Internet Marketing
February 1, 2010
Relevance: Good for SEO, Good for YOU
Growing up, I always thought of my dad as Mr. Tech, spending a Saturday afternoon fiddling to fix the vacuum cleaner or hooking up new gear for the family sound system.
I’d later hear stories of him attending a technical institute to learn the inner workings of the VCR. The punch line of the story is that he spent the last $400 in the newlyweds’ bank account to register for the class, pulled apart the pieces of their VCR like some eager clockmaker, and then artfully put the pieces of the VCR back together… as a trash pile.
Twenty years later and I’m his go-to girl for anything done on a computer or online. My e-mail address is his e-mail address. While on trips he asks me to look up locations with the help of my magic square (read: iPhone). And more than once he’s asked me to buy his concert tickets online because Ticketmaster has forsaken him and his brick-and-mortar brood.
He was the first guy on the block to get a laser disk player and he’ll be the last guy on earth to sign up for Netflix. How is it that a once technically adventurous man became such a technophobe?
Read more of Relevance: Good for SEO, Good for YOU.
January 11, 2010
Reader Survey: What’s Your SEO Priority in 2010?
You’re a forward-thinker, a fast learner, and driven like a ‘Vette. Odds are you’ve got big plans for the year ahead. Whether you’re an in-house SEO thinking of new ways for your company to squeeze out search engine real estate or a consultant targeting potential new niches, you’ve got a strategy in mind for success in 2010.
Just out of curiosity… what’s your plan?
I don’t mean to be nosey, pinky swear. But while strategizing my own 2010, I realized it’d be helpful to hear from others in the search marketing industry to get an idea of where priorities lie. Maybe some readers would find it helpful as well.
Read more of Reader Survey: What’s Your SEO Priority in 2010?
January 6, 2010
SEM Synergy Extras — How Predictable: Internet Marketers Peer through the Crystal Ball
On the SEM Synergy podcast today, Bruce Clay gave listeners an overview of his predictions for what’s to come this year in search. I look forward to Bruce’s fully laid out predictions in his article in the upcoming SEOToolSet Newsletter because I happen to like the hair-raising goosebumps that manifest as a reaction to Bruce’s eerie knack for telling the future.
Bruce is in good company in sharing his expectations for what’s to come over the next 12 months. If you’re able to keep up with many of the blogs in the SEO industry, you’ve noticed the usual, annual influx of posts with an eye toward trends of the future.
For today’s SEM Synergy Extras I’ve rounded up prediction posts from some of the most respected experts on SEO. And be sure to tune in to January’s newsletter (subscribe with the form in the blog sidebar!) for Bruce Clay’s predictions.
Read more of SEM Synergy Extras — How Predictable: Internet Marketers Peer through the Crystal Ball.
December 21, 2009
How SEO is Like a Smile
When holiday cheer is in the air, I get in this state of mind where I hear jingle bells everywhere and the whole world is aglitter with tinsel. I have this constant stream of carols looping through my head and an urge to flavor everything with peppermint. But the holidays aren’t always a happy time for all.
The holidays are billed as a time of love and togetherness, which is great fun if you have someone to share it with. But when we’re reminded that others don’t have someone to share life and love with, we remember that the holidays are also about giving. As we remember all the things we have to be thankful for, we’re reminded that the world is full of people in need.
One of the simplest but most heart-felt gifts one can give, all year round, is a smile.
Now, don’t you worry if this was your reaction:
What do you mean, “Give a smile”? I’m an Internet marketer, not a GAP model! *
Not to worry. As it turns out, smiling has a lot in common with something you’re very familiar: search engine optimization!
December 10, 2009
All You Need to Know About Google’s New Feature Updates
Let me just let you in on a little story I like to call my life in search. On top editing and posting the fire hose of liveblog posts and photos coming out of Chicago (so much info it’ll make your head explode!), I’ve been flailing to stay above water just to keep up with the changes Google has launched this week.
Since entering the search marketing industry, I’ve often felt like Lucy at the chocolate factory. Wrapping those drops of cocoa heaven in their tidy little packaging, I thought I was getting a handle on the search industry news cycle and was covering announcements as they rolled down the conveyer belt. Thing is, they just dialed up the speed.
So naturally, my logical initial reaction to this information overload is to freak the flip out.
Like myself, businesses are asking a series of important questions:
How is search changing? What does that mean for my Web site? What do I need to do now? And how does Google expect regular businesses to keep up with this madness?!
So what’d Lucy do when faced with the daunting conveyer belt that wouldn’t quit? She stuffed the chocolates in her mouth — where they went on to undergo serious digesting. I’ve had a chance to process and analyze Google’s new features with the help of a few of my favorite BCI SEOs. Now I’ll try to distill the info of highest import and make the business implications of these changes clear.
Read more of All You Need to Know About Google’s New Feature Updates.
November 16, 2009
Achieving Strong Themes through Silos and Data Mining Server Logs in the SEO Newsletter
The monthly SEO Newsletter will be blazing its way into inboxes tomorrow. It’s so stuffed with the last month’s news, it’s safe to say you could have been Rip Van Winkle the past few weeks and none would be the wiser after your reading of November’s SEO Newsletter.
For a preview of what’s to come, check out some excerpts from this month’s articles.
Siloing – How to Theme a Web Site for Clear Subject Relevance
Siloing is a way of arranging a Web site’s contents according to themes, which facilitates search engine optimization. Search engines catalog information logically by subject, which allows them to easily find and return the most relevant Web sites for any user’s search query. The more organized your site contents are, the clearer your site’s subject relevance becomes to search engines as well as to users.
Focusing SEO Efforts with Server Log Data
The ability to track a consumer’s interactions with a brand or business from initial exposure to completed conversion is one of the most exciting and useful developments to happen to commerce since the advent of the Internet itself. Finally, business owners are able to see, in records generated straight from the source as they happen, what’s working or not working with customers visiting a Web site. Read more.
October 26, 2009
Is Social Media Marketing a New Requirement of SEO?
Here’s an interesting question worth a minute of pondering for any SEO practitioner:
“[I]s it now a necessity for an SEO to have practical social media skills?”
James Duthie posed the head tickler in a post on SEO Scoop last week called “Is social now a compulsory SEO skill?“
The question came out of discussions he’s had with other members of the Internet … Read more
October 15, 2009
Why DIY SEO Can Fail
It’s crazy how often we can draw parallels between seemingly incongruous pieces of our random daily adventures. And it’s cool, too, because sometimes these parallels lead us to an eye-opening revelation or down the path toward enlightenment.
I’ve recently been negotiating with what I can only describe as a blinding, burning, evil demon of pain that has taken up residence in … Read more
October 13, 2009
SEO is Obvious… ly Vital
There are some things in this world that need no explanation. These acts rely on one thing to get done. Good ol’ common sense. For example, all you need is common sense to drive a car, learn to play an instrument, or do long division. The accomplishment of these acts require little more than common sense, right? They’re all come so naturally a baby could do them.
Just like SEO. Make a good Web site. Obvious, right?
Or so the argument was made yesterday — once again — and long-time search marketing industry evangelist, reporter and analyst Danny Sullivan came to the rescue — once again.
Read more.
October 6, 2009
Ask the Link Builders – SMX East 2009
Another strong Q&A session coming at you! Here’s our panel:
Moderator: Danny Sullivan, Editor-in-Chief, Search Engine Land
Speakers:
Rae Hoffman, Owner, Sugarrae Internet Consulting
Debra Mastaler, President, Alliance-Link
Eric Ward, CEO, EricWard.com
Q: I had directory links that I paid for 5 years ago and they’re still up. Should I worry about it?
Rae: If you’re not paying them for upkeep then it shouldn’t be a problem. Read more.
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