know I’m not in the market for a new pad, but I want to see what everyone else has waiting and whether or not I’m missing out on some amazingly underpriced condo. While I was perusing this weekend, I came across this listing:

Wow. A 2 bedroom for $1,000 in Ventura? That’s $400 less than the one bedroom I’m currently living in and it’s located in the town that I lived in and loved for 3 years. I demanded more information:

Ah. See, there is no 2 bedroom at that amazing price. Instead, it’s an enraged warning from a disgruntled renter who feels like management has not done enough to improve the safety conditions in the complex. Coincidently, I lived in that complex for a year and a half and also had my car broken into as well. It seems they haven’t solved the security issue. I searched for that complex on a few other apartment listing sites and found similar complaints from different users. That’s inexcusable.

What’s the point of promoting your company and paying all that money to optimize your Web site if you’re going to let it go to waste because listings like these are warning potential renters to stay far, far away from your overpriced apartment complex? There’s none. There’s no reason for it and it means all those search engine optimization dollars you’re spending have just been thrown away.

Think of the goodwill and positive branding the apartment managers could have created by taking steps to fix the problem. How difficult is to get local security agencies to drive around? To install security cameras? To enact some type of neighborhood watch program? The complex is literally a block away from the police department; you’d think they’d be able to work out something. Perhaps take one black and white and have it drive by the apartments on its way to sitting outside the bar all night. I’m not trying to be flip but there are plenty of ways this situation could been handled in a way that wouldn’t have sent residents to air their dirty laundry on Craigslist. But when you ignore your customers and their needs, this is exactly the kind of situations you become vulnerable to.

Don’t risk your brand and devalue your search engine optimization efforts by letting fires spread out all over the Internet. The best way to manage your online reputation is to not develop a reputation management problem in the first place. And the best way to do that is through superior customer service.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/21/08 at 2:38 PM | Comments (2)
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January 18, 2008

Friday Recap

Hi, friends. It’s Friday again. Yey for Fridays. And weekends. And chocolate donuts. And the New England Patriots. Oh and maybe for sugar highs too.

My BFF Tamar seems to think American Idol contestant wannabe Ben Haar looks and sounds like Rand Fishkin. Perhaps there’s a very slight physical resemblance, but I’m not nearly as convinced (or amused) as she is. What say you?

Joe Peacock gives us an update on Highway Star, the kitten he rescued last week. Seems she’s a feisty little thing that enjoys Rock Band. You should adopt her. She’s adorable and I’ve already taken in two misfits. If I adopt any more cats people are going to start talking. [What do you mean "start"? --Susan] Shut it, Esparza..

WikiHow shows us how to calculate your age by chocolate. I attempted to figure out mine but there was far too much math involved. Numbers confuse me.

The Consumerist finally gave me an answer to Susan’s “what do you have against soup?” question. I don’t know, maybe that Health Valley puts dead bugs in theirs! Mmm, protein.

No doubt my favorite photo of the week: Is it a kitty, a monkey, a dog or a bear? And if it’s a dog, why is that woman holding it like that? Does everyone hold their dog like stuffed animals?

To follow up last week’s deer playing in a swing set video, here’s a wild fox playing on a trampoline. So sweet! Who wants wild fox cuddles? I do!

And in more wild animal fun, here are some photos and audio of a bear on a bridge. Oh, and proof that the aliens are coming and taking the sea creatures first.

Oomsa introduces us to one useless cat. Please, at least that cat is interacting with the intruder. My cats would be under the bed whining that there was a stranger present and it was looking at them. They’re defective.

Also from Oomsa, a whole new way to feed your chocolate fix. Personally, I prefer my chocolate dark and without needles. [Word. --Susan]

The evolution of a relationship as seen via Facebook. I guess it depends on your feelings toward Jim whether or not that makes you sad. He’s back on the market, ladies!

Hitwise reports what I’ve known in my heart for the past two weeks: American Gladiators is awesome! The data shows that the name of the show was the fastest moving search term for the week ending 1/12/08. Take that, brother!

A symbol of faith or not, let’s hope this church isn’t located in Southern California. Why do people insist on buildings and homes at the base of mountains? Does this seem smart to anyone?

Plaza Rugs shares a collection of amazing alarm clocks, including a fabric alarm clock, a puzzle clock that you have to put together to turn off, a handle clock that helps you visualize how much sleeping time you have left, and an alarm clock that gives your money away to a charity you hate if you keep snoozing. They’re all pretty awesome.

Copyblogger says if you want to be a more productive writer you should have a baby. Say what? That seems like overkill to me. Just go eat a donut. It works for the Bruce Clay writers and results in far less stretch marks.

Lastly, to get yourself in the mood for the Patriot upcoming slaughter of the San Diego Chargers, head over to Tom Brady Secrets. Thanks for the link, Hooley. [I know nothing about football, I only know that the Chargers have the greatest theme song in sports and for that alone, I hope they win. --Susan]

Things I Learned From Boing Boing This Week:

[My apologies if the Recap seems a bit sparse this week. IT took possession of my computer last night and killed all my saved tabs when they switched me over to a brand new laptop. Not that I’m blaming them. I would never blame IT. I love IT. Our IT department is amazing. Hi boys!]

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/18/08 at 5:13 PM | Comments (4)
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January 17, 2008

The Importance of Linking Out & Small Businesses to SEO

Make Friends, Help Users, Link Out

Over at DigitalPoint, one member asks if it’s okay for him to link out to other sites and expresses concern that if he does link out, his audience will forget to come back! Oh no!

To answer the confused member’s question, yes, you should absolutely link to complementary Web sites. Outbound links to authoritative resources are important to search engine optimization because they show your visitors and the search engines that you’re part of your community and that you know what a quality site is. And when you link to experts, it helps you to become an expert by association. More to the point, if you don’t link out it, your site will look very unnatural to both your audience and the engines.

As long as your site is useful to its audience, there’s no reason to worry that visitors will forget to come back once they go off looking for additional information. It’s more likely that they’ll appreciate the resources you have introduced them to and it will help them to build trust and loyalty with your brand.

If you’re worried about linking to direct competitors, simply don’t link to them. Find complementary sites that can provide visitors with information without trying to sell to them. Also, make sure you keep your outbound links relevant to your industry, helpful to your visitors and free of spammy influences!

I could go on and on but we have tons of great information and linking and link popularity on the Bruce Clay site. So instead of my rambling I’ll just point you there.

Matt McGee: Small Businesses Are Important To SEO

Buddy Matt McGee had a great column over at Search Engine Land today entitled Why The SEO Industry Needs Small Business. I wholeheartedly agree with Matt that small businesses are important to this industry. They’re probably what this whole industry was based on—improving smaller sites so they’re more organized and competitive so they can rank with the big boys. And if Bruce’s 2008: The Year In Preview predictions are correct, small business owners may find themselves with far more options when it comes to picking a search engine optimization firm.

If you haven’t read Bruce’s predictions article, I’d really recommend it. One of the most interesting things he mentions is his belief that SEO services will increase at the low budget price point when newly laid-off SEOs start their own companies and begin offering services at lower, more competitive prices. Prices that would likely fit in very well with the advertising budget of a small business.

Bruce explains:

If this develops, by mid-year we may find many new Internet Marketing businesses able to supply adequate services for well under $1,000 per month. As a result of all of these issues, there will be a rush to SEO training, a surge of new work-from-home SEO companies, and mixed pricing signals. It will be the latter half of 2008 when this really takes off, and it will not slow until 2009.

If, and when, that happens, small businesses will become even more important to search engine optimization, so make sure you’re treating those “little” guys right!

Fun Finds

Gemme is back on Search Engine Journal to let us know what’s going on in search internationally and tells us that China has 210 million Internet users.

Donna tries to search marketers to take Friday off from reading or writing blogs and spend the day /actually/ working. Since my job is to write in a blog does that mean I can stay home? Will someone explain this to Bruce so I don’t get in trouble? Okay, thanks.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/17/08 at 5:34 PM | Comments (0)
See more entries in Search Engine Optimization

Google Launches Contest To Help Themselves

Google finally began publicizing the Online Marketing Challenge they launched a couple of months ago. The Challenge is designed to introduce students to the exciting world of search engine marketing through Google products. I wonder if they were slow to announce because the whole thing is kind of creepy and puts a totally self-serving taste in your mouth. No, I’m sure it’s just getting coverage now because a brand new academic semester is starting. Right. That’s it.

The way this whole “challenge” works is that Google hands over $200 worth of AdWords credits to participating higher education institutions. Students are then put into groups and instructed to pair up with a local business that has a Web site but “does not currently use AdWords in any capacity” and work with them to create a marketing strategy using Google’s ad platform. (The business can obviously veto the students’ recommendations.) Over the course of three weeks, the students will outline their marketing strategy, create and run their campaign, assess the results and then offer up some kind of business recommendations for improvement. Their work is then submitted and judged by other professors around the world, with the winning global entry receiving a trip to the Googleplex to meet the creators of AdWords. Of course, according to Google, the real prize is all the learning about search marketing that will have occurred over the three week contest period.

Yes, of course.

Google says the goal of the Online Marketing Contest is two-fold (emphasis mine):

  • The primary goal is for students to work with the selected businesses to create a practical and successful campaign. It's not just about people clicking on your ads - it's about setting up the right campaign that fits with the objectives of the business. Students should aim to maximize targeted and relevant traffic to the business' site, using optimization techniques to refine and improve the effectiveness of the campaign over the three-week competition period.
  • The second goal is demonstrated learning. Student groups submit two reports - Before the campaign, they submit a Pre-Campaign Strategy. After the campaign, students assess their results, what they learned and how the business can improve their online marketing campaigns in the Post-Campaign Summary.

Okay, but isn’t the goal really to get students using Google AdWords before they enter the real world, and to encourage local business not yet using AdWords to start? Not even just a little? I don’t really like the spin on this.

We’re obviously in favor of any search engine optimization and pay per click training opportunity that comes around, but c’mon Google! If this is all about educating young search marketer-wannabes, why do they have to find local businesses not already using your product? Can’t they work with a company already using AdWords and try to improve an established campaign or marketing strategy? The winner could have been chosen based on percentage of change instead of “who made more money”.

And if it’s about education, why are we only educating students on one online advertising option? Being the big dog in the industry means it’s okay for you to highlight the smaller guys. I personally think you have a responsibility too. I’d like to think the professors will supplement the contest with some information on Yahoo! Search Marketing and adCenter but that’s probably not too realistic. So these kids are going to graduate, find jobs, and then start pimping out their Google AdWords knowledge. Ah, Google, just one step closer to total market domination.

To be fair, in the Challenge’s FAQ Google says that the contest isn’t about using AdWords and that it’s just the “vehicle” and “platform” for getting data. Yes, my mother once told me she wasn’t punishing me by making me raking the leaves after I came home late that one time, I was just the “vehicle” and “platform” for getting the job done.

I’m a little disappointed in Google here. I think as an industry leader you have a responsibility to encourage diversity and competition and they failed to do that here. At least leave it open-ended so that if students want to use a different platform they can. I understand that causes a conflict with Google handing out $200 in AdWords credit, but if this is really about education, give the groups cash and let them decide what platform to invest in. You have enough of it. Or give them money and mandate that each group try a different platform and so they can experiment and then compare the results later as a class. This way everyone gets to learn about all their options and the different features included in each.

The point is there are plenty of ways Google could have run this Challenge to promote SEM education, but they chose to run it the way that makes them look kind of brainwash-ish and self-serving.

Don’t get me wrong. Major kudos to Google for bringing search engine marketing education into an academic setting, but let’s not wrap the Challenge up in a big altruistic bow. Careful, Google, your colors are showing again.

[Oh for the love of little fuzzy puppies, of course Google is going to encourage people to use Google Adwords. So what? Being the market leader doesn't mean that they have to pimp other companies' products just to be nice. Shockingly, when you sponsor something, you're getting something out of it. It's a boost for both the students and the businesses. If the students and the businesses are stupid enough not to realize there are also other options, that isn't Google's fault nor is it Google's job to educate them.

For Pete's sake.--Susan]

Sweet heavens, go chew on a Xanax or something.

I’m perfectly aware of how “sponsorship” deals work but I find this one to be a bit over the top. Requiring that students ONLY partner with companies Google hasn’t yet sucked into their cyborg? That seems outright nervy to me, especially if they’re doing this for “others” and not themselves. And I totally disagree that this will provide any boost for the businesses who will have a bunch of college kids with no experience in search marketing suddenly giving them advice on how to use their brand new AdWords account. All it’s going to do is leave them with a half started project to clean up when the 3 weeks end. This whole thing is badly thought out. If Google wanted to educate, this program would be a lot longer than 3 weeks and it would highlight the SEM industry, not Google. But it’s not about education, it’s about market share. Let’s at least call a spade when we see one.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/17/08 at 5:28 PM | Comments (2)
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Where’s Your Achilles heel?

Well fine, I don’t actually mean yours. I mean your company’s.

Over at GigaOM, Sramana Mitra takes a look at Google and declares that its Achilles heel is its verticals. Sramana argues that Google rose to fame by creating a powerful horizontal search engine with an easy-to-use interface and (arguably) hasn’t done a great job of moving past that just yet. As a result, they’re allowing themselves to be dominated in many verticals by companies like SimplyHired, Dice and Indeed.com.

Sure, bad Google, but what about your own company? Where is it most vulnerable? Where are you losing out to competitors? Take this new year and plug up those holes. If Google can try to do it, you can too.

We all have flaws, and so do our sites. Stop painting over your mistakes and start tearing down the walls and start fresh. Sure it’s messy, but think about how pretty things will be when you’re finished!

Our Achilles heel can develop as a result of many causes. Often it’s because we haven’t been pro-active about keeping our company and services current and now we’re suddenly out of date. For example, if you’re a site selling puppies you may be surprised that users are now entering in search queries looking for information on hiring a nanny to watch their puppy while they’re at work. Of course, you have no information on your site about this because a few years ago puppy nannies didn’t even exit. And while I agree that the idea is borderline insane, if your customers are searching for it, you have to provide them with information. Otherwise your competitors will.

We actually see this phenomenon a lot inside the search engine optimization community. Some guy (or gal) knew a lot about optimizing Web sites and link building back in 1995 but now it's 13 years later and they’re struggling to bring in clients or get renewals. Why? Because they haven’t updated their skill set or hired smart. If this is all sounding far too familiar, maybe it’s time to get your hands dirty again, to take some training courses and do some experimenting so you can reorient yourself in a brand new world. Or maybe you’ve done a good job of staying current and it’s your site design that still smells of mullet. Fix it. Either make a new hire to help you out, outsource it to someone else, or buy someone who’s making strides in the areas you’re lacking. You don’t have to build up the technology from scratch but you do have to resolve the problem.

But it’s not always your knowledge level or your site that’s holding you back. Sometimes the problems come from within. Are sales falling through due to internal communication problems? Or is there a bottleneck in your system because one department doesn’t know what the other is doing? Maybe it’s time to introduce some social computing and bring social media into the workplace. Encourage employees to use the company intranet to exchange ideas and let each other know what’s happening. Create internal client-focused blogs where each team member can let the other know what’s being done, where they’ve faced problems, and what the client is looking for.

I know at Bruce Clay we have a pretty active intranet discussion board where our SEO Analysts talk about problems, offer solutions and share old war stories. We also hold a monthly “think tank” where we get everyone together to discuss what everyone else is dealing with. It’s a great way to encourage communication and come up with new ways to help clients.

Speaking of, sometimes it’s the clients, and your inability to deal with them, that’s the Achilles heel in your operation. You haven’t trained your account managers to effectively handle the category of client we affectionately call “Crazy” and as a result it’s sucking valuable time and resources from your company. Re-train account managers on how to appease difficult clients and to diplomatically get out of sticky situations. It’s also important that sales people have been briefed on what every type of contract entails and that you’re setting realistic client expectations from the very beginning.

Every company has something that they could and should be doing better. You’re leaving money on the table by investing in search engine optimization and pay per click and yet not optimizing all the other aspects of your company. Don’t leave your Achilles heel showing. Patch it up and improve your Internet marketing strategy in the process.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/17/08 at 3:31 PM | Comments (0)
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Target Insults Bloggers, Shoots Self In Foot. Again.

Target may want to give Andy Beal a call because they need some major online reputation management advice. A double dose of blatant social media no-no’s has once again proven that Target knows virtually nothing about the online world. You would think they would have immersed themselves in how things are done on the Internet after all their publicized Internet missteps over the past year. However, seems not.

Target’s back facing the ire of bloggers after they released an arguably offensive ad campaign and then refused to speak to Shaping Youth blogger Amy Jussel when she inquired about it. Target told Amy they couldn’t speak with her because the fine establishment they’re running “does not participate with non-traditional media outlets”. Target says the practice is in place “to allow [them] to focus on publications that reach [their] core guests”.

Oh, this isn’t going to end well.

And which publications would those be, exactly? Does Target really think their customers don’t use blogs or use search engines to find information about them? And wouldn’t responding to someone who has a close enough relationship with your brand to email you about something they found offensive qualify as reaching their core guest? You would think so, which is why I am very confused by their dumbness. Instead of addressing the totally valid complaint of one blogger, they decided to piss her off. They practically put the telephone in her hand and told her to call all her friends and alert the "real" media outlets that Target is clueless.

Based on Target’s claim that their core audience doesn’t use blogs, I decided to do some quick research. I headed over to Google Blog Search to see how many people were, in fact, talking about Target. The queries [target store] and [shop at target] had more than 300,000 results, while [experience at target] had almost 530,000. I personally liked the 10 results that came up for [“don’t shop at target”] and the 7 that came up for [“bad experience at target”].

Hey, Target, guess what? Your audience not only reads blogs, they’re using them to share their experiences with you. And when you ignore them, they write bad things. And then people find them, especially when they end up on Consumerist, which is how I found out about Amy’s situation. Had they simply given Amy the attention she deserves, I probably wouldn’t even have heard about their flub. Or maybe this would be an entry about an organization that finally woke up to social media and learned how to participate.

As I mentioned above, it’s really surprising to see Target continually making the same mistakes. They got in trouble when their Web site wasn’t accessible and then got even more bad press when they began paying kids to talk about their brand on Facebook and “keep it like a secret”. Oh, and do you know how everyone found out about that “keep it like a secret” story? From blogs. So why does Target think they don’t need to address these people?

I’m not sure but you should make sure that you, unlike Target, are not clueless about social media and the importance of engaging and listening to your audience. Target actually seems to get the whole idea of trying to “engage” people, they just don’t understand how to do it or that engagement has to be genuine. You can’t pay people to talk about you (and then have them not disclose that fact) and call it community involvement. That’s not social media; that’s deception.

Whether you’re a big brand, a small brand or fall somewhere in the middle, don’t for a second think that your customers aren’t out there investigating you, having a conversation about what you’re doing, and using blogs to spread information. It’s probably also not a good idea to think that you’re above the blogosphere simply because you have some street cred. Especially after we keep reading stats about how journalists get their story ideas and conduct research through blogs.

But Target is right about one thing. Bloggers are non-traditional media. They’re non-traditional in the fact that unlike a newspaper or a magazine, blogs aren’t independent entities only interested in themselves. They’re all connected. When you tell one blogger she’s not important enough for your time, you’re essentially telling the whole blogosphere the same thing. And that’s not good for anyone’s brand reputation.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/17/08 at 2:23 PM | Comments (6)
See more entries in Branding, Social Media

January 16, 2008

Stop Whining, Switch Up Your Network

Kim’s talking about the sour grapes phenomenon that’s been brewing in the search engine optimization community over the past few months, while Rae Hoffman is securing her 2009 SEMMYS nomination with her rant The SEMMYS Launch, The WHINEYS TBA. Sigh. Remember when everyone was friends and supported one another? Those were the days.

It’s really sad. You don’t even have to look hard to see the tension that’s been building over the past 6 months. It’s in your face whether you want it to be or not. People are using every opportunity they can to take shots at one another. And God help you if you make an innocent mistake and publish a blog post you shouldn’t have. There’s no forgiveness here.

It’s upsetting, and I know most everyone feels the same way. No one likes the evolution that’s occurred. I know I’ve personally attempted many blog posts on the subject; however, I always end up scrapping them. Mostly because while I start out with good intentions and a level head, the post typically ends up devolving into my very own rant and frustration fest about how things “should be”. A post like that helps no one. Even I realize that you’re not here to listen to me complain (unless it’s about my puffy eye), you’re hear to read about search engine optimization.

So let’s bring it back to SEO and what you should be doing to grow your business.

Jeremy Schoemaker had a post yesterday telling people to get out of their incestuous circle jerk already. Colorful title aside, I couldn’t agree more. Break out of your circle of comfort and go grow your business by talking to people and finding compatible skill sets.

In his post, Jeremy talks about how rewarding it was when he attended BlogWorld last November and was able to meet and network with a whole new set of people. I had the same reaction, a reaction strong enough that it caused me to write about How BlogWorld Was Different From An SEO Conference.

And it really was different. BlogWorld opened my eyes to a whole new type of experience. It was the first time I had stepped outside of the search engine optimization box since entering it two years ago and it was an eye opening experience for me, both personally and professionally. I spent a great couple of days meeting new people, hearing about what they did for a living, learning what problems they were facing and then trying to offer advice when I could using my knowledge of search engine optimization and my experience as a writer/blogger.

And when I came back from BlogWorld I found myself re-energized about SEO and with a brand new set of friends that I could call on when I needed help. This included new blogging friends full of blogging wisdom, new social media contacts, new SEO faces, and new friends in industries completely unrelated to my own. This is how you grow your business. It’s how you find that perfect Web developer you’ve been looking for who can take your site to the next level or help with client work. It’s how you learn about new opportunities that the masses aren’t privy to yet. It’s how you grow the kind of social media circle required to push new content. Essentially, this is how you become so busy and successful that you don’t even have time to read the latest flame thread on Sphinn. And maybe if we all stop feeding the fire they’ll go away (or at least lessen). Wouldn’t that be nice?

Am I excited about going to SMX West and SES NY over the next few months? Hell yeah, I want to see my SEO friends! But I’m also psyched in a different way to attend these non-search conferences. To meet new people and change things up a bit.

I think that’s the key to this whole thing. We need to get out of our incestuous little circles and change our perspective. The more you step out, the less need you have to chime in on the latest SEO melee and the more likely you are to use your time to do something productive—like practice search engine optimization instead of just talking about it. Or dealing with clients instead of picking apart someone else.

When you live and breathe one thing its way too easy to become consumed with the community and take things too personally. Branch out. It’ll be improve your peace of mind, increase the reach of your company, help you find new things to blog and talk about, and make you more money in the long run.

I should also note that because of the positive experience I had at BlogWorld last year, I’ve already made plans to revisit in 2008 and have added BlogHer to my 2008 conference calendar. I can’t wait!

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/16/08 at 3:32 PM | Comments (4)
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January 15, 2008

Tuesday’s Search Headlines

Happy Tuesday, everyone. There’s something very wrong with my left eye today. It’s red and puffy and hurting, which is a problem since it’s the only one I have that can see clearly. I hope your day is going better than mine. Here are some headlines for your reading enjoyment.

Bruce Clay Housekeeping

Okay, people, two quick things.

First, it’s SEO Newsletter day so keep an eye on your inboxes! This time around Bruce issues his predictions for 2008, SEO Analyst Lynn Gerber gives us all a tutorial on keyword usage, and we get you caught up on the past month in search. Don’t miss it.

Also, another reminder that if you don’t answer the spam math question in the comment field (the answer is 7), your comment will be banished to our junk folder and it may take me up to 24 hours or so to catch it. Please try and answer it. It makes me sad to think your voices are silenced. Again, the answer is 7. Thanks, you’re the best!

(It’s seven.)

Fix A Crappy Site; Don’t Promote It

Wiep Knol started an important conversation a few days ago with a slightly tongue and cheek article about how to build links to crappy sites. He offers up some “suggestions” for bringing in easy links before finally concluding that perhaps SEOs shouldn’t waste their time getting links for worthless sites. Instead, use your time (and the client’s money) to improve the site in order to attract natural, high quality links. We couldn’t agree more.

As Bruce often says, search engine optimization is not about making a pig fly. It’s about genetically re-engineering a site so that it becomes an eagle. We’re not trying to get crappy sites to rank; we’re trying to help those sites become relevant and authoritative so they can attract links naturally and actually help users.

Sure, you can go out and buy a bunch of links to get your sucky clothing site to rank well, but in the end, you’re just throwing your money away. Even if you’re able to attract some foot traffic, once users visit they’re going to realize you have nothing to offer them and leave. It’s like paying for a PPC ad without first optimizing your landing pages or doing any kind of search engine optimization. As Wiep finally concludes, it’s typically in your best interest to fix a crappy site then to promote it. It will save you a lot of work and deliver much better results. Amen, friend.

Hiring People With Different Skill Sets

NHG had an inspired post yesterday about hiring people who are better than you to increase your skill set and improve the strength of your company. I think this really is great advice. There are a lot of companies out there afraid to hire smart people or give employees the freedom to run, experiment and do what they’re good at because they’re afraid they’ll use it against them later on. I understand the business concerns regarding this; however, running your business like a paranoid child is really only going to hurt you.

Unless your working in a noncreative industry, hiring “worker bees” isn’t going to help your company grow, neither is hiring smart people and then smothering them by constantly looking over their shoulder. If you want to see your company mature and meet its goals, hire smart people with different skill sets to do different jobs and then get out of their way. This is one of the things I love about working at Bruce Clay, Inc. For better or for worse, we’re given the freedom to play off our strengths and test the waters. It’s what helps us to constantly improve on our last efforts and keep moving forward.

Truthfully, you’re never going to find one person who knows everything, nor should you look. Different viewpoints bring different ideas and new ideas spawn innovation. Don’t cramp your company because you’re afraid of being outshined. Plus, you’d be surprised what a little freedom can do to employee morale and retention. Freedom and cookies.

Do The Search Engines Really Love Fresh Content?

Over at BlogStorm Patrick Aloft talks about the old SEO adage that “search engines love fresh content” and outlines all the reasons this is true including having an increased crawl rate, finding topical traffic, increasing inbound links, etc.

I was glad that Patrick took the time to explain why the adage is true and explain that the act of publishing new content alone isn’t what will help you with rankings. The content has to be both fresh and authoritative in nature. This is the kind of content that builds traffic, establishes you as an expert in your industry, attracts links from trusted sites, increases stickiness and will help your rankings over the long term.

Do everyone a favor, if you’re not going to take the time to create quality content, don’t even waste your time throwing up garbage. You’re only insulting your visitors and your SEO when you ask them to help you promote your crappy site.

Fun Finds

Dreamhost wants you to know that they’re very, very, very sorry for overcharging their customers some $7,500,000. As Josh Jones said, Um, Whoops. [Guess who is a semi-loyal customer? Luckily the credit card I had on file with them was stolen two weeks ago and thus canceled so DH's charge didn't go through. --Susan]

Lee Odden gives us the word that SEMPO’s State of the Search Marketing Industry survey for 2008 is now open. You should go take the survey.

DazzlinDonna talks about how friendship pockets form via social networks. Some very interesting stuff.

Aaron Chronister (aka TheMadHat) won my heart and eternal respect with this post Why The SEO World Is Full of Shit, Part 1. I can’t wait to read part 2 where he talks about the SEO cults and communities are out there. I actually find the use of the term “cult” very fitting…

My eye hurts.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/15/08 at 4:26 PM | Comments (2)
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January 14, 2008

Jim Lanzone Booted For Focusing On Core Search, Not Ads

Funny thing, I’m not so great at hiding my emotions. I know; this is something you’ve probably picked up on over the past two years. If you read the blog or follow my Twitter feed, you know when I’m mad, you know when I’m sad and you know when I’m excited about something. Some people like that about me, others wish I’d just shut up.

Lisa stalkers probably know that there was one piece of news that greatly affected me last week. It was the surprising announcement that search guy Jim Lanzone would be stepping down as CEO of Ask.com and replaced by Jim Saffka, a marketing guy and the one responsible for Dr. Phil’s annoyingly mushy Match.com commercials. The announcement was a really big shock to a lot of people. As Barry Schwartz noted, many viewed Jim Lanzone as the heart and soul behind Ask.com. He’s the guy who pushed for Ask3D. He was making things happen and he brought an incredible amount of excitement and passion to the team. I’m sure the new Jim will do a great job, but people will definitely miss the face of Jim Lanzone and the huge smile he always carried.

So why was Jim Lanzone replaced?

Today the New York Times gave this reason:

“…the move reflects Mr. Diller’s belief that what Ask needs was better high profile advertising. Mr. Safka, indeed, is seen as more marketing oriented, while Mr. Lanzone was more interested in building Ask’s core search engine as well as creating flashy features that will differentiate it from that other very very very large search engine.”

Wait. So we lost Jim because he was focused on improving the core functionality of Ask.com and making it a better search engine instead of just creating gaudy ads? Are you serious? It seems to me that it was Jim Lanzone’s job as CEO to improve Ask, not just to use advertising to “trick” users or promise things Ask can’t deliver. The idea that he would be chastised for that seems completely appalling and makes me wonder if Barry really just killed the bright face leading Ask simply because of his marketing team’s inability to create commercials. Maybe he should have reorganized the marketing team instead.

It just doesn’t make any sense, and to be honest, it makes me incredibly sad. We need people like Jim Lanzone to keep challenging us. Say what you want about Ask.com but it’s inarguably better since the release of Ask3D, a concept that was largely spearheaded by Jim Lanzone and is being mimicked by every one of the major search engines. Sure, we’ve all given Ask crap about their, at times, offensive commercials, but I don’t think the answer to Ask.com’s problems is to put a marketing guy in charge to give us something to chuckle over. Ask needs a search guy who understands users and what they want and fights for them. That’s how you build brand loyalty and trust.

This new strategy outlined by Barry Diller is somewhat confusing. Does he really think that he’s going to build his search engine through advertising? That he’ll be able to build trust in a brand by focusing on smoke and mirrors without having someone there to fight to better the actual product? If Barry is so worried about increasing revenue and building market share maybe he should take some notes on how Google built their brand. They sure as hell didn’t do it through advertising. They did it by creating the most relevant search engine and then layering other applications on top of that.

Ask’s focus should be on building out their verticals and specialty tools. That’s where they’ve always been the strongest. I know Ask.com wants to be seen as an all-purpose search engine but the way to get people in and attract eyeball is to show them the flashy stuff first. Let them trust you before you try and sell them the whole farm. Use the verticals to reinforce the relevancy you’re looking to build.

The news of Jim Lanzone’s departure from Ask was saddening, but the reason provided is even more disconcerting. It makes me question whether or not the people behind Ask really get it at all. I know people like Gary Price get it. I know his vision for the search engine is very much aligned with what users want. But what about the higher ups and the ones making the important management decisions? Does Barry Diller get it or did he just throw away the soul of Ask on a misstep? I once questioned Barry’s reasoning for firing Jeeves, but I get that now. I wonder if I’ll look back at this decision a year later and finally get that too. Maybe, but I don’t think so. If Ask is going to suddenly become all flash and no heart, I’m not sure I want to watch that evolution.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/14/08 at 4:13 PM | Comments (5)
See more entries in Ask, Branding

Give, Get, & Go To SES NY 2008

Greetings, Friends!

Last year we put together our first-ever SEO Charity contest and sent one lucky reader to SMX Seattle. We also put them through our SEOToolSet and Advanced Certification Course for free on the promise that they’d use their knowledge to help others. And that person did. Keri Morgret was our chosen one and was able to help the Open Education Resource succeed by applying the SEO knowledge she learned. Because last year's contest was such a success, we’ve decided to do it again, this time the big prize is a ticket to SES New York combined with the same training opportunities as before.

If you want to earn yourself a free pass to SES NY and an opportunity to go through our new and improved SEO training course, keep reading to get all the contest details.

  • The Prize:

    A free pass to the Search Engine Strategies NYC Conference and Expo (valued at $1895) taking place March 17-20, as well as one free pass to our newly expanded SEOToolSet Training ($1795) and Advanced Certification Courses ($1195) from April 7-11. (Transportation and lodging for both events are not included.)

  • The Terms for Consideration:

    It’s the same terms as last time, folks. You go out into your community and select a non-profit that you think would benefit from an organic search engine optimization campaign. Once you have the company in your sights, contact them and make sure they’re up to the challenge and are willing to work with you to improve their site.

    If the non-profit agrees, conduct a review of their Web site and submit a plan to us for how you would optimize their site. Tell us what they’re doing right, where they can improve and what you would do if given the key. Your review should be 1,000 words or less and must be sent to Lisa by February 11th for consideration in the contest. The winner will be announced via the blog and our SEO Newsletter on February 15th.

    You’re free to select any non-profit you’d like, but we do have some criteria we’d like it to meet. We’d prefer that the organization be community-oriented, already have an existing Web site, and be an agency that you feel could benefit from a search engine optimization campaign

  • The Winner Promises To…

    The winner of contest promises to attend SES NY and our SEO training and Certification program and then use the techniques they’ve learned to implement changes to the non-profit organization’s Web site over a 3-month period. Just like last time, you should be passionate about the organization you choose as you’ll be spending a fairly large amount of time working with them to help everyone meet their goals.

    Finally, we ask that the contest winner write a review of the search engine optimization campaign that s/he conducted. In the review, tell us and our readers what you did and what you learned from this optimization project. Our team will also conduct an independent review of the site.

Again, the initial site review must be submitted to Lisa for contest consideration by February 11 and we’ll announce the winner via the blog and our SEO Newsletter on February 15.

We realize this is a big commitment, but there’s also a large reward. The winner is looking at investing five days in Simi Valley for training, three days in New York for SES and at least 3 months of consulting hours dedicated to their non-profit. In return for your effort, you’re being handed not just an amazing training opportunity, but also the chance to help a deserving organization.

We want to give local charities a boost and we’d like your help in doing so. Got questions? Ask in the comments or drop me an email. Good luck!

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/14/08 at 12:15 PM | Comments (0)
See more entries in Fun Stuff

The 2008 SEMMYS Now Live!

Get excited. It’s time for the 2008 SEMMYS!

…you have no idea what the SEMMYS are, do you? That’s okay. They’re new. I’ll explain.

The SEMMYS are a brand new awards event put together by Matt McGee and friends to honor the best articles and blog posts of the past year. Matt has created a list of nominees over at the SEMMYS site, and this week 25 of the industry’s best minds and most vocal voices will join together to whittle it down to just the absolute cream of the crop. And it will be no easy task. The panel will have to read, judge and evaluate approximately a gazillion blog posts from 127 authors and 111 blogs and sites! Yowsa.

Once the panel has picked their favorites, they’ll turn it over to you, the adoring search public, to cast your vote for which article you think is the absolute best. And let me tell you, you have your work cut out for you. Having looked at the list of nominees, there are an incredible amount of wise faces and great content represented here. The decision will not be an easy one.

It's extra exciting for me because Matt has entrusted me to sit on his fine panel of expert judges on the condition that I promise to act like a grown up and not vote based on who’s the cutest. I’ll be judging the Google category with friends Rand Fishkin and Chris Winfield, and the Reputation Management category with some chick named Rae Hoffman. Hopefully the other judges will realize that my vote is most important and yield to my powers of persuasion, otherwise we’re likely to have a battle.

I’m also really proud that the Bruce Clay, Inc. blog has 8 blog posts nominated in 5 different categories. You can reintroduce yourself with those below:

Category: Local Search
Give Local Search Marketing a Shout Out with PlaceShout

Category: Search Tech
Which Is Better For SEO: Shared or Dedicated IPs

Category: Rants
The Lisa’s Problem With Wikipedia Explained
Calling It Linkbait Doesn’t Make You Less of a Jerk
Are You a Social Media Idiot?

Category: Social Media
How to Encourage Clients to Engage In Social Media

Category: LOL Funny
9 Ways To Bore The Audience at SES New York
People, Stop Checking Your Email in The Bathroom

(I’m pretty proud of the last post on that list and think it deserves an immediate spot in the final running. Do you know another other post that actually instructs readers to lick the side of their toilet bowl? No, I didn’t think so.)

Normally I’m not really a fan of award contests due to their tendency to devolve into a high school popularity contest; however, I really like the way Matt has set this one up. With so many different faces and facets of Internet marketing represented, the SEMMYs can only lead to great things.

I’d encourage you to head on over to the SEMMYs Web site, look around and support those who have been nominated. The judges will be creating their list of finalists all this week and then we’ll turn it over to all of you for voting shortly after that. It should be a lot of fun!

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/14/08 at 9:28 AM | Comments (0)
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January 11, 2008

Friday Recap

Hi, friends. I learned a new term this week. It’s called Porky Pigging. I’d like to thank CrunchGear’s John Biggs for bringing it to my attention via his awesome commentary on the Gizmodo douchebag situation. I feel enlightened in so many ways.

Before I get too carried away in my own craziness, we want to send over big congratulations to Jeremy Zawodny and his new bride. The couple was married in Zanzibar on January 8th. Congrats!

Facebook founder and holder of $15 million Mark Zuckerberg told CBS that he hasn’t let fame and fortune go to his head and it still living modestly. Actually, what Mark actually said was, “I have a little, like, one-bedroom apartment with a mattress on the floor. That’s where I live.” Aw, it’s like he’s 23 or something.

One alarmingly scary man proves that even if you hate everything, no one hates hula hoops. So true. That may be my new favorite picture ever.

No wait. This is my favorite picture ever. [I like this one better. --Susan]

If it’s cold where you live, come take a look at this 4 week old polar bear cub. It will warm you from the inside out. If that doesn’t work, try this video featuring a kitten, ferrets and a paper bag.

Valleywag reported that an Australian café has banned all talk of Facebook inside its walls. Hearing that, Susan invented a new office rule that forbids any of my coworkers from addressing me or acknowledging my presence in any way. She’s still bitter than I have more space in the office than she does. I’m so unloved.

And I’m feeling both unloved and broken after the news that Curt Schilling will leave the Red Sox after this season to oversee the development of a new video game tentatively called Copernicus. I’m sorry, the Sox are losing their all-star pitcher for a role playing game? Those damn geeks ruin everything.

Joe Peacock instructed all of us on how to actually win a fist fight. I’m going to study it this weekend and start grappling with Susan on Monday. [In the meantime, I'm going to learn self-defense with a cane. --Susan]

If you’ve ever been a kid in a grocery story or the parent of a kid in a grocery store, Dawn’s Adventures in Grocery Shopping will send giggle tears streaming down your face. I know it’s from August but it’s new to me. And again, crazy giggle tears.

Passengers on a United Airlines flight headed from Washington D.C. to Beijing got a bit of a surprise when they found live and dead mice in their pillows. Mice! Alive ones running around the plane and dead ones giving them the evil eye! It’s like the most horrifying thing ever. I bet New Line is already scurrying to make a movie about it.

A new study found that naps improve memory and learning. Ah. That must be why Susan crawls under her desk at 3:10pm every afternoon. I get it now.

One creative 10-year-old glued his hand to his bedpost because he didn’t want to go back to school after Christmas break. His ingenuity paid off when he got to stay home and watch cartoons as the paramedics freed his hand. Monday, I will glue Susan to my car and then spend the entire work day “trying to free her.” [If the newsletter doesn't get done, it's Lisa's fault. --Susan] You mean the SEO Newsletter that everyone will have in their inboxes on Tuesday? (Subscribe now!)

In case you were wondering, in the battle of the Jeep vs the tree, the tree wins every time.

Consumerist alerts that almost half of doctors admit to have prescribing placebos just to shut you up. So, next time you’re not feeling so great, try swallowing a handful of jellybeans and see how you feel in 234 hours. Just be careful not to choke.

Should I ever get married, I am going to have my wedding cake be a giant replica of me! It’s going to be delicious and terrifying, just like marriage!

Finally, the Japanese do something that makes sense, offering “family allowances” to pet owners. You think Bruce should pay me a small amount each month for taking care of Swat and Jack Jack, right?

Oh, in case you were wondering, it takes approximately 7 hours and 51 minutes to get from here to there. (via Google Blogoscoped)

And finally, octopuses heart Mr Potato Head. Who knew?

Things I Learned From Boing Boing This Week:

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/11/08 at 12:41 PM | Comments (2)
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January 10, 2008

4 Reasons Your Mobile Web Site Sucks

After a nice (and apologetic) email from my Verizon Wireless representative, I ended up getting that Voyager for Christmas after all. And let me just tell you, searching the mobile Web on my phone has never been easier or more fun. Not surprisingly, I find myself using it far more than any of the other Web-enabled phones I’ve had, mostly because the bigger screen makes it considerably more usable, and the antenna on the side, which I’m not sure actually does anything, placates me into thinking things are running faster.

But my time spent browsing and searching on the go has shown me that not everyone is taking mobile as seriously as I am. Here are some of the most common mistakes I’m finding in my travels that I think every business should work to avoid.

Impossible Navigation (aka The Barnes & Noble Example)

Whether you create a mobile-specific version of your Web site or just optimize the site you’re already running for a mobile browser, your goal is for that site to be usable. That makes sense, right? You want users to be able to find the information they’re looking for in the shortest amount of time. Well, clearly no one told Barnes & Noble that.

Like most hip kids do these days, I spent Saturday night hidden in a corner of Barnes & Noble, book and coffee in hand. I was enjoying my little secret nook but was curious what time the store closed. Because I avoid talking to actual people unless absolutely necessary, I whipped out my Voyager and headed to the Barnes & Noble site to see what time the store closed.

Oh heavens.

Trying to locate a store from my phone was as painful as engaging in conversation with Susan. I was eventually able to maneuver my way around but it was incredibly clumsy and took at least 4 minutes. That’s way more time than I care to spend trying to decipher the mess you’ve created for me. I was almost tempted just to get up and just ask a real person. Almost.

I don’t care what extra stuff you put on your mobile site, but make sure you have the content that users will be specifically searching for high up on the page. I’m talking about things like a phone number (preferably click to call), a Google map, operating hours, and a link to help them locate a store. If they’re searching for you on their mobile phone, they probably have a very specific reason—they’re trying to find out where the hell you’re located and if you’ll still be open by the time they get to you. Help them answer that question.

You Don’t Exist (aka The Subway Example)

It’s 2008 and you’ve already been introduced to the iPhone. You should know by now how important it is for you to have a mobile presence. If I search for you and you’re not there, shame on you!

I can’t tell you how many businesses I’ve searched for using Verizon’s Superpages and have come up empty handed. I did a search for Subway just the other day and do you know what came up? Nothing. I could have gone to the Subway Web site, I’m sure, but I didn’t. I chose to do a search, which I’m sure is how many people use the Web. And when I looked for Subway, not only was I informed that it wasn’t listed, but I was even asked if I perhaps meant Quiznos, KFC or Dairy Queen, because those establishments, as sub par as they may be, had the smarts to register their business information with Superpages. Hmm, maybe I will go to Quiznos instead. Or Dairy Queen. Dairy Queen has ice cream!

The most important rule for the mobile Web is to be there! Ensure your customers can find you by creating complete and accurate profiles in Google Local, Yahoo, Ask, Superpages, etc. And make sure you know which mobile carriers pull from which directories. Again, when users are searching locally and from their mobile phone, they’re doing some with intent. Don’t get in your own way.

You Make Things As Complicated As Possible (aka the ESPN example)

I’ve often had the need to check sport scores while on the go or out at dinner with someone who is incredibly boring. I don’t do it everyday, but I do it enough to have ESPN set as one of my bookmarks. And do you know what the URL is for the mobile ESPN Web site?

This: http://mobileapp.espn.go.com/wireless/espn/redesign/index

Are you kidding me? Are you trying to make it as difficult as you can for you customers to find you? Who is going to type that into their address bar? Um, no one. I’m sure there is a perfectly good explanation why their site is not m.espn.com or mobile.espn.com, but surely there is a more succinct URL they could have chosen. Because of ESPN’s misstep, I’m much more likely to use the Sports shortcut that Verizon offers me. It’s easily accessible and always full of Tom Brady knowledge. In fact, on New Years Eve, when someone asked me how old Tom Brady was, I was able to pull that information up for them in a split second. He’s 30, you know.

If you can register m.yourdomain.com, do it. It’s far easier for users to remember, type and call upon than some 40 character mess.

You Send Me Into List & Information Overload (aka The Yahoo Mobile Example)

I asked Susan if there were any mobile Web sites that just jumped out at her as being annoying and Yahoo’s mobile site was at the top of her list. [It's a long list. --Susan] I was surprised to hear that given all the good things I’ve read about them but I decided to check it out.

Oh goodness, it’s like list heaven over there. Users are expected to scroll for ages and ages. I’m not as opposed to this site as Susan is. I agree that it’s kind of hard to manage, but to Yahoo’s credit, they were able to get all the important links (Yahoo, My Yahoo, Mail) and search box up above the fold. It’s just that then they threw everything they have to offer below it. A lot of that stuff users will never, ever need.

I also think it’s a mistake to throw all that Yahoo Go information under the fold. It’s not getting the attention it deserves down there and it’s probably just frustrating users who have to wait for a giant page to load. Why not just make it a link in the top navigation and lets users access it if they want it? If you’re not sure how your content is displaying, try accessing via mobile simulators like Google or Skweezer. You may be surprised at what you find.

So, that’s some of the stuff that gets me hitting the back button on my phone. What about you?

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/10/08 at 4:51 PM | Comments (1)
See more entries in SEO Tips & Tricks, Search Engine Optimization

Has The Writers Strike Reinvented the Online Video Star?

Well, no. But that won’t stop people from talking.

The results of two new studies both touting the recent surge in online video have gotten everyone gossiping about what’s responsible. The most popular theory seems to be that the will-it-ever-end writer’s strike is at the root of things and has pushed people into consuming their video online. Like my blogging friend Andy Beal, I’m not totally convinced that it is.

The conversations started after the BBC reported on a Nielsen study which found that some online video sites had doubled their audience since the strike began back in October. Adding to that was the Pew Internet Research study which revealed that nearly 50 percent of those surveyed said they had visited video-sharing sites like YouTube and that daily traffic to these sites had doubled in the past year. Based on those numbers, people like Michael Arrington gave thanks to the writer strikes, saying they’ve caused things to go up, up and up.

I think that’s a pretty big jump to make, to all of a sudden assume that people will head online if there’s nothing on television. Do you know what my mother has been doing since the writers strike started and Grey’s Anatomy became boring? She’s been playing Bejeweled 2 on her computer. My college-aged brother has been watching DVDs and my father is reintroducing himself to old Johnny Carson. None of them have suddenly developed a love for online video simply because their favorite sitcoms and nighttime talk shows are in reruns.

Either you get online video and you have an interest for it, or you don’t. Either you’re open to adopting a new content medium or you’re not.

There are plenty of logical reasons to back up why people are watching more online video and it has nothing to do with the strikes going on. Maybe it’s due to the viralness of the Presidential debates? Or perhaps it’s because advertisers and company executives are giving online video more credibility and using it to engage their audiences? Or maybe it has to do with the rise in podcasting? Maybe it’s because low cost broadband and WiFi are sprouting up everywhere? Or maybe it’s because a bunch of loudmouth SEOs are stressing it to their clients thanks to the emergence of blended search? All of these factors are completely independent of the writers' strike, and in my opinion, are far more legitimate reasons for online video’s growth over the past few months.

Also, it’s a pretty general statement just to say that online video has grown since the strikes. I’m sure it grew in the two months before the strike and it will likely continue to grow over the two months after the strike, assuming it ever ends and I am treated to fresh episodes of Gossip Girl.

I’d like to see some better numbers. According to the Pew Study, most of the growth was attributed to the rise of men under 30 and college students, even though the number of women watching increased year over year from 27 percent to 43 percent. If the strike was responsible for the rise, I’d think it would have been attributed to a different demographic than the under 30 male set. Aren’t they the ones who have always been interested in online video? I’d also like to know which sites are seeing the increase. The Nielsen report said “some” sites were experiencing a huge rise. Well, which ones? Are they sites like YouTube or are they sites where viewers can download complete high quality TV programming? And like Andy, I’d also be interested in seeing what time of day they’re tuning in online. I think that would be a pretty important statistic. Are they watching short video at work or downloading movies and hour long programming during the 7pm-10pm range?

It’s very possible that the lack of new television has pushed some more eyeballs online, but I don’t think it’s had the mass impact people want to believe it has. The fact that audiences are heading for video content is a response to a many, many factors, not just the mess we’re hearing about in Los Angeles.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/10/08 at 4:28 PM | Comments (1)
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January 9, 2008

Don’t Alienate The Brand Evangelists

There’s been lots of talk today about the recent changes Google will be making to its AdSense referral program at the end of the month. Some are calling the changes a slap in the face, while others are breaking them down and trying to make sense of it all. Regardless of whether or not Google has a right to change their policies on the fly, they’ve gotten themselves into a bit of trouble by pissing off a good many of their advertisers, the people directly responsible for Google’s success in the first place. As Jennifer Laycock will tell you, ticking off your best customers isn’t a good idea.

Going back to Google for a moment, they went ahead and changed their AdSense referral policy in a way that will equate into a huge loss for AdSense publishers. Where a publisher could once earn a nice $250 for bringing in a referral that made $100 or more in the first 180 days, now they’ll only make $100 for that same act. Publishers have also lost their $2,000 bonus for referring 25 new publishers, as well as the extra $5 they received if the person they referred made $5 in their first 180 days. As you can imagine, people aren’t so excited about the change. They were even less excited to hear that the policy takes affect in January, which means if your referral doesn’t hit their mark by the end of the month, regardless of whether it’s been 180 days or not, you lose your shot to make a commission. Hope you weren’t counting on that money to offset some holiday shopping.

Google angered even more of its publishers when they revealed that not only were they cutting referral bonuses severely, they were totally turning them off for publishers living outside of North America, Latin America or Japan. That means even if your target audience is totally in the United States and you’ve brought in thousands of new referrals in the past, if you’re physically sitting in the Australia, you’re unable to participate. Sorry, Darren.

Obviously, Google has the right to do whatever it wants with its AdSense referral program. If they want to start handing out cookies instead of checks, that’s their choice. But you can’t change the rules in the middle of the game and then refuse to honor your previous agreement. If I referred a new publisher to Google yesterday, and they earn $100 in their first 180 days, I should still be rewarded under the old program, even if the conversion doesn’t officially happen until February. To me, that’s just good faith. But Google has decided to go against that and as a result, they’ve pissed off some of AdSense’s most loyal and active players.

And that’s what you don’t want to do. Just ask Jennifer Laycock.

If Google was smart, they would have read Jennifer’s recent blog post before they made their announcement. Perhaps they would have learned a thing or two about dealing with brand evangelists.

Here’s a snippet from Jennifer’s post where she explains why her local Panera Bread should be more concerned with her frustrations over a new policy change:

“I've been coming here two mornings a week for more than six months. The staff knows me, the kitchen folks know me, the couch in front of the fireplace has an indent the shape of my rear on it…I represent the customer you don't want to annoy. Not because there's anything special about me, but because I'm the type of customer who is already enamored with the brand and therefore willing to put up with the occasional inconvenience. If I get annoyed by what you're doing, chances are high that new customers will be annoyed as well. The difference is those new customers will simply walk out the door and never come back. The loyal customers will probably at least complain and give you a chance to fix things.”

Amen, sister!

Jennifer is spot on. No company, not even Google, can afford to turn its back on its brand evangelists. They are the ones who will make or break you. Panera Bread needs to reach out to the Jennifers like Google needs to reach out to the Shoemoneys of the world. It’s simply bad business to alienate those who stood by you when you weren’t quite as impressive and pretty as you are now. You’re not going to be top dog forever. At some point someone is going to come and challenge your entire business model when they prove that they can do exactly what you do but with far more pizzazz and people power. What are you going to do to make sure your customers stick? Going against your word or throwing annoyances at them won’t win you any friends.

So what should Google have done?

Obviously, they would have faced some backlash regardless of how they handled the situation. However, they would have received a lot less, and perhaps avoided the media storm, had they agreed to honor all AdSense signs up completed before the end of the month using the old rules. The new policy should only affect referrals that come in after the policy takes effect. Otherwise people feel like you’re cheating them. And that’s not how you want your best customers to feel.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/ 9/08 at 4:40 PM | Comments (2)
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Social.IM, A Whole New Kind of Creepy

I’ve often been told that I should be careful of what I wish for. Two years ago I wished for a fun new job and I got Susan. Shortly after that I wished for an exciting new pet and I got Jack Jack. Then, a few months ago I wished that Facebook would release an IM product so that I could easily chat with all my Facebook buddies and now I got Social.Im. I should just stop wishing. [Hey now, one time you wished for cookies and I provided! --Susan]

But a Facebook IM client sounded like a good idea. I have 200+ friends on Facebook (I know, but I’m discriminating) and being able to easily chat with them without being forced to communication via Wall posts, clumsy message or add their real IMs to my instant messaging client was a very welcomed concept. Especially if you consider that after work hours, I’m constantly logged into a Facebook screen anyway. What I wanted was an easy way to chat with all my new friends, what I got was a way for people to stalk me. Crap.

I’m all for being social, but I like to control that social network. I want to be able to set who can see what. It’s important to me and if you don’t give me a way to do that, I’m probably not going to play in your world. I fell in love with Facebook because it gave me complete control over my information; however, the new IM client for Facebook does not. Not even a little.

When I log in, I see this.

Facebook has used their spiffy API to pull the names and faces of my 207 or so Facebook friends. Great! Except every one of these 207 people can also see me, at all times, and there’s no way for me to change that. Not even if I go into the preferences. (I can, however, decide whether or not I want to show my “toast” alert notifications. I have no idea what that is or means, but I’m glad I’m able to control it.)

See, that doesn’t work for me. What I if want to be super sly and log into Facebook IM during work hours (don’t worry, Bruce, I would never do that) to “network” with SEOs and chat about “really important stuff?” Chances are I’d like the option to block Susan so that she can’t see me. Or what if I’m home chatting on a Friday night and I’d like to block out that cute guy that lives down the hall to give him the illusion that I have a social life and am not sitting in front of my computer on a Friday instead of being out partying or drinking or whatever it is the cool kids do? I can’t do that. And because of Social.IM, aforementioned cute boy will know that I am geek, he will never ask me out, and we will never have perfect Tom Brady-esque babies. The horror! At least GTalk gives you the option to block people. They care about my dating life. [But if he's home to see that you're home, doesn't that increase the chances that he'll realize you're perfect for him?--Susan]

But there’s a lot of potential with this client if they’ll just add some nice privacy features. For example, I like that the client gives me quick access to Facebook information like wall posts, new messages, friend requests, pokes and photos newly tagged with my name. It even gives me a little desktop alert when my friends update their status messages. It made me smile when I got a popup to tell me that RustyBrick had updated his status. It’s like even though he’s all the way in New York with my BFF, me and Barry are still connected through the wondrous land of Facebook.

(I made Susan update her status [Twice! --Susan] so I could replicate the popup, however, it obviously didn’t induce the same heartwarming feeling as Barry’s did.)

But I want more privacy options.

If Social.IM is going to be Facebook’s official IM client, then it has to act more like Facebook. Facebook allows me to create friend groups where I can lump people into different categories based on how I know them. There’s also talk that I’ll soon be able to control my privacy settings based on those groups. For example, I can create a folder for “People I Don’t Really Know But Added Out Of Guilt” and only let them see a very limited view of my profile. Or I could create a group called “SEOs I Like” and give them full access to everything. And of course there would be that group labeled “Family” that I would have to block from every photo tagged with my name. If I’ll soon be able to do that in Facebook, Social.IM should have had the foresight to integrate it into their application, as well. Allow me to set who can see me online and how much they can see (everything, just that I’m online, not be able to read away messages, etc). I’d also like to arrange my friends by these groups, not by name, but I’ll take the other stuff first.

You would think with all the focus on privacy lately and allowing users to hold on to their data and use it how they want that these things would be at the forefront of software developer's minds. But, it seems not.

Facebook, please go talk to the Social.IM people and help them to better their IM client. I like where it’s going but it’s not quite there yet. Kthx.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/ 9/08 at 11:39 AM | Comments (5)
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January 8, 2008

Who Is Your Blog For?

It’s the inevitable question we must all ask ourselves. We sit and we think, we write and we slave over blog posts, but for whom? Who is your blog for? Why are you even writing? Should you be using all this blogging time to go get coffee and donuts instead?

It’s an excellent question, especially since coffee is so delicious, and one recently posed by Lyndon Antcliff over at Cornwall SEO. Lyndon asked, “Who is Your SEO Blog For?”

I think the “who” you’re writing for can only be answered once you have the “why”. Why are you writing? What are you trying to accomplish?

I think most of us out there are writing to spread knowledge and education through our niche. We’re trying to participate in the conversation around us and share whatever insight we might have. We’re writing to give back and perhaps establish ourselves as thought leaders.

If you fall into that category of blogger, then I think the person you’re writing for is you, not the audience you have dreamed up in your head.

A lot of people probably disagree with this line of thought, I know Copyblogger does. And I’m sure I remember reading countless blog posts about how you should take the “I” out of blogging and focus on giving readers what they want. And I agree with that, but I think what your readers want is you. When you write for yourself, and as yourself, your posts come across as far more connected than if you’re talking at people. But part of that also means knowing who “you” are.

Are you a beginner at search engine optimization? Or you an advanced social media person? Or maybe you’re a dog trainer located in Ohio? Whoever you are, that’s who you’re writing for. It should be about providing information to the people who are just like you and the people who care about the same things you do. That’s how you’re going to connect with the readers who will stick around and become faithful friends. Those are the people who will feel at home the moment they land on your blog—the people who understand you.

I’m not saying you should ignore “outsiders” and people who are different from you, but I don’t think you should write your blog for them. You want to write your blog to reflect who you are, both as a person and as a blogger. If you’re able to touch different communities, then more power to you.

Whenever I hear people rumbling about this subject, I think back to Lorelle VanDeFossen’s amazing Don’t Fake It: The Secret to Creating Kickass Content presentation from this past summer’s WordCamp. Back in July, I paraphrased Lorelle’s remarks this way:

“A successful blog is one that you land on with an intention of looking for info and when you arrive it immediately feels familiar and safe. It looks like you. You know what you need, what you need to say and that you want your readers to feel the same way. In essence, you want your readers to be you. When you blog for you everything you say sounds more connected.”

Attending WordCamp and being able to experience that session in person really changed my views on blogging.

The only time I think Lorelle’s rule doesn’t apply is when the goal of your blog is to make money through AdSense. If that’s the case, then yes, I think your best bet is to write for the lowest common denominator and target your blog to address “them”. After all, that blog really has nothing to do with you. It’s about money and not leaving any of it on the table.
Before you can determine who you’re writing for you need to understand why you’re writing in the first place. Your answer to that question will change how you blog. It will determine whether your blog is still yours or whether you’re forced to adjust your behavior/tone/voice to appease the demands of your readership.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/ 8/08 at 5:45 PM | Comments (3)
See more entries in Blogging, Branding

Do You Have Any Control Over Your PPC Management?

There’s an old thread getting new legs over at Cre8asite today. The thread was started when one member asked what to do after his PPC campaign manager wouldn’t give him access to his Google stats. However, when forum members got wind of the situation, the conversation quickly turned from what he should do to “why in the world is your PPC manager taking your data hostage?” What exactly is this person afraid of?

I’m not an expert on PPC management or anything of the sort, but if you hire someone to manage your campaign, it seems to me that the campaign is still yours. You don’t lose possession of your car when you bring it in for repairs. And if you ask your mechanic what he did to fix it, he damn well better tell you. Otherwise, what are you paying the mechanic for? Similarly, if you ask your PPC specialist for your campaign stats or quiz him or her on what they did, they should have an answer for you.

If they don’t, or if your specialist has decided to lock you out of your own campaign, well, I’d be more than a little concerned.

There was some argument in the Cre8asite thread that perhaps the PPC specialist was afraid of giving away secret keyword information, but that sounds completely ludicrous to me. Mostly because it implies that the client and specialist weren’t working together to decide what’s right for the campaign and which terms are most important to the client’s bottom line. What if your supposed PPC guru decides a bunch of keywords that you couldn’t care less about are super important to your success? You’re just throwing money away.

This works the other way as well. If you're a PPC management provider, you should know that letting the client into the PPC optimization process is also a great way to help educate them on what’s going on. Sure, in some rare occasions they may take that information and decide they don’t need you anymore, but it’s far more likely that it will help them to see how valuable you are and foster positive client/vendor relations. And you know what’s great about happy clients? They stick around. And they tell their friends how open and trustworthy you are. And then you make more money. Huzzah!

If you’ve taken our SEO training course, you’ve heard Bruce explain our belief that education makes the world, search engine optimization and PPC management go round. It’s in everyone’s best interest for each team member to know exactly what’s going on, what’s being done and how things are progressing. Additionally, because here at Bruce Clay we group our services by client, if we’re in charge of your site’s SEO and PPC campaign, we also make sure that each team knows exactly what the other’s doing. Call us crazy, but we like to take advantage of the symbiotic relationship between search engine optimization and PPC. It seems to produce significantly better results.

We’ve also found that keeping everyone in the loop goes a long way to building trust. While we certainly don’t encourage clients to log into their accounts and start tweaking campaigns on their own (bad client! Bad!), we think it’s important that they still have access to their campaign even though we’re doing their PPC management. A nice security blanket, if you will.

I don’t know how other Internet marketing firms do it, but for most of the PPC management projects we take on, the client typically already has some semblance of a campaign up and running. To make things easier, we’ll simply ask them for their passwords and log in through their account. Once we get their campaign tidied up and we’re ready to launch into full PPC management mode, we’ll move that campaign over to our client center. This allows us to access the account via our own log in, while still allowing the client to use theirs. At no time do we change their passwords so they can’t see what we’re doing. That would be crazy. And borderline illegal. Why would you even need to do that unless you’re preparing to do something nefarious? It just makes no sense.

Of course, all this sharing and openness assumes that your client isn’t the kind of person who couldn’t care less about having access to their campaigns. There will always be that small subset (or maybe it’s not small? I don’t know) who is paying you to manage their campaign solely so they don’t have to worry about it. And if that’s the case, fine. However, they should have access to it if they want it. That’s where the line is drawn.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/ 8/08 at 5:29 PM | Comments (3)
See more entries in Pay Per Click / Online Ads

Yahoo Go, Google TV & Traditional SEO

Yahoo Improves, Opens Up Mobile Platform

Yahoo used the CES show going on in Vegas this week to announce that they’ll be revamping and relaunching their mobile Go application. Once the new version hits, third party developers will be able to create their own widgets to run inside the platform. Hmm, competing with Android much? Definitely! TechCrunch reports that a software development kit will be released within the next few weeks and that eBay, MySpace and MTV have already created their own Yahoo Go applications. Sweet.

Besides just the new and improved widgets, the updated version of Yahoo Go is also said to feature an improved user interface that will simplify the browsing experience, better shortcuts, a brand new personalized home page to display emails, calendar notifications, etc, and display ads. Yey ads!

Overall, good for Yahoo. I’ve never used the Yahoo Go platform myself, but major props to them for playing on their strengths, opening it up to outside software engineers, and encouraging mobile users to download the software and live their mobile lives in Yahoo. I may just go try it out.

Google TV Sets Are On Their Way!

News broke today that Google had partnered with TV maker Matushita to develop an HDTV set that comes complete with a direct link to YouTube and Picasa. Wow! Because that’s what the people want—an immediate connection to YouTube’s catalog of poorly constructed videos and their online photo gallery. Wait, that’s not what you want? Yeah, me neither.

I’m still trying to figure out the value for Google here. I suppose Matushita gets to tout that its TVs come with direct Google (!), but where does Google win? They already know what shows you’re watching thanks to their partnership with the Dish Network. Is this really going to give them any new information? I don’t get it. Feel free to heal me of my stupidity in the comments.

Make New Friends, But Keep The Old

A fun Cre8asite forums thread asks if new and shiner is better. The thread itself talks mostly about software and design issues but, as with all things, I prefer to bring it back to search engine optimization (that is what we do here, you know). It’s a good reminder that even though we’re encouraging clients to engage in social media and looking to blended search, it doesn’t mean it’s time to stop practicing traditional search engine optimization. It’s always going to be important that businesses create a site that is usable, properly siloed, targets the proper terms, etc.

Just because social media and its ilk are this year’s shiny new baby, doesn’t mean it should be the only member of your family (I’m stretching that analogy, aren’t I?). Properly SEOing your site ensures that you’re ranking for the terms that are important to you, that you’re able to meet all of your business objectives, that you’re not dependant upon costly PPC, and that you keep your conversions costs as low as possible. There’s a reason search engine optimization has been around and growing for 10+ years. It’s because it works, so don’t forget about it.

Fun Finds

WebProNews posted a great interview with Product Manager of Live Search Webmaster Tools Jeremiah Andrick. The interview is filled with fun information and the editing job by WebProNews is hilarious. Also, Mike McDonald is sporting a cowboy hat and letting the Kentucky accent fly. What more could you ask for?

WebMetricsGuru talks about the stress of blogging and its tendency to turn people into micro-celebrities, whether they want to be or not.

Jeff Quipp shared some good tips to avoid foggy blogging. I’m not sure what “foggy blogging” is exactly, but his tips are pretty useful. :)

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/ 8/08 at 5:24 PM | Comments (3)
See more entries in Google, SEO Tips & Tricks, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Yahoo

January 7, 2008

Weekend Update

Is Facebook Copying Twitter?

Why is Facebook suddenly asking me what I’m doing? Isn’t that Twitter’s thing? Little by little all the social networks are starting to replicate one another.


Interesting.

Wikia Launches, Founder Admits It’s Not So Great


This is new. Typically when a new search engine launches, the founders try to convince you that it’s the best thing since sliced Google and it’s only until you read everyone else’s less biased reviews that you realize it probably isn’t. However, this time even the founders aren’t so impressed with their own creation.

Jimmy Wales flat out told the New York Times that his new Wikia search engine he’s created and has been raving about for months is no Google killer. And the critics seem to agree. Michael Arrington called it a complete letdown, CenterWorks Allen Stern said it wasn’t ready yet and Paris Lemon referred to the search results as hit or miss. How’s that for a glowing endorsement?

Regardless of how powerful Wikia may or may not become in the future, I think the whole thing is a bad idea. Creating a search engine where you leave it up to the community to decide the perfect search results page is dangerous waters. Too many people have nefarious ulterior motives and personally, I don’t want my SERP looking like the front page of your typical social networking site. I don’t want it gamed. I want to be able to trust my search results. Jimmy Wales seems to think its “unhealthy” for our information to be controlled behind closed doors, but I think it’s far unhealthier to give the keys to the kingdom to a bunch of poor intentioned spammers and self promoters. I’m not sure how Jimmy thinks his team will be able to control the massive influx of spam he’s about to see (apparently he didn’t learn his lesson through Wikipedia), but I think he’s in far over his head with this one.

Using human influences to “perfect” an otherwise algorithm engine is one thing. Handing my SERP over to the “wisdom of crowds” is another.

Right Hand vs Left Hand Navigation


There’s an interesting conversation brewing over at Cre8asite Forums asking people to make the case (or not) for right hand navigation.

I’m of the belief that your navigation should be in the place your audience expects it to be, whether that is on the left, on the right, up top or directly in the center of the page, makes no difference. Some users are trained to look to the left for navigation; others realize that now that people have bigger screens, putting navigation on the right hand side is A-okay since (for the most part) we no longer have to worry about pages getting cut off. Site owners should also keep in mind what of business they’re running. Informational sites tend to be put navigation on the top to get it out of the way and allow users to focus on the content, while most retail sites like to keep the navigation on the left.

All things being equal, I don’t really think it matters where you put it as long as it’s consistent throughout the site and easily accessible to users. You don’t want to hinder a searchers experience simply because they can’t figure out how to navigate your site. Navigation, like good site design, should be intuitive and invisible.

Search Engine Journal Blog Awards


Search Engine Journal has crowned the winners for several of its 2007 Blog Search Award categories. Matt McGee took top honors in the Best Local Search Blog, Search Engine Land was named the Best Search Industry Blog, and Search Engine Roundtable was named the Best SEO Blog. You can find the rest of the winner announcements over at Search Engine Journal. Congrats to all the winners and hopefully Loren will give us the full winners list shortly. My little blogger heart can’t take all this anticipation.

Fun Finds


A video that Gizmodo says makes Bill Gates look cooler than Steve Jobs.

Tamar Weinberg has paired up with Dan Perry to give away a totally sweet Google mini fridge. You should all enter. And then send me the fridge when you win!

Not particularly search engine optimization-related, but timely nonetheless, Real Simple helps you decide which financial records to keep and which ones you can safely throw away.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/ 7/08 at 4:57 PM | Comments (0)
See more entries in Branding, Search Engine Optimization

January 4, 2008

Friday Recap

Merry first Friday of 2008! I’m over here in the BC offices staring out my window and waiting for the rain to start. They say a storm’s a brewin’ but all we’ve got so far are clouds. Let’s hope the rain and thunder and apocalypse comes soon!

First things first, happy birthday to my BFF Tamar who turns an undisclosed age tomorrow. Make sure to send the Schwag Addict some goodies. Better yet, send her two of everything so that she can send the extra one to me! Yeah, that’s a great idea!

I don’t know what happened but it seems as soon as I left the East Coast the temperatures dropped about 30 degrees. And just as a reminder, don’t leave soda cans in a freezing car overnight. They tend to explode. Just ask Joe.

While we’re still on the holidays, here’s a short video illustrating what the holidays are like for those of us with cats. Yes, it really is that sad. I hope that cat is declawed. Did I mention that my Jack Jack snapped all the shelves out of my bathroom vanity while I was out of town? No? Well, he did and it was special.

I hope you all remembered to celebrate Introvert Day on Jan. 2. Finally, all the holiday parties and forced social gatherings are over. We may antisocially sit in our apartments in peace. Huzzah!

Watch this guy juggle. I can’t tell you how long I sat and stared. It’s not every day people juggle out of the box.

Congratulations to Seth Godin for becoming an action figure this week. Dude! How do I get a The Lisa action figure made? C’mon, you know you’d buy one. Susan would probably try to use it as a voodoo doll. [You can't prove anything. --Susan]

Having recently flown from New York to Los Angeles surrounded by odd and unwanted people, I find Barry’s solution to an annoying airline passenger completely hysterical. If only flights had WiFi.

Speaking of traveling, Vanessa Fox discovered that lithium batteries are now forbidden by the TSA. Um, seriously? Because I carried two of them through security 3 days ago.

Tood Mintz is making a “blog bet” that the New England Patriots won’t win the Super Bowl. I’d take his challenge except then I’d feel bad when he lost and I forced him to write an embarrassing entry about himself. Dude, never bet against a Boston sports team. They always surprise you.

Neatorama shared the story of 18 unlucky people who got stuck on a rollercoaster for 30 minutes. It didn’t sound like such a sad tale until you learned one important fact—they were stuck upside down. On a rollercoaster. For 30 minutes. Yikes.

Finally, a bed specifically made for people who want to cuddle to ensure that no one’s limbs go numb and your lady friend doesn’t wake up with a stiff neck. I wonder if you could also stuff the person you’re sleeping with inside that bed as to not anger your significant other who just came home unexpectedly. Something to think about. [I like xkcd's solution. --Susan]

Hobo’s Shaun Anderson compiled a list of top bloggers first attempts at blogging. Notice how even Tamar’s first post had a comment from Aaron Wall. Was she ever not famous? I didn’t think so.

The Evil Eye Baby is the funniest video I’ve seen this year. Here’s hoping he doesn’t choke on one of those drumstick peanuts.

The second funniest video of 2008: The deer playing in the swing set. Hee.

Geek Culture did a fine job illustrating the concept of most social networks. This explains why Susan and I are both Facebook and Twitter friends.

An 11-year-old boy used The Force by beating the 30-year-old who attacked his mother with a toy lightsaber. The battle was apparently so impressive that the young boy has been promoted to Padawan Learner.

Things I Learned From BoingBoing This Week:

  • If I was to ever buy Susan a present that wasn’t intended to hurt/insult/annoy her, it would be this sky hat.
  • It’s raining iguanas in Miami. Can it even do that?
  • The wavy cabinet will make your visitors think they’re still drunk from New Years.
  • The thermochromic toilet seat changes color to tell you whether or not the seat is still warm from a previous user. Um, ew. Thanks.
  • Would you eat pancakes that came out of a pressurized can? I’d try it once, I suppose.
  • Dude, it’s a man with a tail! And he can wag it.
  • Just a friendly warning: The 10-year-old wolf boy is on the loose and is apparently dangerous. I don’t know. He doesn’t look so scary to me. Just a tad albino.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/ 4/08 at 2:38 PM | Comments (3)
See more entries in Fun Stuff

January 3, 2008

It’s the Quality of the Network, not the Quantity of Faces

A funny thing happened while we were on break last week. Search marketer and former Longer Islander Charlie Anzman accused me of not being social enough. Can you believe it? I, who can easily be found on Facebook, Twitter, MyBlogLog and about a million other social networks, was deemed to be exclusionary? Well, knock me over with a feather!

I bring this up not because I took any real offense to Charlie’s post (we chatted later. We’re good.), but because I think it hits on an important point, something that seems even more noteworthy after the news that Robert Scoble was stealing personal information from the 5,000 people in his Facebook network. Despite how Robert wants to spin it, he took their data without their permission and then used it however he wanted. Suffice to say, Robert Scoble and I are no longer Facebook BFFs.

Am I exclusionary? No, I’m not. But I am considerably more careful than I used to be and I think you should be too.

The truth is, up until a few weeks ago most of my profiles were far more accessible than they are right now. Anyone could read my Twitter feed and I friended most everyone who added me on Facebook. But then I toned it back. I didn’t do it because I think I’m above anyone; I did it for two reasons—because my feeds were becoming too noisy to keep up with and because I wanted more control over my online identity. Now if you add me on Facebook, I won’t add you unless you tell me who you are and how you know me. I’m sorry, but if you can’t take 30 seconds to explain our relationship, I’m not going to give you access to my profile. It’s not because I don’t like you. It’s because I need to set the bar somewhere to weed out the excess noise.

As this whole social network thing starts to mature, it’s becoming more and more important for users to know who’s in their network. For both your own personal use, as well as for business security. It’s about creating the highest quality social network you can, not the biggest, the noisiest or the one with the most star power. Find the people that you are interested in and who are contributing to the conversation and follow them. Ignore all others.

Today we saw a classic example of why it’s important to know who’s in your network. In his post published last week, Charlie commented that Robert Scoble “gets” social networking because he’ll friend and follow anyone. Then we discover that Robert was stealing your personal information and handing it over to Plaxo. He even had the audacity to claim he was doing it for your benefit.

No, Robert, you were doing it for you. You were stealing from the 5,000 Facebook users who gave you keys to their online home because you think the laws of the Internet don’t apply to you. We saw it with your policy on linking and we’re getting another glimpse of it now. Despite what Charlie may think, clearly you don’t get social media. Not even a little bit.

Robert may add the entire universe on Twitter but that doesn’t mean he’s really listening. He doesn’t follow people the same way a Jeremiah Owyang does. How could he when he follows 6,960 people compared to Jeremiah’s 3,147? He’s less engaged and less tuned in to what people are saying around him. He’s just sitting in his little bubble telling himself how cool he is that he has almost 7,000 Twitter friends. Those are not the kind of contacts you need. You want the folks like Jeremiah or Chris Brogan who are going to reach out, ask for your opinion, and then participate in a dialogue with you. You want to find the thought leaders that aren’t going to sell you out to help their own agenda.

Do yourself a favor and be selective about who you allow into your network. Follow only as many people as you can keep up with. You don’t want to miss the conversation while you’re floating in noise. Engage with those that you allow into your network. Stop being a wallflower.

Social networking was supposed to open things up. Not make them more exclusionary and aid identity theft.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/ 3/08 at 5:37 PM | Comments (5)
See more entries in Social Media

How Will You Make 2008 Great?

I’m seeing a lot of beginning-of-the-year type posts right now where people are making industry predictions, telling new SEOs what they need to make 2008 their year, and word vomiting their hopes and dreams to anyone who will listen. It needs to stop.

Don’t get me wrong; it’s great to see that people are approaching a new year with a sense of excitement and purpose. Fresh starts are amazing for the soul. However, if you’re really serious about making changes this year, perhaps it’s time to stop talking about it and start doing. It’s already January 3. It’s time to make a plan for how you’re going to accomplish all those things you’re already patting yourself on the back for.

I’m not trying to be anyone’s killjoy or sound especially ranty. The truth is, I, myself, couldn’t be more excited for the brand new year. Last year was a challenging transition year for me. But I’ve made it through the other side and I am super confident that 2008 is going to be wicked awesome. I’ve had a grin on my face ever since the ball dropped. But I’m not out there blogging about everything that I hope to do or what I want this year to be about. Instead, I’m working on my plan.

Most of us are SEOs with search engine optimization-related goals. We’ve decided that in 2008 we’re going to excite users and increase conversions. We’re going to experiment with new forms of marketing. We’re going to be more social and increase our rankings and the rankings of our customers. These are all great things to strive for, but if you’re going to accomplish them, it’s going to take more than just talk. You need to create a plan and identify what steps you’ll need to take in order to conquer everything on your list.

It’s like all those people who vow to lose 20lbs every January. That’s a noble goal, but how are you going to do it? What is going to make this year different? Are you joining a gym? Are you going to work with a trainer? Are you going to create a strict diet plan for yourself that includes some sort of electric shock therapy when you start eyeing the pizza and ice cream? Without outlining your road to success, you’ll never effect change. You’ll fall back on the old habits and continue along the same path you’ve been taking. You’ll become boring and old and stale. Like Susan.

Do yourself a favor and shut up. Instead of talking, use the next week to create your plan for the year. What are the things that are important to you and how will you ensure that you make it happen? If you’re looking to become a better SEO, think about investing part of this year’s fresh budget into our brand new SEO training program and start the year optimized on the right foot. If you didn’t see a profit in Pay Per Click last year, find training opportunities related to search marketing. Or make sure those are the sessions you hit when you attend the various search conferences throughout the year.

If you were a little antisocial last year, maybe it’s time to hire someone whose sole responsibility is interacting and reaching out to the greater community. It’s not enough to simply say, “I want to be more social this year” or “I want to be on the front page of Digg”. Chances are you told yourself the same thing last year and look what happened. The truth is, you’ll never achieve all that you want to without making a conscious effort to set aside time to actually do it.

Chris Garrett had a great post yesterday about becoming compelling. Look at your company and decide how you can make every service offering, every angle, every communication compelling. As Chris explains, it’s the difference between being considered “must have”, “essential” and “in demand”, and being simply “nice” and “good” and “fun”. In order to get customers excited, you have to be in the first group. Companies that are “nice” get looked over. Those that are “in demand” do not. But in order to be compelling you have to add value. How are you going to do that?

It’s the “how” that I’m not hearing quite enough of. And most of the "how" that I am hearing isn't completely convincing. Social media is not your golden ticket, people. Not unless you invest the time in really understanding it and breaking into many of the inner circles that everyone pretends don’t exist.

I want to know how you’re going to make 2008 great. Have you started writing out your plan yet? If not, you’re already three days late.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/ 3/08 at 5:09 PM | Comments (0)
See more entries in Search Engine Optimization

Welcome Back Search Headlines

Hey! We’re back from break. Huzzah! Come with me as I clean out my feed reader. I promise it’ll be fun. Or at least more fun than the work you’re putting off by reading this. Ready? Let’s go!

Ask Offers Voice-Activated Capabilities For Mobile Directions

Ask.com’s Patrick Crisp was kind enough to give me the heads up about Ask.com’s new voice-activated Click to Speak capabilities for Ask Mobile. Now, instead of trying to juggle texting, typing and not killing yourself, users can speak their desired location and receive directions without slamming into the car in front of them. Think of all the lawsuits and hours in the chiropractor you’ll be able to avoid. Huzzah!

The service is free and is easily accessed by visiting m.ask.com from your mobile device and clicking on the easy-to-find Directions option. I’m looking forward to trying this out later today. These voice-activated things always seem like a good, but then you end up shouting at a device that doesn’t quite seem to understand you, especially if you’re like me and getting out a fluent sentence is hard enough. You should have seen the chaos that occurred when we tried to teach my mother how to use her new Bluetooth headset. I’m still having nightmares where a woman tries to attack me all the while screaming “Call Lisa, Call Lisa!”. My therapist assures me they’ll go away soon.

Are NoFollow Links Worth It?

Tamar started an interesting conversation over at Search Engine Roundtable asking if buying nofollow’d links are worth the investment. Depending on the site and the placement of the link, I think the answer is a definite yes. Links do a lot more than pass PageRank, they bring traffic to your site and they help you to establish authority. Would you pass down a prominent TechCrunch link simply because Michael Arrington was going to throw a nofollow on it? Of course not, because the traffic and branding that you’d get from that link is in itself a great gift. Who cares if Google isn’t going to count it? [In fact, if you're buying links that's pretty much the only thing you should consider. Assume Google will discount it and consider only the traffic and branding value. --Susan]

That’s how site owners should be consider the value of a link, whether they’re paying for it or not. Will this link help your target audience find you, yes or no?

If Your Competitors Jumped Off a Bridge, Would You?

Phoenix at Search Engine Roundtable opened our eyes to another interesting thread going on over at WebmasterWorld. This time the conversation centers on the infamous “My Competitor’s Are Doing It!” Syndrome.

I mentioned this in our post on Convincing Clients to Invest in Search Engine Optimization post, but typically when our clients start looking at us with big eyes wondering about the spammy behaviors of their competition, we try to bring the focus of the conversation back on the actual client. It doesn’t matter if your competitor is keyword stuffing their site to hell and somehow still ranking; those tricks aren’t going to last forever. When Google catches on, that site and its rankings will be gone for a very long time.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s important to know what your competitors are doing and which areas they’re exploring, but that’s not to say that you should mold your own search engine optimization campaigns after theirs, especially if they’re engaging in nefarious optimization behavior. Study your competitors to see what they’re doing right and what they’re doing wrong. Then go back to your own campaign and figure out what you need to be doing. What areas are they missing that you can capitalize on? It’s something we mentioned in our post on Competitive Search Engine Optimization.

As I’ve said before, there will always be sites and spammy webmasters trying to cheat the system. That doesn’t mean you or your client should join them.

Fun Finds

Facebook canceled Robert Scoble’s account after he broke their TOS. Scoble, FTW!

Donna Fontenot writes Some Days I Wish This Blog Were Private So I Could Share More. Isn’t that what locked Twitter feeds are for? ;)

BigMouthMedia shows that despite Google’s incessant whining and foot stomping, more and more people are using “google” as a verb. Sorry, guys.

Lee Odden had a great interview with SEMPO’s Terry Plank.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 01/ 3/08 at 1:41 PM | Comments (2)
See more entries in Branding, Search Engine Optimization

 
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