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News & analysis on digital marketing & analytics
Meisters of the Universe
So we all remember the days of Mind Mapping in our Introduction to Critical Thinking in Business class, right? MindMeister.com did something we all should have thought of….put the Mind Mapping idea online to allow for virtual collaboration. I’m sure there are all kinds of folks who use could use this, but my mind goes to the Panera Bread entrepreneur. You know who they are. They show up at Panera with a laptop, a cell phone and run a business while enjoying free coffee refills instead of reporting to an office. They use Google calendar instead of Outlook (and Google Docs instead of an intranet). Now they can use MindMeister instead of the white board.
All these collaborative online tools put a new spin on consumer generated content. This is content created and consumed not by and for the general public, but for an exclusive group, the virtual workforce.
Blogs: Sit Tight Until You Get It Right
Online marketing experts at the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose laid it on the line today about blogs. Get involved and learn to use the blogging and feed tools.
During the “SEO Through Blogs and Feeds” session, I was stunned by the lack of hands when up as panelists asked question after question about how often and how well attendees participate with blogs. The audience was encouraged to get involve and offer a unique pesrective while using blogs and other online means to connect with established experts in their industries.
Stephan Spencer, Founder and President, Netconcepts, LLC said he worked with one client and helped them blog by getting two hours of the top executive’s time. His staff drafted the basics of several blog posts that the executive later updated and then published. This approach helped get the executive on his way and he now takes care of his own posts.
Rick Klau (formerly of FeedBurner), Strategic Partner Development for Google, said marketers have to help corporate leaders get past their “mind block” when it comes to blogs. Companies focus too much on themselves and not enough on their customers when they do blog, he said.
“If you just assume everyone is goiung to come to you because you’re so good, you’re going to spend a lot of time talking to yourselves,” he said.
Category: Google
How Much Are ‘Link Condoms’?
The paid link controversy got deliciously nasty yesterday at the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose.
Google’s Matt Cutts joined other industry leaders on a panel called “Are Paid Links Evil?”
Google basically wants web sites to avoid passing along PageRank if they sell links. In other words, if a page has a good reputation (an authority site defined by its high PageRank) and you get links from it, your site may benefit because links influence natural search engine rankings. Google may penalize portions of web sites or ban them for allowing other web sites to simply pay for a link to pick up some of that PageRank.
Cutts said that only encourages off-topic and questionanable web sites to litter the search results. When he suggested technical ways web sites can prevent PageRank from being shared with another site (i.e. the “nofollow” tag), he got funny response.
“I shouldn’t have to put a link condom on the damn link,” panelist Greg Boser of WebGuerrilla insisted when he got his turn.
Boser and other panelists like Michael Gray of GrayWolf’s SEO Blog brought up excellent points, including the fact that many paid links are relevant and that web site developers shouldn’t have to go out of their way to adjust code. While some paid links are easy (give me money and I’ll link to you), other paid links require an editorial review before a directory, for example, agrees to add your web site.
Todd Malicoat of Stuntdubl went so far as to tell Cutts that it’s hypocritical of Google to accept money from link brokers who advertise on Google. It’s out of Cutts’s hands, but he pledged to see what he could do about that.
The power and influence of Google seemed to annoy Gray who kept playing up the fact that Google is not the government. “They may buy the government, who knows?” Gray said during the discussion.
I personally have no problem with paid links. Relevancy is everything. I don’t think we should encourage our clients to just get a bunch of links without any sense of where they’re going to appear.
Google seems to be dead serious about this issue and apparently is checking sites that offer paid links and judging them by the nature of the web sites they link to. Google won’t say it, but I imagine there is a bit of safety for legitimate, relevant links. Too many big web sites and those with important information could be senseless victims in this mess when Google created the PageRank tool and admitted links influence search results. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Google will rule out penalizing web sites that benefit from the links rather than just focus on the ones who offer them.
Panelists just want the market to prevail. If links get expensive, people may back off.
In the end, Google can do what it wants. Until then, I suggest targeting free and paid links that deliver traffic regardless of how they help you rank.
Flash and Search Engines; Do they Mix?
Broadband is penetrating the market and companies are trying to get the advantages provided fancy Flash displays, I do agree with you! Your site looks awesome! But what is the point if I can’t find it anywhere on the engines. Flash along with JavaScripts Sites, are by far the hardest sites to get ranked. Search Engine state they can read the files. I still think they struggle in parsing it. You ask: “How can I get around this?”
Well I came across some quick tips to get around these limitations, thanks to Jennifer Sullivan Cassidy over at SEO Chat (Optimize Your Flash Site for Search Engines).
A better way to incorporate Flash, if indeed your client must have it, is to first create an HTML site, and then use Flash movies in place of images, buttons, and banners. These areas are usually of little importance to a search engine anyway, so it seems fine to do it this way. In which case, optimizing this type of site is no different than optimizing a plain ole HTML site. This is my top recommendation for Flash.
I would have to agree. Don’t make the whole site flash. You can make your banner and navigation flash. However, I highly recommend that you bring your text outside of the flash movie whenever possible. Spiders will have an easier time crawling contenton the HTML page than in a Flash movie.
You should give your visitors the option to advance past the intro on their own, without the nasty redirect, which a lot of Flash intros use to send the visitor to the actual content of the site. We know the search engine spiders do not like redirects. So let your visitor take control over their experience.
This isn’t web 1.0 any more. That was great back then, but it is a pain in the you-know-what. Especially when you don’t have a “skip into” link. The Engines can get lost in this intro as well. So be very careful if you decide to go this route.
The Macromedia Search Engine SDK is designed for search engine application teams. What this means to you, the SEO, is an insider’s view to what the search engines actually see. Do your homework: simply to know which search engines utilize the SDK, and optimize the site for those specific search engines.
This is key! Macromedia tools are getting smarter and smarter every year. This tool allows the engine to easily read the links and text from the flash files. It takes the test and links and converts them into an html file.
These are just some of the tips when working with a Flash Site. The synopsis is this; don’t make you site all Flash. While this can be very appealing to your audiences, it can have a negative impact with engines. So unless, you are Nike or some other well known brand you had better plan for the long haul with a full Flash site. Your rankings won’t come in a flash!
Category: SEO, Technical Issues
SES San Jose Coverage – Comprehensive Sources
Search Engine Strategies/San Jose kicked off Monday in high fashion with a number of repeat and new sessions, including some fresh search behavior data. Here are some of the highlights:
1. If you can afford it, get the top paid positions on search engines like Google and do what you can to secure the top spot among the organic listings. Oliver Deighton, Product Marketing Manager for Google, detailed a new search behavior study and the brand recall lift that can be achieved with such a strong presence that can also increase the purchase consideration.
2. Gord Hotchkiss of Enquiro Search Solutions Inc. (and a pioneer in eye tracking studies) talked about the effects of Google Universal Search. In the past, the now famous Golden Triangle (searchers focus on the upper left hand corner of a results page) may be impacted by results that now include images and not just plain text. The Golden Triangle that looks like an F turns into an E with what Hotchkiss called “chunking.” The results page from an eye movement perspective is viewed more in sections. A visitor may very well start at the top, but the image appearing with a result catches their attention. Once they see it, they take time to read the description adjacent to the image before viewing other parts of the page.
3. Representatives of the major search engines suggested that traditional “ranking signals” they use can apply to how videos are ranked among search results. One discussion focused on video titles, comments and views – the overt and somewhat implied consensus being that all of those factors matter.
Search Engine Land has full coverage with links to notes taken during each presentation.
Let Your Influencers Do the Talking
There are a lot of reasons to know your influencers before you need them. When we engage with a new client one of the first things we do is identify who their online influencers are and start building relationships. This means contacting those influencers with transparent introductions and trying to give something of value to that influencer.
What is something of value? If we’re reaching out to a discussion board moderator we’ll seek to answer a question that is plaguing members on the board. If it’s a blogger we’ll comment on a post and contribute more content. If it’s a columnist we’ll make introductions to a great source. We may also write reviews or suggest a link (not related to our client or their competitors).
What we don’t do is sell, promote or ask for anything.
Building relationships with your influencers is not only the right and decent thing to do. It will also pay off. At some point, your company, or one of your clients, will face a crisis. You will take a beating online…maybe it will be deserved, maybe not.
Maybe you’ll address the issue head on on your website, and in press releases, maybe even on your corporate blog.
But everybody is listening to them.
Who is them? Them is (are?) the influencers in your market. Your buyers, partners, VCs and vendors listen to them.
If you’ve invested wisely, you’ve built a great relationship with them. They know your name. They answer your email. They may not even be a fan or brand champion, but they trust you.
When it hits the fan, and you have great relationships with them, they will give you a forum to tell your story.
When you have great news to announce, they may want to be the ones to break it first.
When they hear a nasty rumor, they may come to you before publishing it and let you tell your side of the story.
Find out who they are, make friends, build great relationships and learn how you and them can become a we.
Thanks For The Search Suggestion, Are You Trying To Tell Me Something?
Search operators are a part of any backlink research. Whether for a client or a competitor, getting a better idea of “who’s linkin’ who” is an essential activity. Both “link:” and “site:” operators are routine. I usually prefer to use “link:” on Yahoo!, it provides a more complete picture than Google. However, recently started to type in my Firefox search bar and saw something odd. As Firefox uses Google Suggest, it made suggestions as to how to complete my search. Here is a screen capture.
Here is how the search looked at Google Suggest. It has additional details.
Can you make any guess as to why these particular sites were offered? Recent searches by Google engineers? Random websites? A crafty bit of subterfuge designed to make search engine marketers obsess over something new?
It didn’t obsess. I just went over to Google Suggest and tried a “site” operator. Gad Zounds! My search found more delicious oddity there.
I don’t seriously believe that there are hidden messages found here. But it is certainly not a list of most popular sites or sites with the deepest crawls. Perhaps it is an illustration that these operators are useful for sites of all sizes and link popularity. Any ideas?
Category: Google
Social Networking Malpractice
As Randfish recently pointed out on SEOmoz, Social Media manipulation is becoming more and popular. I always wondered how any story got to the front page of Digg when so many stories are submitted every minute. Well this might be one explanation:
From the comments on many of these threads, it looks like this is working. People are Stumbling and also giving their user ids used for this. This seems to go against the true intent for these sites, which is to provide information that has been recommended for your specific interests.
Perhaps asking for Stumbles or Diggs on a public forum is worth the chance to get your story on the front page. This would bring in a huge number of clicks to your site and possible some business. But with the constantly changing content on sites like Digg how long will these efforts last before your traffic returns to its normalcy?
Search ‘Only’ 5% of Online Activity – Why Is That Bad?
I’m a little surprised by a new study by the Online Publishers Association (OPA), but not in a way you might not think.
The bottom line is that internet users spend 5% of their online time with search. I was surprised it was that high. Actually, the OPA has been tracking this and other activities for four years. Search used to account for 3%, so that’s a 35% increase.
For some reason, the ODP characterized it this way: “However the total time being spent with search remains relatively low, accounting for just 5% of Internet users online time in 2007.”
Of course it’s low. Search is a starting point that should lead to other sources of information. Can you imagine a professional spending a great deal of time looking at search engine results? OK, of course you could. But that’s a special community (open to others of course), not the consumer base the OPA tracks.
The bulk of the study focused on the shift from communications to content as a focus area for consumers when they’re online. I think the trend bodes well for search as well.
As a percentage of online time, viewing content (video, news, etc.) has increased from 34% to 47% — a 37% increase. Meanwhile, communication activities dropped 28% (people switching from e-mail to AOL Instant Messenger).
As consumers look at content – and make decisions about what’s worth their while, web site marketers should be making sure it’s optimized for natural search engines and worthy of inbound links. Plus, the trend is a reminder that businesses need to expand their presence on quality content web sites and in communities that can drive more traffic.
Search may be 5%, but that’s only part of the picture the search marketer must consider.
Category: Online Marketing
Who Says Google doesn’t Practice Black Hat.
I recently came across an article on SEObook.com “Google Caught Selling High PageRank Links, Again & Again” by Aaron Wall. It talks about Google buying market shares for their checkout and profiling their members and giving them free links from a higher Google PageRank sites.
Google is buying marketshare for Google Checkout by profiling merchants who use it, and giving them free high PageRank links from Google sites.
The Google Checkout blog, currently a PageRank 8 site, recently posted about the success of GolfBalls.com on their blog. Not only does that post provide direct links, one one of the links is a deep link with targeted anchor text.
However, is it considered black hat when the conductor is doing it? I would have to agree with Aaron on this one.
If Google does something like that it is a co-brand cross promotion, and all is well. If I do something like that it is an attempt to manipulate Google and/or a spammy link buy.
You know Google would have a fit if we were trying this technique. Google should be a little more careful if they want to stay king of the hill. Google wants us to practice good search engine marketing ethics, which they get to define. Then they steer their own ship and this direction and expect us not to follow. Remember Google, every leader eventually loses it reign. Until then, I guess it’s that old saying that I always heard as a kid, “do as I say, not as I do.”
Category: Google
