For whatever reason, people tend to be drawn to the human face, and we are even prone to seeing it in inanimate objects such as plugs or clouds. Thus, it should be no surprise that when Paras Chopra recently conducted two A/B studies on the subject, results led to the conclusion that a page with a human face increased conversion compared to a page without. This theory is highly applicable to many companies, and I am looking forward to testing it on a site I am currently working on! Since we are in the middle of a huge site redesign, it will be some time until I can implement on that particular site, but I will update with the results of this test then 
I don’t have time for a long article, but I was excited about the implications of this article so I thought I should share. As has always been the case with offline marketing, this shows that a recommendation from a trusted friend online is becoming more powerful than the unreliable results of a search engine: “According to Web measurement firm Compete Inc., Facebook has passed search-engine giant Google to become the top source for traffic to major portals like Yahoo and MSN, and is among the leaders for other types of sites.”
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/14/BUU51C0AMN.DTL
This week, Google unveiled it’s latest foray into the world of social media, Google Buzz, and I am going to be bold and say: it has the potential to be Google’s most successful venture in the social space yet.
Google Buzz Integrates with G-mail
It’s true that Google Buzz is not without flaws, and several of the online industry experts are quick to point that out. A lack of integration with other platforms and services and privacy issues seem to be at the top of the list of concerns. Buzz is not yet integrated with facebook or even some of it’s own entities like youtube. This results in a newsfeed that is not as integrated in comparison to it’s competitors facebook and twitter. Furthermore, as with their introduction of ads within G-mail, consumers are concerned with their privacy and do not want Google reading their personal e-mails in order to give us more relevant ads. Sure, relevant ads are great, and in theory, they are certainly more effective from a marketing standpoint. However, if I wrote a long personal e-mail to a close friend asking for relationship advice, Google’s offer of a romantic date near me might make me squirm. Of course, I know that Google doesn’t ‘read e-mails’ so much as they work off of keywords randomly and non-obtrusively, but you can imagine what someone who is not a search engine marketing guru (yes, I said it… 
) might think.
That being said, I think it’s important to remember that this is Google’s first release of their new product, so of course it will have opportunities for improvement. Social networking communities seem to struggle with privacy boundaries, and I think Google will find it’s balance and assurance with users as time goes on. Furthermore, Google knows that it will have to bite the bullet like it’s predecessors in this space and offer solutions that work with other social networking sites in order to satisfy an increasingly linked social society. I think they will evolve in order to satisfy their user-base, as well as provide even greater solutions that Google is known for.
Let’s talk about the reasons that Google Buzz is already poised to succeed. For one, their feed offers the option to be either public (like twitter) or private (like facebook). This is an innovation users have been waiting for, and Google is in the unique position to provide it without impeding on it’s core mission as would be the case with it’s two major competitors. Additionally, it integrated this feed with G-mail which is already a successful communication vehicle and immensely popular with users in part because of it’s pioneer G-chat feature. This feature leads to a user-base that is even more connected to it’s e-mail than most other e-mail providers, who have only added it in retrospect. Right off of the bat, they have a large and engaged audience to trial their product, provide feedback, and hopefully embrace it as it evolves into something that they want. Another reason Buzz will be successful is because the world has embraced social networking from a personal and business perspective. Once computer-phobic grandmas are now OMGing over the cuteness their children’s latest baby pictures on facebook. And what company doesn’t have a twitter even if they have no idea what to do with it? While it took years for people to warm up to potential business opportunities on facebook and twitter, companies had already jumped on the Google Buzz Bandwagon within hours of Google Buzz’s launch. They may not have a firm grasp on how to deliver ROI with these sites yet, but in response to mass consumer acceptance, companies have put a lot more focus on their social media campaigns and have dedicated people to keep up with the trends in this industry. As a result, Google Buzz is being greeted by a willing commercial audience, and I predict that personal users will warm up to it as the tool evolves. I certainly plan to keep an eye on it’s progression as well as the exciting evolution of social networking!
Press Release Optimization for Writers
Published March 26, 2009 SEO , Search Marketing , Social Media Leave a CommentA well-written press release with a clear, concise message is a key element to effectively communicating your intended message to your target audience (reader, search engine, or otherwise). Writing for search engines should not take away from the credibility of the news piece or the enjoyable experience of those reading it. In fact, an awkwardly worded article might produce high bounce-back rates which will actually decrease your pages’ rank on search engines. On the contrary, it should make it easier for your target audience to find your work by making it easy for the search engines to understand as well. The below guide provides some guidelines for a writer who is interested in optimizing articles for search engines.
Choose Target Audience: When you write a press release for online distribution, keep three “end users” in mind: readers, search engines, and other media outlets (print/journalists/bloggers, etc). Obviously, the most important user is the reader and this is who you will focus on when optimizing search engine efforts. First, assess the premise of the article and determine that target audience.
Keyword selection: What is the premise of the article? Choose one or two main keywords that your target audience would search for. The keyword(s) you select should be checked for keyword popularity. Google has several tools that can help you with this, such as those listed below; I tend to trust their data the most since they have the most traffic.
- http://www.google.com/trends – Compare a few keyword ideas to see which one is more popular. Very quick and easy.
- http://www.google.com/insights/search – This is like Google trends, but will provide more insight on the keywords in case you wanted more insights to guide your keyword debate.
- https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal – This will also give you other ideas for popular variations of the keyword you are thinking about using. It’s good if you want more ideas for keywords to use.
Keyword Placement:
- Title: This is the most important place to put your keyword. Search engine algorithms typically place a lot of value on the title of a webpage. Note: As with traditional press releases, make sure it’s catchy or else no one EXCEPT the search engines will read it. A catchy title will also improve click-through rate in places where it is picked up, and decrease bounce-back rate which is great for SEO too!
- First paragraph: The closer to the beginning of the content you can place the keyword, the more relevant they appear to the search engines. Try to place the main keyword in the first paragraph once.
- Rest of article: Throughout the article, try to mention the keyword(s) 2-3 more times depending on the length. As alluded to above, you do not want to overuse keywords, as awkwardly worded articles will be unappealing to readers and possibly increase bounce-back the rate, which is bad for ranking in search engines. A good optimized article should be well-written and flow naturally as any other article would be written. Hopefully, using the keyword will come naturally, as the subject of the article should be very relevant to the keyword you have chosen.
Linking: Your own site, as well as many press release distribution companies, allows you to include keyword-rich anchor text in links. Anchor text is the visible text that links to websites when. Search engines use anchor text to determine what the link is about, as well as the link’s associated rank for that term on search engine’s. Therefore, it is important to consider what text you use to link to other sites in your article. The links should be directed to specific URLs within your Website that, ideally, have a title tag, header tag, and content that supports this same keyword phrase. Again, there’s great SEO value in having links on other Websites linking to you, using keywords that you’d like to rank for within the anchor text of the link.
Other Media: A good press release with good information will not only get picked up by your target readers, but also from relevant print and online journalists, bloggers, etc. Those interested will want to write about your release. It is in your best interest to use all possible communication channels that are available to deliver your message. Plus, online media sources will link back to you (hopefully), which is good for ranking on the search engines. So, make it easy for them! It is a good practice to include contact information, photos/logo, and other enclosures (where necessary) to help the journalists work on it faster and publish/have it printed.
Other Considerations: Distributing through reputable channels such as prnewswire is great for getting your press releases seen. Research these to make sure they are not associated with ‘spammy’ press releases. Also, make sure your meta tags, title tags, and header tags all reflect the premise of your press release. Good luck!
It’s a simple yet impressive concept. Blackle is Google… with a black background. The idea is that an all black page uses less energy than an all white page, so if you apply this to one of the world’s most high volume websites, Google, than you save tons of energy. The blog post that inspired it all claims that you would save 750 Mega-watt hours (roughly 75,000 dollars!) a year if you made this simple change on Google. It’s not millions, but if everyone pitches in a little then the result would be huge. With green products all the rage, I predict success for the search engine that saves.
When you can save the world just by doing what you normally do, everyone wins!
A city in France called Ville d’Eu is thinking about changing it’s name to rank more easily in Google’s search engine. Queries referencing the city more commonly known as simply “EU” are drowned out by information on the European Union. The mayor,Marie-Françoise Gaouyer, claims they are losing 1/3 of it’s potential revenue due to Google’s algorithm.
It sounds like a drastic measure, but is it necessary?
According to the article, “Google pointed out that the town is can be found easily via google.fr as Ville d’Eu comes top, followed by the European Union.” This is likely because their website ends in ‘.fr’ and is written entirely in French, thus google’s algorithm assumes it is a French site targeted toward French people. If Ville d’Eu wants to gain international travellers, they should start by creating a website geared toward them. Changing their name is a drastic and unnecessary measure! I would gladly create a SEO’d website for them for room, board and the opportunity to live overseas and learn French!
G1 Marketing: The Problem or Genius?
Published February 24, 2009 Marketing , Mobile Search Marketing Leave a Comment
Last weekend, I did some research on the G1 HTC mobile phone, because I am getting a new cell phone and data plan with T-mobile through work. Upon first impression, the phone seemed slightly unattractive which had me lean toward the new blackberry curve 8900, but I keep it in the running because I know that Google’s phone must be jam-packed with features. I need to do some research to see what Android is capable of. The T-mobile rep told me that they have had a lot of trouble getting them in, but as soon as they do, they go immediately. This led me to wonder if they have trouble with supply or if it was a clever marketing scheme.
My theory is that Google is keeping supply low on purpose and launching the G1 as a beta, similar to the way they launched G-mail as ‘invite only.’ This release method was actually very successful with g-mail as a marketing technique, so they could be trying to use it here. Aside from the buzz, I also don’t remember seeing much advertising around this product when it launched which also has me curious. I imagine the low supply is creating a lot of anticipation. Furthermore, I was surprised when I heard that the G2 is ALREADY slated for release in the next couple months, but it would also make sense if they are using the G1 to perfect the G2 and build anticipation for this release. Of course, this is just speculation, but I have to say that Google constantly impresses me with it’s innovation in it’s products as well as it’s marketing
At some point in the evolution of your company, you may find that you have outgrown your website. Perhaps your company gets bought out or the old website becomes so convoluted that a fresh start and/or a fresh brand becomes necessary. The marketing team is excited about the prospect of developing new messaging, creating new creative and graphics, and promoting the new platform, and the IT team is excited about new, updated web capabilities and the challenge of designing new pages! The only grump happens to be a hybrid of these two groups – the SEO Specialist. The SEO guru approaches this situation with caution: they don’t want to ditch the hard earned rankings and link juice they’ve spent so long earning over the years. Understandable. The following will lay out how to save your SEO ranking when launching the new site!
The project will be broken into 5 steps:
1. Project Management/Planning
This blog serves to make this step as easy as possible. You will need to lay out the execution of the project and determine the resources needed to accomplish it within your time frame. In order to get an initial idea of how many sites you will be redirecting, you must determine how many sites are in the search engine indices. A quick “site:” search on Google and Yahoo should help you determine this. Yahoo! will likely return more results. Your resources and time constraints may limit how many sites you will be able to redirect, but the goal should be to 301 redirect as many ranking sites as possible so that you lose as little traffic as possible.
2. Analysis
First and foremost, gather benchmarking data from the original site. You will use this later to determine the success of this project! Review your data to determine the amount of traffic all of your ranked pages bring in using your weblogs, google analytics, omniture, or whatever data sources you have available. Using this in conjunction with your constraints will allow you to determine which sites you should focus on. If you have a seasonal business, you might need to go back one year to see your top sites – otherwise, a few months will do. I would recommend compiling a list as comprehensive as possible, however, the size and scope of your project will be dependent on the size of your site as well as your resource constraints.
3. Execution
Each site will have to be 301 redirected to a site most like it on the new site. A 301 redirect represents a permanent change in the eyes of the search engines and is the only redirect that can be used if you want to maintain your rank. The execution phase will likely be the bulk of the project, because each web page must be redirected to its’ equivalent web page on the new site. For time estimation purposes, expect to complete 2000 web pages a day unless you are able to find shortcuts like those I mention below. The search engines will penalize mass redirects to one site or redirects to a site that is unlike the original. This technique is often used by spammers, and therefore, must be handled with care by those using the 301 redirect honestly! This phase can be shortened by creating a script that pull out information on the web pages that give clues as to what the web page is about, such as the header or h1 tag. This is where a habit clear coding comes in handy! Certain sections might also go quickly, such as directories, if you can find patterns in the URL structures on either site!
4. Quality Assurance
I would execute sites in sections starting with less important web pages for damage control. Spot check each section before execution to make sure redirects are working and going to the ideal location. Monitor the re-rankings of these sites to make sure search engines accept your 301 redirect methodology!
5. Assessment and Resolving Issues
Once the project is complete, it will take a bit of time for the redirects to rank the pages in your new website. Monitor traffic closely to make sure there are little to no drops in traffic. Research any behavior that may indicate a problem with your 301 redirects and address if possible.
Good luck!
Alternative Linking Methods for SEO Success
Published February 17, 2009 SEO , Search Engine Marketing Leave a CommentTags: Search Engine Optimization
Many SEO marketers focus on gaining as many external links for themselves or their clients as possible. It is true that this is very valuable to gaining search engine positioning. However, there are two other forms of linking that can be just as valuable!
Internal linking can be almost as important as external linking to search engine marketing, but it is often overlooked! Internal linking, or deeplinking, is the process of linking to other pages within your site that provide more information on a subject discussed within the article. The siloing theory championed by Bruce Clay indicates that interlinking all relevant copy together creates a strong case for being an expert in that area. The more information you can provide a searcher, the more likely they will be happy with their search experience and not go back to google or yahoo unsatisfied. This is also beneficial for generating traffic from the all important long tail keywords! As you might suspect, deep linking to relevant copy is key.
Furthermore, linking out to other ‘experts’ in the industry is an important SEO practice, as well. Search engines want to give users content that is relevant and linking to other pages within your site that are relevant to that content serves as more evidence that your site is knowledgeable about that particular content. Obviously, linking to outside sources is also relevant. This does not mean that dell should link to apple, but it does mean that dell should link to pcmag.com as they are the expert for good computers. Highlighting an article that shows the benefits of a particular dell computer is not just good SEO… it’s good marketing! The algorithmic theory is that an expert should and will network with fellow experts.
Note: This post was inspired by a discussion with Greg Bogdan on the Search Engine Land Linkedin forum last night and I thought I might expound on my thoughts for my readers here. Feel free to join the discussion on linked in
Good Quality Score is Good Marketing
Published February 16, 2009 Search Engine Marketing Leave a CommentAs mentioned in a previous post, quality score allows an even greater level of efficiency in bidding on terms. As with organic search, google’s goal is to produce ads that are as relevant to the customer’s search query as possible. As such, they are constantly tweaking their paid search algorithm in order to place ads in an order that will be most appealing to google users while still maintaining a balance with marketing costs. As your quality score improves, your bid rate drops. This leaves a great opportunity to optimize your campaigns.
In addition to saving money on marketing costs, the components that improve quality score also make marketing campaigns more effective. Let’s explore these components:
*CTR: A higher CTR on google leads to a higher quality score in addition to more traffic for your site. CTR will increase when ads are relevant and targeted to the query. Choosing highly specific, targeted keywords will also improve your ROI, because customers will be more likely to be ready to make a transaction if they are choosing these specific terms. Google and those using google to search will also reward you if all elements of your ad including landing page and copy are as relevant as possible.
*Ad Copy: In addition to creating ads that would be highly relevant to the query, you can also use terms with a strong call to action such as “book now”, “order now”, or “pay less.” Couple words with a strong call to action with ‘strong’ words in general. These words might include: guaranteed, new, safe, save, easy or free. An example might be: “Save up to 25% on XYZ product. Order now for free shipping!” Choose words that are relevant to your ad or your high CTR may correspond with a costly high bounce back rate!
*Landing Page Quality: Landing page quality is also important, particularly in determining a minimum CPC. Furthermore, a good landing page will decrease your bounce back rate and increase the likelihood of conversion on your website. As with any marketing campaign, it is very important to consider the full experience of the customer during creation. The more enjoyable the experience from the initial research phase to the actual purchase is, the more likely that experience is to end with your site!
*Historical keyword performance: Google places an emphasis on the performance history of your ad campaign. Obviously, it will take some time to build this history, but, by making ads as optimized to the aforementioned elements above as possible, you will soon earn a positive record with google. Keep in mind that google holds more recent history at a higher value than overall history. This encourages continuous tweaking, testing, and other ad improvements in order to always have better ads for the customer.
