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Social Media Marketing SEO Search Engine Optimization

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But the Kitchen Sink…

January 12th, 2010

I was looking around today for a list of every possible thing you could have on a website.

I thought I would post what I’ve scraped together - it seems like a necessary thing to know and there isn’t a comprehensive list that I could find. I’ll update my list as it goes - hopefully have a complete “mix and match” site structure soon.

Feel free to add your own - I’d appreciate it.

I picked these as my catagories:

  1. Stuff to get links
  2. Stuff for the visitor
  3. Stuff to keep the visitor coming back
  4. Stuff to monetize your site
  5. Stuff for site structure

Here is my “stuff” not broken down yet, just in alpha order.

  1. Ads – AdSense, ClickBank, Commission Junction
  2. Affiliate links, ClickBank, Commission Junction
  3. Links section
  4. BBS
  5. Blog
  6. Calendar of Events
  7. Chat
  8. Classified Ads
  9. Comments
  10. Contacts
  11. Content Management
  12. Credits
  13. CRM
  14. Data Conversion
  15. Date and Time – Good 302 hijack prevention
  16. Directory - People
  17. Document Management (downloads)
  18. Donations
  19. eCommerce
  20. Editors WYSIWYG
  21. Events
  22. FAQ
  23. File Management
  24. Forms
  25. Forum
  26. Gallery
  27. Glossary - Dictionary
  28. Google
  29. Group Access
  30. Guest Book
  31. Help Desk
  32. Images
  33. Industry Directory
  34. LDAP
  35. Link Directory
  36. Menu Systems
  37. Multi-Language
  38. Multiple Sites
  39. News
  40. Newsletter
  41. Email Newsletter
  42. Payment Systems
  43. Podcasting
  44. Polls
  45. Quiz
  46. Ratings and Reviews
  47. Recipes
  48. Real Estate
  49. Related Items
  50. Resources
  51. RSS Feed
  52. Sitemap
  53. Social Media TrackBacks
  54. Subscribe by Email
  55. Subscribe RSS Feed
  56. Security
  57. SEF - Search Engine Friendly/User Friendly URLs
  58. Shopping Cart
  59. Site Map
  60. Social Media Forum
  61. Statistics
  62. Store
  63. Streaming Media
  64. Squeeze page – allow your visitor to give you their email address
  65. TrackBacks to Social Networks
  66. Twitter Reminders
  67. User Management
  68. WAP
  69. Weather
  70. Widget – good for link bait - branded
  71. Wiki
  72. YouTube
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SEO: When It’s NOT a Good Idea

December 16th, 2009

I recently came across a question on LinkedIn regarding SEO and how to make SEO work for the three websites that the question referred to.

The Question:

Apart from paying for adwords and other pay per click alternatives what do you recommend to increase ranking in search engines…

The Answer:

I took a quick look at the websites in his profile for 1) industry to gage competitors, 2) number of pages and 3) overall PageRank. These are the quick and easy parameters to start with if you just want an general idea of where your site fits.

The bottom line question is, of course, “how can I generate more quality traffic to my website that will convert to customers or clients?”

So the question then becomes “how can I generate more revenue with my websites and is SEO a part of my overall marketing strategy?”.

The answer is no, SEO won’t benefit his sites at all.

Here are the reasons:

1. His market is an extremely competitive marketplace and he is up against big players in his space. He would need to completely design a new site from the ground up spending considerable time and money and even then he’d have a tough fight.

2. The top level domain of one of his sites has a PageRank of 4 but it’s not passing any “link juice” back to him. His website’s PR is “0″. Zero is actually negative, which is to say that Google doesn’t know his site exists or doesn’t like it. I suspect that it’s because two of his three websites only have one page. Google doesn’t really even notice 1 page websites.

So what to do?

Social Media is the way to go. If you can’t get direct traffic from search engines, you can carve out a very effective niche with social media but it takes time every day, and patience.

Blog: Blogs don’t have to be beautiful, just functional and full of really quality information. Start putting out high quality, technical information to establish yourself as an expert in the field. Blog daily.

Facebook: Run your blog through Facebook, add your events, wins etc. Don’t mix your business Facebook page with personal. Much better to keep your Facebook interesting but all business.

Twitter: Tweet frequently during the day, maybe 5 to 10, but not more than one at a time. Tweet quality or meaningful tweets. Some fun is good but only tweet about things people might really be interested in. Learn all the Twitter ediqutte, #FF etc.

Connecting the Dots: You should “Write Once Post Many” WOPM - this means that you need to have all your social media interlinking so that each piece of content you create goes out to as many secondary sites as possible. For example, your blog posts can be added to your LinkedIn account and Twitter, and your Tweets can be used to update your LinkedIn status (add the hashtag #in).

It takes time and a real sea change in thinking but once you can change your trajectory it really works.

Have a question? Call me at 206-335-6162 or email John[at]marketoneweb.com

Keyword Saturation: 1%
Keyword Relevance: 4/10


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7 Ways to Choose the WRONG Keywords

November 16th, 2009

1. Choose “One Word” or “Two Word” Keywords
The worst keyword research mistake I see people make is to choose “one word” or “two word” keyword phrases. Unless you’re selling to a niche audience of 12 you don’t stand much of a chance of getting on page #1 with a 1 or 2 keyword phrase.

Also, the traffic from a single keyword is generally not targeted and you’ll get a lot of visitors but few buyers.

Keep in mind also that Google’s algorithm takes into account “bounce rate”. A “bounce” is a single page view – the visitor leaves the site from the entrance page.

Here’s what Google says about Bounce Rate:

“Bounce rate is a measure of visit quality. A high bounce rate generally indicates that site entrance pages aren’t relevant to your visitors.”

Unproductive visits are not just neutral, they are negative. Google is less likely to put your website on page 1 if visitors don’t stay a while.

2. Target In-House Keyword Jargon Real People Don’t Use
A big mistake that marketers make is to use “in-house” jargon that real people don’t use or even know. If your selling printing and you refer to black as “k” only a printing geek is going to know what your talking about. (Black is called “k” because in printing it’s the “keyline” color or “key” plate – a common reference in printing).

Remember ranking on a keyword is not the goal – converting a visitor into a buyer is the goal.

3. Choose Keyword Popularity over Keyword Value
Keyword tools are great at telling you the potential traffic for specific keywords – WordTracker is just about the most popular.

A popular keyword might not have the value that’s needed to convert a visitor into a buyer.

There is more to a search than just landing on your page. You have to consider how relevant your content is and what is the intent of the visitor – check out my post on Digg.com SEO Expert Los Angeles. A good visual of what visitors do on your site.

You need a keyword that has high visits and conversion, and low competition. It takes some work to find just the right combination.

4. Forget Your Competitors
Some markets have very strong competitors the strongest being government and education sites. These can’t be beat. But you can rank with longer keywords where .edu and .gov might not show up. Check out your competitors. Look at the age, number of backlinks and number of indexed pages. Don’t go toe to toe with a strong site. Go around them with a longer keyword that they don’t rank for.

5. Forget the Intent of the Visitor
Searches that focus on getting information are not going to convert as well as searches that focus on buying.

Example: “truck reviews”

This visitor is looking for information, just shopping around but probably not ready to buy.

Example: “truck dealers”

This person is ready to buy. Spend your time and money optimizing keywords that say “I’m buying”. You know your market. What say “ready”. Do your keyword research and then go with the keywords that say “buying”.

6. Stick with Your Keywords Too Long
Search queries change all the time. Monitor your successful competitors (the ones with all the backlinks and rankings). See what changes they might be making to their site or their source code. Follow a good forum or blog in your industry to see what’s new and changing.

Review your logs for which keywords are working and which ones aren’t. But keep in mind that your logs are reflecting what Google thinks your all about. If you’re getting great traffic few conversions, your keywords need to be reconsidered.

7. Don’t Put Keyword Research on the Top of the List
For search engine traffic, keywords are the foundation of your work. This goes for copy, images, video, podcasts, blogs, PPC – anything you put on the web you want found needs the right keywords.

Keywords seems simple and obvious and some companies don’t want to put their resources there, but that’s the #1 mistake you can make.

Example: 20% more people look for the word “attorney” than “lawyer”. That’s a lot of lost revenue if you assume otherwise.

Test – Test – Test – Amen.

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My Twitter Account Has Been Hacked!! Now What?!?

November 11th, 2009

Recently a client’s Twitter account was hacked. The account suddenly started shooting out dozens of DM’s and replies to his list. Within minutes people were DM’ing back to let him know.

It’s a quick fix. Just log on and change the password and report it to Twitter to @spam with the links.John X Twitter

This hack was probably done by a bot because they didn’t change the email or password.

Why hack a Twitter account? Because most people will click the short URL’s in the spam DMs or replies without thinking about it if it’s from someone they are following.

The short URL disguises the actual URL until you’ve clicked. The redirected URL might just be an annoying ad or it might be a phishing site that’s out to get any information they can trick you into providing.

What to do:

1. If you are logged into Twitter when this happens log out immediately. If you’ve been hacked by a virus on your machine this will shut down the attack. Clear your cache and restart your browser. Login and reset your password immediately.

2. Once you have logged on with your new password go to connections and remove any third party applications you didn’t add.

John X Twitter

3. If you can’t login at all submit a Help Request to Twitter: http://help.twitter.com/requests/new

4. Don’t click on short URL unless you can rollover the URL and see the actual URL you’re going to.

5. Don’t login to any site other than Twitter with your login information.

6. Look carefully at the URL in the address bar before you venture into a site. The site might look like Twitter but the address in the URL will be counterfeit.

One I saw recently looked exactly like Twitter but the address bar was:

Twitter.VerifyLogin.bzbz.com

Read the URL backwards from right to left. Whatever comes just after the extension (.com etc) is the actual domain name, so this site is really bzbz.com (I made that up but you get what I mean).

7. Change you’re password frequently. I change mine about once every couple of months.

Need some help? Don’t hesitate to give me a call. John
206-335-6162
John[at]marketoneweb.com


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Online Reputation Management: Who’s Talking About You?

October 20th, 2009

It used to be just a nuisance, but today, keeping your name and reputation from being sullied on the internet needs to be one of the foremost components of your marketing efforts.

The web loves negative content, just look at Britney Spears! Just about any article about her gets some play regardless of how small or innocent.

John X Online Reputation Management

Anyone can put content on a reliable site on the internet in less than 2 minutes. Find a popular forum, register and post whatever is on your mind.

If you are having a problem with a business, real or imagined, post it!

It the story is funny, or angry, or illustrated with “Gotcha” pictures, your business is in a fight for its life.

The major source of negative information about you on the internet is from social networking sites which produce “user created content”.

This content is rarely filtered for more than offensive language, but not for the content itself. Many courts have ruled that websites are not responsible for the content generated by its users.

You can spend years building a brand only to see it tossed around the internet stuck to some funny video making claims about your product, customer service, prices etc.

Monitor: How to Know Who’s Talking About You

John X Online Reputation ManagementMonitor all the elements of your business. Your company’s brand and products, the CEO and board and important employees.

Example: try this search in Google: (one I personally use)

”my company problem forum”

You’ll find if anyone has posted a problem about your company in forums – one of the biggest breeding grounds for negative company information.

Next try “my company scam” and see if anyone has some issues with your product or services.

You can expand and refine this search list until you are monitoring all the possible negatives searches that might come up.

You know your areas of weakness – just search for them with your company name and see what comes up.

If you are having a problem you’ll find your company name in blogs, news aggregates, tags, social media and forums.

Where to Monitor
Start with Google: http://www.google.com/alerts - put in the name of your company and see what comes up. Also put in your products, brands etc.

You can also to the same on Yahoo - http://alerts.yahoo.com.

Check out the major RSS aggregators – Feedster, Technorati, Yahoo and Google.

How to Deal with Negative Information

You can’t remove negative information, you can just push it so far down in the SERPS that its not a problem.

Treat the Symptoms

Once you have found negative information, handling it becomes a PR issue. Find the merits and the flaws in the argument or comment and address it directly.

You can’t stop the funny video, but you can prevent the next one. Start by “branding” the important areas of social networking, forums, etc. that is relevant to your business.

Keep & extend your brand to keep others from tarnishing it.

Have a question? Call John at 206-335-6162 or email John[at]marketoneweb.com

Keyword Saturation: 4.2%
Keyword Relevance: 3/10


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Social Media and the Construction Industry

October 6th, 2009

If you are a large firm in the construction industry your potential clients probably already know about your company.

If you are the marketing director for your company your job is to put your company first in the minds of your potential clients and provide them with enough material to support choosing you for the project.

This requires as many points of contact on the internet as possible, generating as much current and relevant information about your company, your projects and your employees.

Your website isn’t sufficient anymore to provide the depth and range of information potential clients look for today.

Clients today will do “lateral” searches on your company for additional information about you. Much is being say about your company and you need to actively participate and even initiate and moderate the conversation.

Social media marketing is the way to “be there” where you new clients are looking.

LinkedInFacebookTwitterBlog

LinkedIn

A good example, particularly for the construction industry, is LinkedIn. Good for the construction industry because so many different kinds of professionals are involved in construction projects and LinkedIn is the largest professional networking organization in the world.

LinkedIn has over 200 LinkPoints and growing. A LinkPoint is any point of contact between you and any other LinkedIn member.John X

For example, when you answer a question on LinkedIn, your name can appear in up to 6 different locations:

1. In the answer to the question.
2. In the weekly email update to your connections.
3. In the “Activity” section on your profile with a click thru to your answer.
4. Your answers are listed in your profile’s “Q&A” section with an expanded link to all your answers.
5. If selected “Best Answer”, your name appears at the top of the answers.
6. If selected “Best Answer” your name appears as an “Expert” in the category of your best answer.

This is 6 different opportunities for you to be seen by your potential clients.

This is just one example of the depth of LinkedIn and its powerful referral potential. And, most importantly, everyone on LinkedIn is there to network.

Facebook

Facebook is an excellent opportunity to have an active, updated visual resume for your company.

You can announce new projects, show completed projects, add videos of interest to your clients etc.

I think of Facebook as a 2-D rendering of you and your company.


Twitter

Twitter is the hardest social media site for most people to understand. Just what can you say in 140 characters?

Well plenty and again, if they are not talking about you they are talking about concerns and issues of interest to your potential clients.

You need to be there adding value to the conversation.

Twitter is also the best site available right now to find the hottest “trending topics” in your industry making your new content immediately relevant and interesting to your potential clients.

Blog

Blogging it the first point of contact that will spread to your “outposts” in your social media network. I call it “Write Once Post Many.”
John X
When you post a blog; and it can be anything from a video, an article, a survey etc, it is automatically is added to your Facebook page, your LinkedIn profile and your Twitter account.

There are dozens of additional “outposts” you can set up but these should be the foundation of your social media campaign.

Note of Caution Part I: Produce Content Frequently
Once you start on social media, be prepared to produce ongoing content frequently and consistently. I refresh my LinkedIn account about once a week, my Facebook and Twitter accounts daily and my blog at least once a week.

You can choose your own schedule depending on your time but you must be consistent.

Note of Caution Part II: Start Small and Sustainable
Don’t start all social media all at once. Start small and sustainable. LinkedIn and a company blog. This can be done weekly and setting aside an hour per week is doable for most of us.

If you have any questions about web design or development, SEO or SoMe (social media) please feel free to call or email.

John[at]marketoneweb.com
206-335-6162 in Los Angeles


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Are There SEO Advantages To Setting Up Your Blog Within Your Own Web Site Versus Within A “Wordpress Type” Environment?

September 29th, 2009

The best solution from an SEO perspective is to have your blog be a sub-directory on your main site.

Sub-directory: myWebsite.com/sub-directory/
Sub-domain: sub-domain.myWebsite.com

Google considers sub-directories as part of your main site as opposed to a sub-domain. Sub-domains are viewed as separate websites and the “link juice” doesn’t generally flow in that direction.

Google is looking for the “authority site” in your market and content is the driving consideration in establishing your authority status for Google.

Backlinks coming in to your blog will have punch for your website as well and quality backlinks are probably the second most important rating factor for Google next to content.

If your website and your blog have roughly the same set of keywords, “Pink Widgets” for example, then Google will pass a lot of the “link juice” from your blog to your main site.

For example, if you are a web developer and you have a popular blog where you frequently get comments, all that content will increase your main website’s overall PageRank and authority.

Google is very specific in assigning PageRank and value so your blog will be the primary beneficiary but it will spill over on to your main site.

There are other advantages in installing WordPress on your site but from an SEO perspective passing the link juice down to your site is the big one.

Also using WordPress as a CMS makes a lot of sense. You create a SEO benefit also in that your content is all over your site so the site appears pretty seamless to Google.

SEO is a constantly moving target and I tend to not feel constrained by the big hand of Google.

I prefer to monitor what “black hat” SEO’s are doing and, although I don’t use those techniques for my clients, I do see that Google says one thing and does another.

I am always learning where I can push the edges.

For example, a long time ago black hats were saying that the “duplicate content” problem was a myth and now it’s been pretty much established that it is.

Google is always “interesting”.

If you have any questions about SEO or SoMe (social media) please feel free to call or email!

John[at]marketoneweb.com
206-335-6162 in Los Angeles


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How Do I Find My Clients or Customers on Twitter?

September 23rd, 2009

If you are in sales and you want to connect with a prospect you can generally find them on Twitter with this Google search:

intitle:”Barrack Obama” “on twitter”

If you are looking for clients you can also specify the search by location and keywords in their bio.

site:twitter.com intitle:”on twitter” “bio* * marketing” “location Seattle”

It can be a bit more difficult if your prospect doesn’t use his or her name but uses a nickname. For example, my Twitter name is “John X” so I don’t come up under “John Xavier”.

There are a lot of search sites available for Twitter but they are “opt-in” for detailed contact information so unless your customer has registered with the site they won’t show up.

Twitter is a awesome resource for sales, an absolute must for anyone selling products, particularly tech products because just about all your customers and potential customers are tweeting.

If you have a specific product, service and/or location that you are considering Twitter for, please feel free to call me, I’d be happy to go over the basic guidelines for how Twitter works for sales.

John[at]marketoneweb.com
206-335-6162
Twitter.com/JohnX
LinkedIn.com/in/marketoneweb


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Can a B2B Business Have Social Media Marketing Success Using Only LinkedIn … Forgetting About Twitter and Facebook?

September 21st, 2009

Regarding B2B and social media, LinkedIn is a must. If that’s all the time, energy and/or money you have than you can build a successful strategy just using LinkedIn. More


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Three Questions to Ask a Potential Web Designer

September 16th, 2009

It’s hard to find a good web designer. You can ask all the regular questions, look at our portfolios, review what previous clients have said.

But try these questions next time - I bet you find out more than you thought you might.

1. Specifically - what is your design process. How do you create the best design for me?

:: This question will let you know if your prospective designer knows the complete process of design. So many times you can get in the middle of a project and due to the inexperience of your designer your project goes sideways.

2. What programs do you use for design?

:: Many designers can design like crazy but their designs don’t translate into working websites well. Some designs require heavy work-around coding, or breaks in the design because of the right angle nature of the web.

:: Most designers design would be thrilled if a designer told me that he or she designed in Photoshop or Illustrator AND Dreamweaver. That means that they understand the limitations of the “right angled” web.

:: Your site will probably be coded by a programmer but you save a ton of money when the programmer can implement the design without a huge struggle.

3. What’s your favorite part of the city?

:: Weird question yes - but you’ll find out what kind of design they like. I’m from Los Angeles and if they said Century City I would know that their designs are clean and crisp. If they said downtown, I would expect grunge. If they said the Melrose I would expect trendy, bright colors and odd angles.

Good luck!

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