You know those friends you have on Facebook that you don't ever interact with? The ones you kind of wish weren't there, but haven't gotten around to unfriending? The ones who send you annoying requests for pumpkins, goats or hugs?
Is your business one of those friends to your customers?
Social media. It's not just media, and certainly not just another venue for marketers. For an effort to be successful requires transparency, innovation and a more than a little bit of genius. That's why I truly believe that creativity has to be behind every successful social media effort.
No, not fakery - creativity. Finding ways to engage people in ways they will enjoy, and in ways that your business will enjoy increased awareness and preference. You can't just put up a Facebook page and expect that to do it for you. You have to connect people with each other and with your business. And you have to do it now.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
Content, Capabilities and Conversion
There are a few things that site owners often just don't get when it comes to SEO, but they are absolutely crucial when it comes to having a site that can be found and be used.
1. Content is KING and queen and prince.... Original content will be rewarded. Interesting, thoughtful, funny, unusual, insightful, helpful content will draw Google to your site. Because it will draw traffic to your site.
2. If YOUR SITE LOADS SLOWLY, or if it has a lot of glitches, redirects, bad pages, etc. your SEO will suffer. Fix the problems.
3. If you don't know what you want your site to do, how will people know what to do with it? Make sure you have some sort of conversion goal in mind ON EVERY PAGE.
1. Content is KING and queen and prince.... Original content will be rewarded. Interesting, thoughtful, funny, unusual, insightful, helpful content will draw Google to your site. Because it will draw traffic to your site.
2. If YOUR SITE LOADS SLOWLY, or if it has a lot of glitches, redirects, bad pages, etc. your SEO will suffer. Fix the problems.
3. If you don't know what you want your site to do, how will people know what to do with it? Make sure you have some sort of conversion goal in mind ON EVERY PAGE.
Monday, May 23, 2011
I Still Hate Twitter
I admit it. Good optimization tool or not, I can't stand Twitter. Just as I can't stand direct mail and robo-calling. Sure, they may be effective, but they're a pain in the butt.
I don't care how many times people tell me about how relevant it is, how timely it is. About the only good use I've seen of it is its use in the Middle East to mobilize ordinary citizens to actually do something. Here in the USA, it's still mainly about ego. Sure, sharing links is good. Aren't you clever? Aren't you informed? Don't you need to make sure everyone knows it?
I'm sure I'll get some haters hating this. But that's okay. I also hate haters.
I don't care how many times people tell me about how relevant it is, how timely it is. About the only good use I've seen of it is its use in the Middle East to mobilize ordinary citizens to actually do something. Here in the USA, it's still mainly about ego. Sure, sharing links is good. Aren't you clever? Aren't you informed? Don't you need to make sure everyone knows it?
I'm sure I'll get some haters hating this. But that's okay. I also hate haters.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Branding? Important to SEO?
While social optimization is going to continue being a huge trend in SEO in 2011, one of the more interesting things is that a traditional, tried and true way to build business is making a BIG comeback - branding. Yep, branding.
As search becomes ever more personalized, better known sites (that usually means better known names) are going to get even more traffic. That can be a problem for smaller, breakthrough marketers, but it can be an opportunity, too. If you take a structured approach to building your brand and your visibility at the same time, you can outpace your peer competitors.
Making sure that you are optimized for mobile devices is key, too, as well as making sure that you're optimized in your area (for small, local businesses). It's all kind of like a puzzle, but one where you can move the pieces around.
As search becomes ever more personalized, better known sites (that usually means better known names) are going to get even more traffic. That can be a problem for smaller, breakthrough marketers, but it can be an opportunity, too. If you take a structured approach to building your brand and your visibility at the same time, you can outpace your peer competitors.
Making sure that you are optimized for mobile devices is key, too, as well as making sure that you're optimized in your area (for small, local businesses). It's all kind of like a puzzle, but one where you can move the pieces around.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Are You Being Watched?
It's a good thing if you are, you know.
If your site or content is being "liked", tweeted about, followed, shared, linked to or from, or just plain found, that means you're more visible. You can get more visibility from tweeting, following, linking, blogging, listing, sharing and liking.
More visible = more business.
How's that for an ROI?
If your site or content is being "liked", tweeted about, followed, shared, linked to or from, or just plain found, that means you're more visible. You can get more visibility from tweeting, following, linking, blogging, listing, sharing and liking.
More visible = more business.
How's that for an ROI?
Monday, March 7, 2011
Visibility Optimization
It's not just SEO anymore - it's about visibility everywhere online - social, listing, bookmarking, blogging, advertising. It all adds up to better visibility overall, and for more than just your website. If you're a small business person and you're not taking advantage of all the ways to make yourself more visible, then you're missing out on prospective customers.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Tools, Tools, Tools
There are tons of good visibility tools out there these days, many of which can give your small business an overview of how they fare against some of their competitors. I like to use Website Grader and Alexa as a first look. Then I move on to my paid tools, like Sheer SEO, SEO PowerSuite and SERP Analytics. You can even just do searches in a whole bunch of different engines and see how you do there.
The problem is, how do you then analyze what you find out? It can take days to really delve into what makes you more or less visible online. It's all determined by a big mashup of all the things that engines take into account - links, content, images, age of domain, blog, twitter, etc. Sure, Google rewards good content and relevancy, but punishes "black hat" tactics - so what's the difference?
Visibility Optimization isn't rocket science, but it does takes some knowledge and analytical skills. You have to be up on the constantly-changing importance of different aspects. It's a lot of work, but it can be very rewarding.
The problem is, how do you then analyze what you find out? It can take days to really delve into what makes you more or less visible online. It's all determined by a big mashup of all the things that engines take into account - links, content, images, age of domain, blog, twitter, etc. Sure, Google rewards good content and relevancy, but punishes "black hat" tactics - so what's the difference?
Visibility Optimization isn't rocket science, but it does takes some knowledge and analytical skills. You have to be up on the constantly-changing importance of different aspects. It's a lot of work, but it can be very rewarding.
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