SEMPO Debate: Agency vs. In-House SEM

Last Wednesday, I participated in the first Great SEMPO NY Debate. Members of the SEM community took sides over whether search marketing is best handled In-House or by an Agency. Naturally, I was on the Agency side and, naturally, I think we “won” but you can judge for yourself by checking out some video clips of the event posted on DBE’s YouTube channel.

Two quick notes before you watch:

• One, the venue was a bar and with over 100 in attendance. It got a little noisy so you’ll have to listen a little harder.
• Two, bear in the mind that the debate format is by nature antagonistic and, in this case, belies the usual camaraderie of SEMPO and the search community in general. I found my fellow debaters on both sides of the issue to be well-spoken and open-minded in conversations we had afterwards.

Now "let’s go to the videotape":

The Great SEMPO Debate NYC – “In-House vs. Agency SEM”

And here’s a clip from a short, secondary debate on the value of SEO link building.

Why SEO is a Smart Investment

Whether I’m at a networking event or I’m talking with friends and family about my job here at DBE, I am often asked the same question: “Tell me truthfully, is Search Engine Optimization a smart investment?” Before I started working in SEO, I also wondered the same thing myself. I have to admit, I was one who believed the many myths that surround the search results pages. I always wondered what was really behind optimization, and how the sites that ranked in the top 10 were able to get there. Now that I am well versed in search marketing, I’d like to answer that question and dispel some common search engine myths (without getting into the nitty-gritty details of optimization).

Common SEO Myths and Misconceptions

Do you know where your site ranks on the search engine results pages? If your company relies on its website to drive new business, you can’t afford to play “Where’s Waldo” in the search engine results. In this digital age, people turn to the search engines to find quality in the sea of Internet quantity. Many view a top 10 listing on the search engines as a ‘thumbs up’ from the World Wide Web.

It is a commonly held (mis)belief that all one has to do is pay Google and Yahoo an undisclosed amount of money, and their company will automatically come up in the first page of search results. Another misconception is that having a large amount of site traffic will also increase your page rank, and therefore your position on the search result pages. Unfortunately for those that are looking for the easy way out, that is not the case.

While it is true that you can bid for ads to show up on the paid section of search results pages, this does not mean that your website will automatically show up in the organic listings. What difference does it make whether your website shows up as a paid ad instead of as a natural listing? According to one source, statistics provided by Avinash Kaushik, Google’s Analytics Evangelist, reveal that users click on organic listings 86% of the time, and only click on the pay-per-click ads 14% of the time (with the click through rate on individual ads averaging out to be 2%). If you’re looking for greater click-through-rates to your website, the organic listings offer a clear advantage.

This is where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes in.

The Long-term Value of SEO

1. Quality SEO isn’t about tricking the search engines into listing your website. Rather, it is about meeting certain standards that the search engines look for when they “crawl” your website. If your site clearly states what it is about through its design, content, and programming, then it makes it easier for the search engines to categorize it properly. Search engines give great weight to the sites that neatly and efficiently give them core information in the manner that they ask for it. Search engines also evaluate the quality and quantity of the links pointing to your website as a factor in determining the relevance and importance of your site for a given keyword. This combination of on-site and off-site factors makes link building a vital component of search engine optimization.

2. There are no real “quick-fixes” that are going to give you the same long lasting effects that SEO will. Quality SEO demands an ongoing investment of time and effort. While pay-per-click ads give you immediate gratification and visibility on the search results pages, over the long run they will not give you the same returns as showing up high in the organic listings will. Once your SEO improvements have taken hold, your SEO maintenance costs will end up being far less costly than the daily costs of a pay-per-click campaign. (Not to mention how many more clicks come through for organic listings in comparison to paid listings!)

3. Quality SEO leads to improved rankings and highly targeted results on the search results pages. When people search for a keyword, they want to end up on a site that provides them with relevant information. Survey results from iProspect show that 68% of search engine users will choose a website listed on the first page of results, and 92% will click a search result located within the first three pages. The survey also found that 39% of searchers believe that by virtue of being on the first page of the search results, these businesses are industry leaders.

Creating a fully optimized website for both the search engines, and for your users, is well worth the time and investment. If you have a top 10 listing, you're perfectly positioned to capture a high volume of relevant search traffic and potential customers.

To learn more about best practices for optimizing your website, check out our article on white hat SEO versus black hat SEO.

Bad Clicks and Good Trends

I was going to write a blog about click fraud… How to detect it? What to do about it? Honestly though, the support pages for the major search engines sum it up pretty well. They have auto-filters in place to watch for invalid clicks.

If you think the search engines missed something that is out-of-line – like you got 100 clicks in one day on a keyword that has only had 3 clicks over the past 4 months – contact support and report it. Here are some links to the support pages for the 3 major engines where you can read all about their click fraud protection and procedures:

• Google Adwords Help Center on Invalid Clicks
• Yahoo! Search Marketing Help on Click Fraud
• Microsoft adCenter Help (Perform a search for “Invalid Clicks”)

Instead, I’d rather talk about my current web addiction, Google Trends, particularly the Hot Trends section. While it’s not a social site in the strictest definition, what could be more socially relevant than a top 100 list of what everyone is searching for on Google, updated every hour? Breaking news, new product releases/announcements, celebrity hijinx, viral videos – it’s all there.

And it just keeps giving and giving. Google Trends has helped me get 2 free Nine Inch Nails CDs, a free Rita’s Water Ice, a free McSkillet Burrito, and a free Jamba Juice breakfast. All I had to do was review the results for the topics that everyone else was searching for. I missed out on IHOP’s Free Pancake Day, but it did warn me when Starbucks closed every location for training, and let me know that I could get a $1 latte at Dunkin Donuts instead. I’ve learned about National High Five Day and National No Pants Day.

What’s not to love? And isn’t that what the Internet is all about: Instant information at your fingertips? What you need to know, when you need to know it? Google Trends puts it all in one place.

Now if Apple would hurry up and release my 3G iPhone already, I could get the Hot Trends “to go.” Of course, when Steve Jobs officially announces the 3G iPhone, I can guarantee you it’ll shoot to #1 on Google Trends.

Social Media – Not So Social?

Despite being in the search marketing field, considered fairly “techy” by most, there are times when I can be somewhat of a luddite when new advancements come along. In the deafening buzz going on about the possibilities of MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, etc., my inner hippie wanted to shout, “Don’t you people unchain yourselves from the Internet to get a breath of fresh air every now and then?”

I suppose this sounds strange coming from someone whose career is centered on the Internet and search engine behavior. But I’m also in Client Services, which means that in addition to being online all day, my job is also about communication and interaction. My fear is that at some point, the constantly expanding digital communication opportunities will ultimately turn into a slippery slope leading to personal alienation and social ineptness. We’re already seeing it to some extent –break-ups via text message, fights on Facebook walls. The personal element that makes a relationship real and lasting is shrinking.

Yes, on the one hand, social media helps you stay connected – with more people, more often. I can say from firsthand experience that I’ve reconnected with many old friends thanks to Facebook. It’s fun and easy, but for the most part, it’s superficial. How many of those connections go beyond “Hi, how are you”? If there isn’t already an established relationship behind it, chances are your connections in social media won’t go much further than that. And in a world where time is precious, is that really the best use of it? It’s also too temptingly easy to save the tough, awkward stuff for online, where no one can see you blush, or hear your voice quiver. But those are exactly the conversations that need to happen in person – they make you who you are, and provide invaluable training for personal and business interactions down the road.

I’ll put my search marketing hat back on and say that social media can be a valuable tool for brands looking to connect in new and fresh ways. In fact, the great parallel between marketers running a social media campaign and individuals connecting with friends online is that you can’t put all your eggs in one basket and expect to do your best. Brands need to have a presence in traditional marketing channels as well as online, and people should invest in quality face-time with friends instead of just Twittering their lives away.

I encourage everyone, marketers and individuals alike, to step away from the computer and engage in real, face-to-face communication every now and then. Nothing can replace the facial expressions and subtle intonations that come with the real thing, no matter how many smiley faces and LOLs you insert.

How to Brand Yourself as a Thought Leader through Podcasting

Podcasts may not have become “the new blog” that some experts touted them as early in 2005, but many savvy marketers are utilizing podcasting as part of their web strategy to achieve a variety of communications goals.

According to a 2006 Neilson Research study, 6.6% of the U.S. adult online population had downloaded an audio podcast within the previous 30 days. Popular topics run the gamut from comedy to news, marketing to parenting, sports to gaming, technology to cooking and everything in between. The audience for podcasts is huge, but they have definite demands – few, or no, advertisements and interesting, fun or useful content.


Getting Started – Brainstorming Content

1. Decide upon a tone for your program.

If you’re going to be speaking to a podcast audience – and particularly a consumer audience – it’s important to stay away from a heavy “advertising” tone, but you can still get your message across within some creatively communicated content. One way marketers can do this is by creating content relevant to their brand that would be of broad interest to listeners without specifically referencing the brand, and then inviting listeners to visit their brand website for more information on the subject. This sets the tone as informative and useful without being pushy or product-focused. Another way, particularly for business audiences, is to present a case study that speaks to a current, interesting topic. Invite a client to talk with you about how, together, you have dealt with a challenge or successfully implemented a strategy that is directly related to the subject of the podcast. Without being obviously promotional, you can still get the idea across that your product or service might be of value to the listener.

2. Brainstorm overarching content ideas that can be continually updated and revisited over time.

You don’t have to stick with one topic that’s covered in every podcast. You should strategize ways to change the focus regularly while still maintaining the ability to fit your brand message into the content. Sometimes just changing the format of the segment will keep things interesting for listeners. For example, go from a single speaker format to an interview format to a Q&A format, etc., to switch things up a bit. A marketer promoting an all-natural plant fertilizer, for instance, might have a program lineup that includes a segment on gardening tips for the season, then an interview with a landscape engineer, then a Q&A session during which the speaker answers frequently asked questions about soil conditions, then a discussion with some gardening hobbyists, and then a segment on organic gardening, etc. An underlying brand message can be communicated throughout any of these content ideas.


Producing your Podcast

1. Research audio recording options and decide upon a solution that works best for your needs.

There are many packaged solutions available that allow non-expert users to easily record and edit audio files. You’ll likely need to purchase a decent microphone, and perhaps some software, to get started. Another option is working with a production company to create your segments from start to finish. Depending on your goals and budget, there are many options available that make it easy for anyone to get a podcast going.

2. Create your RSS Feed

Once you’ve created your podcast, the next step is to create the RSS, or Real Simple Syndication, file. This allows listeners to subscribe to your podcast via their feed reader, so your content is distributed automatically to your listeners each time you upload a new podcast. There are many tools available for helping to create RSS feeds, including Podcast RSS Feed Generator and ListGarden RSS Feed Generator.

Promoting your Podcast

Make sure to add your podcast feed to the many online directories that maintain searchable lists. Podcast Alley, Podcast.net, iTunes, and even Yahoo are just some of the websites you can visit to submit podcast feeds.


The Payoff

Think of podcasting as a public relations tool more so than an advertising vehicle. The idea is to reinforce your brand messaging within content that is interesting, on a continuing basis, to your target audience. If speaking to consumer audiences, you can position your brand as an innovative, hip and fun contributor in the Web 2.0 environment, or as a solid, reliable source of important information. For business audiences, you can position your company or team members as thought leaders, industry experts, or sought after sources for ideas and information about your particular product, service or business area. Ask your PR partner to make sure that editors covering your industry are aware of your podcast and you may find that your content will inspire valuable coverage in your target media as well. Mention your website as a resource for more information about your topics to drive additional traffic from your listeners.


Some podcasts to check out

Take a look at the online directories mentioned above to check out some successful podcast programs that may inspire your own podcasting ideas. Here are some favorites from the DBE team.

• Manager Tools – a weekly podcast focused on management and leadership strategies.


• HBR IdeaCast – Harvard Business Review’s bi-weekly podcast addressing current topics of interest to the business world.


• The Onion Radio News – a daily podcast of short news clips from The Onion, a popular opinion news website


• The Word Nerds – a podcast focusing on language and wordplay


• NPR Technology – National Public Radio’s technology program


• Grist Environmental News - Weekly podcast on environmental issues and information about green living

Maximize Conversions with Improved Landing Page Design

Landing pages are critical to a pay-per-click campaign. They play a key role in network assigned quality scores, so they have to be highly relevant to your keywords. Making sure the keyword appears at least twice on the landing page is a good start.

They’re also your first (and possibly last) chance to make a good impression on someone who clicked through your ad, so they have to be informative, easy-to-read attention grabbers. Place key information at the top of the page or above-the-fold at the bottom of the screen since that’s where most eyes will gravitate.

Most importantly, if you have conversion goals, your landing page has to guide your new-found audience to buy that widget, sign up for that newsletter, and/or take whatever action it is you want them to take. So how do you get visitors from Point A, clicking the ad, to Point B, completing the conversion?

1. Don’t make them hunt for what they came for.
If it’s possible, make sure they can take the action from your landing page. If your landing page is a product information page, have a “Buy Now” or “Add to Cart” button. If it’s not possible to take the action from the landing page, then your conversion page should be no more than one click away, and it should be obvious how to get to it. For example, you may not want to land on a newsletter sign up form, but your landing page should have a clearly visible “Sign Up for Our Free Newsletter” link that takes someone to the form.

2. Deliver on your promises.
It’s also critical that if you’ve advertised a promotion of some kind (coupon, discount, free gift, etc.) it should be prominently reiterated on the landing page. Land on a “Special Offers” page if you need to. If someone clicks on an ad because of a promotion or special offer, then doesn’t see that information when they get to your page, they’re likely to leave without converting.

3. When in doubt, test it out!
Remember that the major search engines allow you to run multiple ad copy variations. Use this to test different ad copy, promotions, and landing pages. Run a “10% off” ad that lands on a special offer page against a “low price” ad that lands on the product information. See which has a better click-through rate and which has a better conversion rate. Try the Google Website Optimizer to test different landing page concepts- text, images, calls-to-action, page layout, etc. Small tweaks can make a big difference in your results. Google’s free tool can give you great insight into what concepts your customers respond to. You can then use all that information to create a more relevant and effective user experience from ad to landing page to conversion.

To learn more about creating a high quality landing page, including information on how page loading time affects your AdWords Quality Score, visit the Google AdWords Help Center.

Negative SEO: Can my competitors hurt my website's rankings?

Scenario 1:

When explaining the role that quality inbound links play in improving a site’s visibility, we are often asked, “Will my competitors be able to hurt my website’s rankings by creating bad inbound links to my site?” The concept of sabotaging a competitor’s site via link spam (bad inbound links) is known as “negative SEO.”

How do the search engines view this situation?

This is what Google tells us:

What can I do if I'm afraid my competitor is harming my ranking in Google?

There's almost nothing a competitor can do to harm your ranking or have your site removed from our index. If you're concerned about another site linking to yours, we suggest contacting the webmaster of the site in question. Google aggregates and organizes information published on the web; we don't control the content of these pages.

“Almost nothing” isn’t much comfort if you suspect your website is being spammed by a competitor.

Yahoo, on the other hand, has gone ahead and added a feature in Yahoo Site Explorer which allows users to report any inbound link that looks like spam.

Yahoo explains how they will use the data in its Site Explorer FAQ section:

Yahoo uses the information to improve their spam filters and prevent your site from being mistakenly associated with link farms.

It would be great if Google added this as a feature as well.

If you want to encourage Google to follow suit in adding this feature, you can request it here. Google has been good at listening to webmaster requests in the past. Hopefully, it will listen to you and add this feature soon!

Scenario 2:

Anyone can report websites suspected of spam to Google. What if, say, one of your competitors files false reports against your site multiple times? Will it raise the flag to Google to penalize your site as a bad site?

Rest assured that this is not possible! Googler Adam Lasnik explains:

Spamfighting does not factor in a ’popularity of the commons‘ scheme whereby if [x] people vote a site off the Google Island, it is ceremoniously dumped into /dev/null.

Put more directly: Having someone (or even 42 MILLION people) report a site as spam will not change how we view a site. Our spam report, rather, helps us to become aware of pages violating our guidelines that we might not yet have crawled... enabling us to have another datapoint in our search quality efforts.

As long as your website offers quality content designed to help your visitors which follows the search engine quality quidelines, you have little reason to worry about your competitors hurting you in search sphere. The best way to invest your time and energy if you want to keep/increase your share of the search marketing pie is to focus on optimizing your website using white hat strategies.

Fear of a Google Planet?

First the earth, then the moon, and now the sky – sometimes it really seems like Google wants it all…

Just last week, Google announced its acquisition of DoubleClick for $3.1-billion, beating out rival bidder Microsoft. According to the New York Times, “The sale offers Google access to DoubleClick’s advertisement software and, more importantly, its relationships with Web publishers, advertisers and advertising agencies.” This gives Google clear entry into the display ads market and reinforces the company’s domination in the online advertising business.

One issue complicating the merger is that DoubleClick owns Performics, one of the largest SEO firms in the business. Some critics have suggested that this ownership poses a conflict-of-interest for Google and that the Internet juggernaut should quickly divest itself of the firm. For their part, Google says it has “no plans to dispose of it [Performics] at this time” and Performics says it will continue to “operate as a separate business unit as we review product integration opportunities.” The rest of the search industry will just have to wait and see.

For additional insight into Google’s plans for expansion (and for possible world domination), Mashable has a fantastic write-up on the ten markets Google wants to win. From search marketing and social networking to office software and mobile applications, the sky may not be the limit for Google.

Update - April 2, 2008 - Google announced that it will sell Performics to a third-party. Tom Phillips, director of DoubleClick integration, revealed in a statement on the Google blog,"It’s clear to us that we do not want to be in the search engine marketing business. ... We believe this [the sale of Performics] will allow us to maintain objectivity and the search marketing business to continue to grow and innovate and serve its customers." This is sure to be a relief for many in the industry.

SMX Retrospective

Don’t know what it is about Friday afternoons that starts me reflecting on things but here I am again writing another blog. Today’s thoughts harken back to last week’s SMX West conference in Santa Clara…

The concept (or conceit) of conferences like this and SES is to run concurrent sessions to provide attendees options based on areas of discipline (SEO, SEA, Social Media, etc.) and levels of expertise (from novice to veteran). This obviously creates more opportunities for attendees but it never fails that at least two of the sessions I am most interested in attending are scheduled at the same time. Some of the highlights from the sessions I could attend that are still top of mind:

• Year over year growth of Internet advertising (which includes search) is projected to be +22%
• Representatives from all 3 major search engines concur that they are all trying to improve relevancy and user experience for both SEO and SEA
• Marketers are starting to see the big opportunity for search is targeting the lifestage/lifestyle searches that lie beyond the “occasion-based” queries

Of course, I also attended Niki’s session on Proactive Search Engine Reputation Management that is recapped nicely in this coverage at Search Engine Roundtable’s site. I know I’m biased, but her presentation was excellent. If you’d like to see for yourself, please log on to Facebook to view a video clip from Niki’s presentation.

I spent time working at the SEMPO booth and enjoyed the exchanges with fellow members and non-members alike. Many of these people were also in attendance at perhaps the most intriguing session of the conference – “Is It Time For Search Marketing Standards?” While most people say yes in theory, the session revealed the many obstacles that need to be overcome to achieve this – not the least of which is agreeing on the basic definitions of search services. I really believe this topic is critical to improving our industry’s marketing credibility and look forward to working with my SEMPO colleagues to make this happen.

Finally, I have to admit to the culture and temperature shock of returning from a week in the somewhat sedate, sunny, and warm environs of California to the cold, brisk hustle and bustle of the East Coast. But I love it here and would never consider living anywhere else…

What Your Company Should Know Before Editing Wikipedia

Here’s what you may already know about Wikipedia:

• Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit.
• With 9,000,000+ entries in more than 250 languages, Wikipedia is one of the largest reference sites on the Web.
• Wikipedia ranks highly on the search engines for nearly every topic it has an entry about. Some research indicates that more than 95% of Wikipedia entries rank in the top 10 on Google.

Since its foundation, many marketers have jumped at the chance to use Wikipedia for building links to their Web sites, editing/creating copy about their company or product, and inserting brand references into entries. However, as Wikipedia grows more sophisticated, it is easier for editors to monitor for these abuses. Microsoft, Exxon Mobil, the FBI, Fox News, Coca Cola and even the Vatican are among the many groups which stand accused of making self-interested edits.

Here’s what you need to know before editing Wikipedia articles about yourself or your company:

• Companies and individuals are strongly discouraged from editing entries about themselves, or placing self-serving content in other entries due to conflict of interest. Companies caught doing so risk having their IP block banned from making further edits, and many have experienced negative PR backlash from Wikipedia or in the media.
• Wikipedia is not as user-friendly and open as it initially presents itself to be. While it’s true that anyone can edit, there is a user hierarchy. Some users have greater authority and administrative rights based on their prior contributions -- most notably the power to block other users from the site, either temporarily or permanently.
• All changes and comments are logged for permanent public viewing. According to Wikipedia’s privacy policy, “If you write something, assume that it will be kept forever. This includes articles, user pages and talk pages.”
• Inappropriate changes are usually removed quickly (although a record of the edit remains), and repeat offenders blocked from editing.
• User accounts cannot be deleted and are forever linked to their edits via their username and/or IP address. The IP addresses of non-registered contributors are publically listed. For logged in/registered users, administrators have the ability to view IP addresses. Tools are also available to identify edits by corporate IP block. The use of IP-anonymizing tools is controversial and may get you banned from Wikipedia.

Process for Ethically Editing a Wikipedia Entry that’s about Your Company:

Step 1: Choose one person to be your representative on Wikipedia. This person should review the site’s standards and guidelines for editing. Next, register for a user account and add a brief statement to the account’s User Page which explains any conflict of interest. Example: “Please note that I am an employee of [Insert Company Name].”

Step 2: Post a comment on the Talk Pages of the entry which states what revisions you would like to make and why. Be sure to cite relevant sources. While it’s OK to correct vandalism or blatant errors on your own, for major edits and content additions it’s safer to ask the community to make the change for you.

Step 3: If discussing the issue on the Talk Pages does not help, post a complaint to the Open Ticket Request System (OTRS). OTRS volunteers will respond to your query and intervene as appropriate.

Step 4: You may also want to revise company policy to prohibit non-authorized employees from making edits to Wikipedia entries about your company, its representatives and its competitors.

The key is to be open and honest about who you are and how you are trying to improve the entry. Wikipedia’s editors want to make the site the best reference tool it can be and, by playing by the rules and suggesting relevant edits, you can help them work toward that goal.

Have you taken steps to monitor and/or improve your company’s presence on Wikipedia? Has your experience with Wikipedia been a positive or a negative one? Leave a comment to share your insights.

Social Media and the Rising Workforce: What Does the Web Say About You?

I have to admit it – I’m glad I made it out of school and into the working world before the likes of MySpace, Facebook and YouTube took over the Web. Back in the “old days” getting hired depended on a well-crafted resume, good references and a great interview. Other than what your references said and some intuition on the part of the interviewer, you had ultimate control over your image and the impression that you made. It goes without saying that putting together a great resume, gathering solid references and nailing the interview are still important, but they’re not the only things to consider anymore.

Today, with the glut of personal information that is available online, it is too easy (and too tempting) for a potential employer to learn oh-so-much-more about you than a piece of paper and an interview would ever reveal. A quick search on your name might bring up a MySpace page with a picture of you doing a keg stand at a college party. Or, for those of you who graduated college long before social media (dare I say, long before the Internet, even!) perhaps you’ve posted an unflattering rant on a political site or a scathing review on a consumer site. The fact of the matter is that, yes, we’ve all had fun and done stupid things in our youth, or flown off the handle in the heat of the moment, but never before has it been so easy to publicize it to the masses. And once something’s out there on the Web, it can be close to impossible to get rid of it.

While I’d like to think that most employers, remembering their own escapades, wouldn’t hold it against you, you can’t bet on it. That’s why I encourage any job seeker to check out their online presence in addition to prepping their resume and brushing up on interview skills. Do some ego-surfing by searching for variations of your name on Google to see what turns up or set Google Alerts for your name. While some things can’t be removed, some can be fixed. For example, keep your personal profiles private (accessible by friends only), and instead, create publicly viewable professional profiles on networking sites like LinkedIn, ZoomInfo and Naymz.

I’ve been focusing on how social media can negatively impact the hiring process, but let’s not forget about how it can help you land a job. You can show your smarts and your interest in your particular industry by taking the time to comment on relevant blogs, creating your own blog, joining a Facebook Group, or contributing to a Wiki entry about your specialty. As mentioned above, creating professional profiles on key networking sites will also help expand your positive presence and spread the word about your expertise and your job seeking status. These are all great ways to show that you are engaged and passionate about what you do and may help you stand out from the crowd. They may also help to push down any “less than favorable” listings that show up for your name.

The beauty of Web 2.0 is that everyone has a say. Just think twice about what you choose to say, as it can make or break your chances when it comes time to get a job.

Social Media Interview—WSJ

I was interviewed by Laura Lorber of The Wall Street Journal about integrating social media into the marketing mix recently.

We talked about how organizations of all sizes are beginning to explore Web 2.0 enabled technologies and the information exchanges they enhance. For a fast and interesting read, check out this posting on The Wall Street Journal and be sure to read through the comments below Ms. Lorber’s blog post … it’s a great window into the way many businesspeople are thinking quite narrowly about social media, limiting it to MySpace and other digital outposts popular with younger audiences.

We’re advising our clients to expand their consideration of social media beyond the very consumer-focused solutions and to think about becoming more engaged with Digg, Yahoo Answers, and other digital outposts that can help fortify their brands and build audience awareness. And some social media profiles, such as company profiles in Facebook, are actually picked up by the search engines and help with reputation management and SEO.

Build a Positive Brand Image with Yahoo Answers

Yahoo Answers is the knowledge sharing Q&A based social network. With 400 million answers, all searchable in its archives, Yahoo Answers is the second-most-visited education/reference site on the Internet after Wikipedia, according to comScore.

There are many professionals and business owners providing valuable knowledge and experiences on Yahoo Answers. By identifying yourself as such and providing great answers, you are building credibility and positive brand image for your business.

Each Yahoo Answers form comes with a section for listing web sites as references to the answer. These links are shown to result in referring traffic to the sites of those users who answer with in depth and accurate answers. And Yahoo answers are included in Yahoo search results and Mobile search results too. All these will add more traffic to your site.

How to make this work:

• Make sure your site has good content on the subject area. It is very important that your site is relevant to the subject area.


• Setup an RSS feed. It will send you the questions in your subject area as a feed to your computer. It is very easy to setup




• Using the Advanced search feature, enter the keywords that people may use in their questions that are relevant to your subject area, and choose to see only open questions and click the Search button.


• In the search results page, you will see an RSS button.


• Subscribe to the feed and add it to your feed reader.

• Check your feed reader once a day.


• Answer the question and add a link to your site with your signature. (Without your signature, you may be considered as a spammer. So, it is advisable to leave your signature)

As with any social media site, focus first on what you can give to the community rather than what you can get from it. When used correctly, Yahoo Answers can be a great source of direct referral traffic, as well as indirect search engine traffic.

How to Make Friends like Tila Tequila: 5 Tips for Social Media Networking

Before MTV let Tila Tequila have “A Shot at Love", the model/actress/musician's #1 claim to fame was having the most Friends of any artist on MySpace.

While it's easy to attribute Tila's mass appeal to her status as a bisexual bikini model, there's no shortage of similarly branded ladies on the Internet who don’t have upwards of 2.5 million friends. Tila’s social media networking success is not an accident.

Here’s what marketers can learn about social media networking by following Tila's example:

1. Know where your brand fits in.

After being kicked off of Friendster multiple times, Tila Tequila moved her online presence over to the newly created MySpace. With its somewhat flashy and trashy feel, Tila fit right in. It’s hard to imagine her finding the same success on a site such as Facebook. Due to the site’s “preppy” image and the restrictions Facebook places on whose profile users can view, Tila would have been hard-pressed to build a fan-base on the same scale. When selecting a social media outpost for your brand, don’t just go for the biggest or newest site out there. Try to find a social media site which fits your brand’s style and puts you in touch with the right audience for your message.

2. Don't be shy.

You can’t sit around waiting for “friends” to come to you. Reach out to your real life contacts, post an invite on your main Web site, and interact with the social network’s existing members. Tila started her MySpace fandom by inviting 30,000 to 50,000 of her closest friends to join her at the site. "Once they saw how I worked it, everyone did what I did and started promoting themselves," she told Time Magazine. "That's how you maintain your popularity and keep it alive."

3. Engage other users.

The biggest issue marketers have in adjusting to the social media is the “social” aspect. You have to pay attention to what your fans, customers and critics are saying and respond in kind. Not only does this force marketers to relinquish some control over their message, it requires a tremendous amount of resources to monitor the conversation and stay involved. Not everyone is willing to put in the effort but, for those who do, the payoff can be huge. According to Tila’s interview in Time, "There's a million hot naked chicks on the Internet. There's a difference between those girls and me. Those chicks don't talk back to you."

4. Keep things fresh.

Who would you rather spend time with: The guy who, when asked what he did over the weekend, says “Nothing, just hung around the house” or the guy who always seems to have something new and exciting happening in his life? I’m going to bet that most people pick the second guy.

This principle applies as much in online communities as it does in the real world. If you want to attract attention and keep people coming back for more, you have to update your profile or blog on a regular basis. Even after all these years, Tila provides frequent updates to her MySpace profile and has even created the “Tila Zone," a site that offers clipart, layouts and widgets for use on other social networks.

5. Don't forget the community.

Too many marketers make the mistake of abandoning an online community once the campaign ends. Even though she’s hit the big time with a reality TV show, an album, a clothing line and various other ventures, Tila tells PunkTV.ca, "[It's] not just about the numbers for me, it’s about the fans, the interaction, and I am talking to them everyday. …. It is unbelievable that so many people are interested in what I do. I love them for it so I always try to leave everyone comments back. Especially those really loyal fans that help me spread the word about my music and page."

So if posting pictures of yourself posing in a bikini hasn’t worked, try Tila’s secret to social media success: Find a place where you can fit in and build a real relationship with the community.

Musings on Politics and Search

And then there were two?

This morning’s news about the potential acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft/MSN struck me as remarkably similar to what happened earlier this week in the Presidential Primaries – one drops out to let the other two have at it.

Taking this analogy a little further, it’s actually more like Giuliani (Yahoo) dropping out and throwing his weight for McCain (Microsoft) who, if he does get the nomination, faces the prospect of a Democratic juggernaut (Google) in the general election this fall. Then there’s the potential for an independent like Bloomberg (Ask) to jump into the fray and stir things up even further. Dare I compare the fading Ron Paul to AOL?

Of course, we’ve heard these rumors about Yahoo and MSN before. Isn’t it a little ironic that they resurface on Groundhog Day Eve?

Tired of spin?

The “spin” of politics these days is incessant as everyone tries to cast the best light on their version of things – whether it’s numbers or snubs. That’s one thing we don’t have too much need for here at DBE. Our clients’ traffic is up or it’s not. Their keyword visibility is up or it’s not. (Note: we have never had a client not up over baseline but you get the idea.) And we don’t rely on straw polls or exit polls with margins of error that make the findings meaningless. We have hard, real time data in the form of impressions, clicks, CTRs and conversions. Having come out of the advertising arena where subjectivity and spin often made it second to last on lists for credibility (used car salesmen being the bottom; not sure where politicians fit in), it is refreshing to now be in search marketing where the results speak loudly and clearly for themselves.

PS – You can now cast your votes for our blog by “Digg-ing” it or by submitting your write-in comments.

Changing URL

Time and again, we come across webmasters that change their Web site page URLs – either as a result of upgrade of the site platform (for example, from classic ASP to ASP .NET 2.0), or to change the site structure, or for some other marketing reason.

In most cases, these webmasters don’t realize how these changes impact the optimization of the site and don't take the proper steps to mitigate the effects. When they change the page URLs, the search engines won’t be able to detect the association between the new URL and the old URL on their own. Instead, the search engines simply drop the old the URLs from their indexes and start indexing the new ones. The pages will be treated as new completely new pages by the search engines--and the link popularity they have attained is lost. This causes the site to lose its search engine rankings, resulting in a probable loss of visitors and sales.

What is the Solution?

Implement 301 redirects. A 301 redirect typically tells a search engine that page A (the old URL) is moved permanently to page B (the new URL). A search engine will see the 301 status code and log that page with the new location. With 301 redirect, over time, the search engine would replace the original URL with the new URL in the search results, as well as transfer all or most of the links and signals associated with the original URL to the new URL. This process happens quickly in Google. Yahoo is usually next to pick up on this and, although Ask.com is slower, they eventually get it as well. MSN/Live is working to improve their indexing capabilities in this area.

Concluding Thoughts

When you consider making changes to your website -- whether it is a major revamp of the site or just minor changes -- consult with your SEO agency, and plan the steps carefully. Whether it is site wide 301 redirect, or individual pages, professional SEOs will be able to help outline the best course of action, and will be able to make sure that your search engine rankings are affected as little as possible, if at all.

Changing Years

As we embark on another new year, it occurs to me that there are 3 types of people when it comes to “change.”

We all know the two types on either end of the spectrum: the change agents and the change averse.

The change agents are the drivers of change. They live for it, they thrive on it. They’re the ones who pull up in the new car every other time you see them; the ones whose address you need to check before sending out holiday cards. The ones who buy the latest gadgets because they’re cool and then figure out how to incorporate them into their lives.

The change makers’ polar opposite are the change averse. You know them too: if they’re not in their childhood home, they’re probably in the same neighborhood they grew up in. Same car, same circle of friends. And technology? Yeah, they have a cell phone, but it’s never charged. Sure they have a computer but they just got dial up—you know because they keep sending you chain letters and pleas to help some needy soul. Sometimes these folks are motivated by being green or saving money, but usually they just don’t like the discomfort that comes with learning new things and they create a cocktail of laziness, fear and resignation.

And then there is the third type—the silent majority. They go with the flow, meaning they adapt and adopt, but it’s because “everyone else” is doing it and unlike the truly change averse, they fear being left behind more than they fear the advances themselves.

This is the bucket in which you will find people advancing in years. While the Millennials are quick to incorporate Facebook, YouTube, and mobile search into their daily lives—hell, they don’t know a world without the Internet—their parents are slowing down, as people tend to do, and saying they just don’t see the need for social media, GPS or the new e-book devices, though they begrudgingly start a Facebook page that they seldom visit and fiddle with the navigation device in their new car. And sometimes they actually fall in love with something, like DVR, and become its biggest evangelists.

I find myself wondering how or when the Millennials will become like their parents regarding change—is the avoidance mindset an inevitable part of the aging process? (Will we even continue to age or will science help us avoid that changing?).

And more and more I ask myself how I can keep being in the change seekers group as my bandwidth becomes crowded with all the stuff I need to remember. I find I more carefully weigh which new new thing I need or want and how it will truly advance the ball for me…I confess I was having a hard time getting my head around Facebook, LinkedIn, and Digg, wondering why I would share myself with new “friends” and to what end. But once I had a core group of people connected to me—some old, some new—I saw that social media does ease the effort of staying connected, and makes sharing ideas fun. I dodged the avoidance bullet by making myself try something new.

Well, anyway, I thought these were some things to be thinking about as we transition from 2007 into 2008. And, BTW, Hammacher Schlemmer’s ebook device starts shipping January 11. Will you be blogging about it on January 13, waiting for the reviews, or carrying a stack of books around with you on the train?

Happy 2008 everyone!

Give Back This Holiday Season

When caught up in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season – whether you’re rushing to holiday lunches, fighting your way through mall traffic, scrambling to find the right presents, or planning around a holiday party – it’s easy to overlook the spirit of giving that makes this time of year so wonderful.

Putting a twist on the traditional employee-to-employee gift giving, the DBE team modified our Secret Santa plans this year to give contributions to charities that are important to our team members instead of buying gifts for each other. Each of us made a list of our 3 favorite charities and/or causes and put our lists into a box. We each chose a Secret Santa recipient from the box and made a financial contribution to one of the organizations that he or she listed. At our holiday dinner earlier this week, we shared with each other which organizations we donated to and taught each other a little about their charitable missions.

Some of the organizations we contributed to include:

• CASA of New Jersey - Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteers ensure that children in foster care have a voice in court proceedings that determine their fates.
• Make It Right Foundation - Helping build sustainable and high quality homes at an affordable price for the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
• National Breast Cancer Foundation - Provides ongoing educational programs and funding for free mammograms to women who cannot afford them.
• Udavum Karangel – Provides support to orphans and people in distress in India, including the donation of food, educational materials and health care.
• National Center for Missing & Exploited Children – Helps to prevent child abduction and exploitation and provides assistance to victims and their families.
• The Bridge School – Assists children with severe speech and physical impairments by providing educational programs to facilitate the use of augmentative and alternative means of communications and assistive technology.
• Children’s Wish Foundation – Provides once-in-a-lifetime experiences to children diagnosed with life threatening illnesses.
• Coats for Kids – Provides new winter coats to children in need to both keep children warm and healthy as well as to foster self esteem.

Additionally, our team will be going to help out at Mercer Street Friends Food Bank in the beginning of 2008, as they indicated they have a great need for volunteer assistance after the holidays. We’re glad to have done some good in the world during this holiday season and look forward to the volunteer activities we have scheduled for early next year as well!

To all our blog readers, DBE wishes you the very best during the holidays and throughout the New Year. See you in 2008!

The “Search Marketing” Forest

The Marketing Executive Network Group (MENG) just released its first annual survey of its members on marketing trends and buzzwords. Top-Line: Search
Engine Optimization (SEO) is now clearly recognized as an important trend across both consumer and b2b markets. But I see a much more underlying significance in the survey results…

Please first understand the significance of the survey participants – 31% were Owner/Partners, 22% were C-Level Executive Management and 31% were VP level/Senior Management. That’s 84% of the respondent pool who are either the actual decision-makers or are high-level decision influencers.

So what’s on the mind of these leaders?

Well, again, at first glance, “SEO” is the second most important concept (topped only by a hodge-podge of “marketing basics”). The bigger story here, as revealed in the highlighted chart below, is that 6 of the top 10 marketing trends identified by these high-level marketers include elements of what we at DBE are now calling “search marketing.”





How is search marketing different than search engine optimization? Take a look at all the following marketing buzzwords/concepts used by the MENG survey respondents to describe the marketing trends highlighted. These themes were identified independently of SEO by the survey respondents. Yet, we believe all 19 can be grouped together with SEO and, as such, demonstrate our expansive definition and rationale for “search marketing:”

Lead Generation
Personalization (1 to 1 marketing)
E-commerce
Competitive Intelligence
Fragmentation of Media
Leading through Analytics
Experiential/Emotive Branding
Importance of “Stories”
Viral Marketing
Word of Mouth
Blogging
Web 2.0
Mobile Communications
SNS (Social Network Sites)
CGM (Consumer Generated Media)
Electronic Media
Long Tail
Segmentation*
Marketing ROI*

*Note: the last two were actually ascribed to the Marketing Basics trend but most certainly apply to search marketing.

Here’s the bottom-line bad news/good news as I see it for our clients and others engaged in SEO:

Bad News: SEO is clearly out of the closet and, as a result, the battle for natural rankings is going to get more competitive as more of the 85% of sites that are not yet optimized begin to get engaged.

Good News: Most marketers have not yet grasped that SEO is only one dimension of the search marketing prism. In other words and to shift to another metaphor, while they have identified a number of the new tactical trends/trees, they don’t yet see these are all part of the larger search marketing strategy/forest. And that’s good news because we do see the forest and are already working with our clients to seize the opportunities therein.

Quick Thoughts on the SEA Ad Networks’ New Features

Google continues to show why they are the market leader:

• They’ve finally worked CPC bidding into their Placement Targeted (formerly Site Targeted) ad system. This is much more in-line with the rest of the AdWords program. I greatly prefer it to antiquated CPM bidding since you now only pay when someone clicks through to your site, and the price of that visitor is more controlled and predictable.
• Speaking of their Placement Targeting- I haven’t had the chance to set a new campaign up yet, but I’m looking forward to trying it out and seeing the results. I think targeting specific pages and locations within sites will lead to big improvements in click-through and conversion.
• The new reports and report options are fantastic. Impression share stats are probably my favorite new toy, as they show exactly how much traffic my clients could be getting. That’s incredibly useful in managing bids, and making budget recommendations. The Search Query Performance report is also rapidly moving up my list as I clean up campaigns. Being able to see the searches that triggered ads provides potential new keywords or negative keywords. Either way, I can use that information to refine the campaign to gain more traffic and higher qualified clicks.
• The only new addition that I don’t care for is Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA) bidding. I’ve spent months undoing the damage caused by the Budget Optimizer (or Budget Obliterator as I like to call it) and Preferred CPC bidding (which continually drove my average CPC up.) I’ve learned to not trust my clients’ accounts to Google’s automated management tools, so I have no intention of letting them position ads or back me into a CPC based on conversions.
  

Although still second best, Yahoo continues to improve:

• Their recent changes have made account set-up a much faster and more streamlined process.
• Managing spending limits and account status is also much easier.
• With one exception, I love the new ad entry system which allows for quick composition and editing. The exception is their “ad name” field. If you didn’t name an ad, they used to take the ad group name and put a number after it. They’ll still do that for the first ad you write, but if you have multiple ads, you have to manually enter an ad name for each subsequent ad, and you can’t save your ads without it. It’s an unnecessary hindrance to an otherwise excellent process.

Microsoft’s AdCenter shows why they remain a distant third.

• Their interface is slow, cumbersome, and unintuitive pretty much every step of the way.
• 1. Create and run report. 2. Leave for lunch. 3. Come back and keep waiting for results.
• However, I have to give credit where credit is due… I tore into a support rep a few months ago because their Keyword Insertion features didn’t support substitute text for keywords that exceed character limits, leading to numerous ad declines. It shows how poorly designed and implemented their program was. They took that feedback though, and have now added substitute text to the Dynamic Insertion feature. So kudos to Microsoft for listening to me and everyone else who no doubt was complaining. Now if they only would act on the other problems…

PROACTIVE Reputation Management—a New Insurance

There’s been a lot of talk lately about using search engine optimization techniques to repair reputations damaged by negative listings that appear in the search engines’ natural listings. If you’re not sure what I mean by a negative natural search listing, enter “Paypal” as a search term on Google and check out the listings for information that works against the brand. (Or see a screen capture from 10-23-07 at the end of this post.)

This technique, known as search engine reputation management (SERM) or search engine image protection (SEIP), has been around for several years but is being buzzed about more now due in large part due to the explosion of Web 2.0 applications.

In the past, disgruntled employees or dissatisfied customers had little recourse for airing their grievances outside of direct contact with the company with which they had differences. As Web 1.0 evolved, it provided more avenues for people to share their opinions about a product’s safety, poor service or a less than copasetic work environment, but even so, these complaints tended to have a limited audience—you had to be in the environment to which they were posted to find them: on a blog about consumer products, on a company’s customer discussion board, etc.

Now, with the emergence of the true interactivity and preponderance of user generated content that characterizes Web 2.0, people have many more avenues for voicing their opinions on the Web. From creating a blog specifically to air a complaint to commenting on others’ blogs to creating or adding to Wikipedia entries, to creating social media profiles (on Facebook and MySpace, for example), to creating podcasts and uploading videos—all of which, in turn, are linked to by others—people can quickly populate the Web with their tale of woe—and be guaranteed an audience.

In addition to having more places to post their opinions, Web 2.0 invites hyper-connectivity between all sorts of media, with social media like Digg and StumbleUpon enabling voting and bookmarking and other mechanisms that can propel a single post to superstardom.

And in their never-ending quest to provide the most relevant answers to search queries, search engines have been journeying deeper and deeper into the digital outposts of Web 2.0 media—and pulling into their rankings the information they find there. And, as noted, it’s not always the positive information that we used to see when the only information out there was the one-way marketing speak put out by companies, brands, and self-promoting individuals.

These recent news stories cover the topic of SERM: the Stephanie Fierman story; New York Times Archives Causing Google Nightmares, and in The Wall Street Journal Online, another story on fixing an image tarnished by search engine results.

Each talks about what a person or company did to repair the damage caused to their reputations when negative information on them found its way into search engine results, the natural listings (also called editorial listings) that the search engines populate with information they pull from a variety of sources on the Web.

While DBE has been providing these reputation repair services to select companies for the last four years, it’s always been a reaction to a discovery made by us or by the client about what was found in the search listings--after the damage has been done and a remedy was needed to present at least a fair and balanced view.

Now, however, we’re suggesting something new: proactive reputation protection, or, for you acronym lovers out there: PRP.

By leveraging the full arsenal of social media profiles, blogs, websites, and other online content sets that get picked up by the search engines (and other online media), we’re helping our clients develop online strategies that fortify their reputations and thought leadership so that if an unfortunate posting surfaces, it will be surrounded and pushed down in the search rankings by much more “evidence to the contrary” which has had a chance to be found and indexed by the search engines—lead time is frequently a good thing in the world of search.

Like other forms of insurance that you can’t be without, PRP helps you take a proactive stance in the hit and run world of Web 2.0.

Google Pagerank

There is a buzz in the search engine world regarding the recent Google PageRank drops. I would like to clarify some things for the benefit of all the webmasters out there.

Fact 1:

The PageRank that is displayed in the toolbar is not the one Google uses for its internal purposes. The PageRank displayed in the tool bar is updated infrequently and may be several weeks old, whereas the one Google uses internally is updated throughout the day as Google finds/drops the links to a site constantly.

Fact 2:

PageRank is not in direct proportion to the search traffic referred by Google. We have seen reports that sites have recieved higher Google search traffic irrespective of their PageRank fluctuations.

Fact 3:

This move by Google is to discourage the sites selling the links. Since sites which buy links look at the PageRank of the selling site to decide the authority/popularity of the site, the drop in the PageRank will clearly drive those sites away from buying links from the site.

A couple of months before, Google added the paid link report tool to allow webmasters to inform Google about sites that ar