Table of Contents
DISCLAIMER ...... 5
The Basics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ...... 6
What is SEO? ...... 6
Why You Should Care about SEO ...... 6
Can’t I just pay for a High Ranking? ...... 7
Pay‐Per‐Click ...... 7
Click Fraud ...... 7
Linking Partner ...... 7
Page Rank ...... 7
What is a Keyword? ...... 8
Keyword Density ...... 8
Sitemap ...... 8
Spider ...... 8
Meta Tag ...... 8
Blog ...... 8
Writing Articles ...... 9
Web Directories ...... 9
THE COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE ...... 10
TOP MARKETING CHALLENGES ...... 11
SEARCH & MARKETING TIDBITS & FACTOIDS ...... 11
SEARCH ENGINE USAGE DATA ...... 14
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WHERE PEOPLE FOCUS WHEN THEY CONDUCT AN ONLINE SEARCH .... 17
10 MARKETING QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF ...... 18
5 Keys to an Effective Search Engine Optimization Campaign ...... 19
Focus on Business Goals ...... 19
SEO is a Marketing Tactic ...... 20
Generate Quality Content ...... 20
Test Everything ...... 20
Strong Call to Action ...... 20
5 Website Design Tips to Increase Search Engine Appeal ...... 22
Frames...... 22
Flash ...... 22
Java‐script Navigation ...... 23
Dynamic URLs ...... 23
Image Map Navigation ...... 23
30 Link Building Tips ...... 24
CASE STUDY: How I Took a Brand New Site to a Top 10 Organic Google Ranking in Less than One Week ...... 26
The Next Frontier: Social Media Optimization ...... 29
SOCIAL NETWORKING ...... 29
BLOGGING ...... 32
HUB PAGES ...... 33
RSS FEEDS ...... 35
SOCIAL BOOKMARKING ...... 36
SOCIALMARKER.COM ...... 37 SEO PRECEPT Page | 2 http://seoprecept.com
DIGG ...... 37
STUMBLEUPON ...... 37
DEL.ICIO.US ...... 38
SCRIBD ...... 39
TECHNORATI ...... 39
SQUIDOO ...... 40
WIKIS ...... 40
VIDEOS, PHOTOS & PODCASTS ...... 41
YOUTUBE ...... 42
PODCASTING ...... 43
TWITTER ...... 44
REPUTATION MANAGEMENT ...... 44
TOP 7 KEYS TO SELCETING AN SEO PARTNER ...... 47
WEB DESIGN RESOURCES ...... 49
Top Web Design and Development Websites and Blogs ...... 49
Web Design Tools ...... 49
Blogging ...... 50
SEO RESOURCES ...... 51
General SEO Information ...... 51
SEO Blogs ...... 51
SEO Message Boards & Forums ...... 53
SEO Conferences & Conventions ...... 54
SEO TOOLS ...... 55
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FREE KEYWORD RESEARCH TOOLS ...... 55
FREE WEBSITE ANALYTICS TOOLS ...... 57
SEO TOOLS FOR COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS ...... 58
SEO TOOLS PROVIDED BY SEARCH ENGINES ...... 59
MISC. SEO TOOLS ...... 60
SEO PRECEPT CHECKLIST ...... 61
EAGER TO LEARN MORE?...... 64
5 INTERESTING & EDUCATIONAL BLOG POSTS ...... 64
About the Author ...... 66
REFERENCES ...... 67
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DISCLAIMER
This report is designed to inform the business professional about online marketing trends and statistics which may aid in making a decision regarding the utilization of search engine optimization as a marketing vehicle to attract more qualified leads. The statistics contained within this report are a combination of documented facts and estimates based on search trends and historical data and are obtained through third party sources. The search trends and statistics depicted are neither a guarantee nor a suggestion of a certain level of website traffic before or after a search optimization campaign. These statistics and trends merely indicate a potential marketing avenue which may be capitalized upon to increase awareness and reach a prospect base which may or may not be fully served currently.
SMB Consulting recommends discussing search engine optimization with a proven expert prior to engaging in any contract negotiations or the outsourcing of any marketing initiatives.
This report is an educational tool and is not intended to diagnose, troubleshoot, or give advice about any specific marketing techniques, tools, or methodologies.
© 2007‐2008 SMB Consulting, Inc.
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THE BASICS OF SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO for short) is a highly involved, somewhat lengthy, process designed to elevate an internet website’s major search engine ranking and/or positioning. The major search engines (Google, Microsoft Network (MSN), and Yahoo) make up greater than 70% of search traffic on the internet. This is a common way for people to find others, information, companies, potential business partners, etc. by entering a “keyword” or search term. Typically, the searcher will seek information on their keyword or search term and click on the top results. Thus the higher a site ranks for a given keyword or search term, the better its chances of attracting more visitors to its site.
Why You Should Care about SEO
If you run a business and have a web presence, don’t you want the most people possible knowing about that business? Wouldn’t it benefit you if your website was able to bring you new leads or develop new customers every day, 24 hours per day? Research has shown that nearly 95% of all search engine users rarely read past the first page of search results. Because of that, it behooves you to have your website on the first page of search results for specific keywords and terms.
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Can’t I just pay for a High Ranking?
No! Organic (or “free”) search listing rankings cannot be purchased. These are “earned” over time via links, content, keyword relevance, page and site descriptions, titles of pages, etc. You can pay for clicks to your website based on specific terms or keywords however these are separate results from the free results people commonly click.
Pay-Per-Click
Pay‐per‐click is a form of internet advertising where you pay a certain amount for each “click” or “hit” to your website as a result of a person searching for a certain keyword or phrase.
Click Fraud
Click fraud occurs when a person or automated computer script imitates a legitimate search for a keyword or phrase yet clicks on the pay‐per‐ click result for the sole purpose of generating revenue for the search engine or affiliate.
Linking Partner
A linking partner is a website which provides a link to your site. Some will require a link on your site to theirs in return (a reciprocal link) while others will want to have a link on a third party’s site in exchange for the link to yours. Reciprocal links aren’t as valuable as unique one way links but the more links you have pointing to your site (link popularity), the more “important” the search engines will consider your site.
Page Rank
Page Rank is Google’s proprietary algorithm for determining a site’s importance. It’s expressed as a value from 1‐10 with 10 being the most important and most desirable. The algorithm was designed by Larry Page, Google’s co‐founder. Page Rank is affected primarily by the number of links pointing to your website and the quality of the sites providing those links.
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What is a Keyword?
A keyword is a typical word or phrase you’d expect people to use when searching for your site. That’s about as simple as we can explain it.
Keyword Density
The number of keywords you use on a particular page in relation to the number of total words on that page. The more keywords you have peppered throughout the page and site, the better your site may rank for that particular term. You must be careful not to load a page with too many keywords, however—that is considered keyword “stuffing” or spamming and is frowned upon by the search engines.
Sitemap
A sitemap is basically an inventory listing of all of the pages on your site. It tells the search engines how to get around your site and also how many pages there are on your site. It can be made visible to your visitors, but it doesn’t have to be. Uploading an XML file directly to the search engines is a generally accepted best practice for optimizing your search engine rankings.
Spider
Search engines utilize small programs to surf and inventory sites all over the internet. These are called spiders, and they follow links from site to site to gather their inventory to report back to the search engine. They are also referred to as crawlers or bots from time to time.
Meta Tag
A Meta tag is an HTML piece of code which provides information about that particular page or document. These don’t provide formatting information or any actionable code—they are there for the search engines to catalog your site and the pages contained on your site.
Blog
A blog (short for weblog) is a news or journal type of site which is frequently used more for opinionated type of entries and is typically updated frequently. It is intended for general consumption but has become a valuable tool for all types of users to spread information and awareness of their websites.
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Writing Articles
Articles are a great way to increase the amount of unique content on your site as it pertains to the keywords you desire to rank well. There are numerous websites that publish articles, and it is common practice for the authors to include a link in their by‐line back to their website. This creates an inbound link to the author’s website which in turn increases its popularity. It’s also a good way to increase awareness aside from the linking benefits.
Web Directories
Directories are databases containing listings to websites based on categories and sub‐categories. Many of the search engines access directories to crawl their links to learn of new sites. Directories are an invaluable resource for search engines and can often serve to improve a site’s ranking depending upon how important the search engine weighs the directory in question. Directories may provide a link to your site often without requiring a return or reciprocal link on your site.
There you have a beginning look at SEO.
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THE COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE
Growing sales is the key to success for any size business. Aligning sales and marketing helps drive that growth. The left hand needs to know what the right hand is doing in order to achieve success.
A potential prospect needs to:
• know you're out there • understand what you do in terms that push their "hot buttons" • be able to find you
You've done the hardest part to get your doors open, but how are you going to attract a consistent prospect base to convert into customers who will consistently grow your business?
By using cost effective marketing techniques instead of "traditional" paid (i.e. expensive) advertising methods such as newspaper, magazine, television, or radio ads, you can distribute your messages without a huge initial cash outlay.
With the advent of the Internet, there are more ways than ever to market your product or service. Some are more effective than others and combining those methodologies can really pack a punch.
Living in an age of information overload and growing insensitivity to traditional advertising and marketing methodologies, standing out among the noise and clutter is paramount to achieving success in today’s business marketplace. People are actively seeking ways to opt‐ out from advertising messages of all sorts in an effort to distribute their attention to things which interest them most. With a growing number
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of entities vying for attention in an already overcrowded marketplace, those who differentiate themselves most will be the winners, and those maintaining status quo will fade from view rather quickly.
TOP MARKETING CHALLENGES
Marketing Sherpa produced a “Business Technology Marketing1” report in 2007, which outlined the biggest challenges facing marketers today. According to the report, the top marketing challenges are:
1. Marketing to a growing number of people involved in the buying process
2. Competing in lead generation across multiple media
3. Generating public relations “buzz”
4. Creating perceived value in cutting edge product benefits
5. Marketing to a lengthening sales cycle
SEARCH & MARKETING TIDBITS & FACTOIDS
What follows are statistical tidbits and market data that reinforce the notion that online search is a worthwhile marketing endeavor along with demonstrating a shift in the market place towards online media versus traditional media. In other words, it pays to have an online marketing strategy that incorporates search as a key component.
• 80% of advertisers now include the internet in their marketing mix and this is set to increase to 90% by 2008 (Outsell, Inc, February 2006).
• It is estimated that 55% of online transactions originate from search. In the travel industry nearly 75% of travel buyers used search engines before making a purchase. (Jupiter Research)
1 2007 MarketingSherpa, “Business Technology Marketing 2007-2008,” Marketers Say: Biggest Challenge slide SEO PRECEPT Page | 11 http://seoprecept.com
• Four out of 10 search engine users tend to click on links on the first page of search results, but then revise their search query or try another search engine if the results don’t satisfy their requirements. (iProspect / JupiterResearch, April 2006)
• 9 of 10 search engine users click on a result within the first 3 pages of search results. (iProspect, “Search Engine User Behavior” study, April 2006)
• 36% of search engine users believe that the companies whose websites appear at the top of search results are the top companies in that field. (iProspect, “Search Engine User Behavior” study, April 2006)
• 2 in 5 internet users 25‐44 years old associate top search results to company prominence. (iProspect, “Search Engine User Behavior” study, April 2006)
• The internet is the fastest growing advertising medium set to reach US$51.6 billion in 2010. This is nearly 10% of all global advertising. (PwC, June 2006)
• In May 2007, search engines were responsible for 25 percent of visits going to Shopping and Classifieds websites, an increase of 0.7 percent since May 2006. (HitWise, June 2007)
• Wal‐Mart received the most traffic from Black Friday advertising websites for the week ending Nov. 10, 2007 among a select group of brick and mortar stores. Sears and Best Buy received the second and third most U.S. traffic, respectively. In 2006, Best Buy, Circuit City and Sears were among offline brands to receive the most traffic from Black Friday websites. (HitWise, “Black Friday” November 15, 2007)
• Hitwise, the leading online competitive intelligence service, revealed in May 2007 that UK Internet users aged 55+, the so‐called silver surfers, are set to overtake 35‐44 year olds as the demographic age group with the largest representation online. Those
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aged 55+ accounted for 22% of UK visits to all categories of websites in the four weeks to 12th May 2007, up 54% since 2005 and 40% since 2006. This compares to 23.5% of Internet visits from 35‐44 year olds.
• 84.8% of internet users use search engines to find websites. (Georgia Tech: “Graphics, Visualization, and Usability Survey”)
• 7 of 10 consumers are looking for ways to block, opt‐ out, or eliminate advertising. (Yankelovich, 2005 Study)
• The average household today has over 100 channel choices.
• According to an Insight Express Study, 9 of 10 consumers say they “distrust” ads today.
• B2B Magazine reported that 72% of senior marketing executives worldwide planned to increase their online spending in 2006.
• In a 2004 Advertising.com study, greater than 3 of every 5 (61%) marketers considered the internet an effective media for providing measurable ROI.
• Furthermore, former Jupiter Research Analyst Gary Stein is quoted saying “68% of advertisers using the internet report confidence in their ROI.”
• In 2005, estimated spend on search advertising was $5 billion. That number is expected to double by 2010. (Geoff Ramsey, CEO, eMarketer.com)
• 89% of new vehicle buyers use a search engine or portal at some point in their research. 94% of used car buyers do so. (JD Power & Associates)
• 83% of online advertising dollars are spent on paid placements. Only 11% is spent on organic listings. (2005 SEMPO/Intellisurvey Report)
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• 61% of internet searchers think natural listings are more relevant. (iProspect Study)
• According to an Enquiro Study in 2004, business to 63% of business users demonstrated a preference for organic listings.
• In a 2005 Marketing Sherpa report, it was stated that “organic SEO gets a higher conversion rate than sponsored” listings.
• A 2005 SEMPO Study revealed that the top reasons advertisers used search engine advertising included “increasing brand awareness” (62%) and “selling brand awareness” (60%).
SEARCH ENGINE USAGE DATA
The table below shows a sample of the three largest search engines and the number of searches performed within each per month over the last couple of years.
2006 Search Data Total Searches Month Google Share Yahoo Share MSN Share Others Share (000s) JAN 5,699,528 2,747,172 48.2% 1,265,295 22.2% 626,948 11.0% 1,060,112 18.6% FEB 5,300,000 2,570,500 48.5% 1,192,500 22.5% 567,100 10.7% 969,900 18.3% MAR 5,687,010 2,900,375 51.0% 1,330,183 23.4% 643,803 11.3% 812,649 14.3% APR 5,311,298 2,655,649 50.0% 1,169,109 22.0% 570,080 10.7% 916,460 17.3% MAY 5,668,369 2,783,169 49.1% 1,298,915 22.9% 600,820 10.6% 985,465 17.4% JUNE 5,406,080 2,671,048 49.4% 1,243,621 23.0% 555,638 10.3% 935,773 17.3% JULY 5,641,937 2,775,833 49.2% 1,345,991 23.9% 542,300 9.6% 977,813 17.3% AUG 5,982,480 3,003,205 50.2% 1,434,169 24.0% 595,584 10.0% 949,522 15.9% SEP 5,652,032 2,826,016 50.0% 1,320,962 23.4% 519,259 9.2% 985,795 17.4% OCT 6,093,399 3,002,326 49.3% 1,456,269 23.9% 538,594 8.8% 1,096,210 18.0% NOV 6,258,259 3,097,838 49.5% 1,518,249 24.3% 515,526 8.2% 1,126,646 18.0% DEC 5,975,624 3,035,617 50.8% 1,412,904 23.6% 499,946 8.4% 1,027,157 17.2% AVG 5,723,001 2,839,062 49.6% 1,332,347 23.3% 564,633 9.9% 986,959 17.2% Source: Nielsen/Netratings
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Others, 17 % MSN, 10%
Google, 50 % Yahoo, 23 %
Figure 1: 2006 Search Share 2007 Search Data Total Searches Month Google Share Yahoo Share MSN Share Others Share (000s) JAN 7,192,689 3,862,374 53.7% 1,629,995 22.7% 642,694 8.9% 1,057,626 14.7% FEB 6,447,486 3,597,697 55.8% 1,332,669 20.7% 618,315 9.6% 898,805 13.9% MAR 7,107,534 3,816,746 53.7% 1,550,574 21.8% 717,056 10.1% 1,023,158 14.4% APR 6,835,203 3,773,032 55.2% 1,497,154 21.9% 612,526 9.0% 952,491 13.9% MAY 7,163,902 4,033,277 56.3% 1,540,949 21.5% 605,400 8.5% 984,276 13.7% JUNE 7,413,429 3,906,877 52.7% 1,496,137 20.2% 985,706 13.3% 1,024,709 13.8% JULY 7,774,394 4,143,752 53.3% 1,559,745 20.1% 1,057,064 13.6% 1,013,833 13.0% AUG 7,834,879 4,199,495 53.6% 1,561,903 19.9% 1,011,398 12.9% 1,062,083 13.6% SEP 7,396,589 3,994,158 54.0% 1,443,244 19.5% 890,685 12.0% 1,068,502 14.4% OCT 7,928,938 4,400,561 55.5% 1,490,129 18.8% 1,093,696 13.8% 944,552 11.9% NOV 7,372,259 4,253,794 57.7% 1,317,919 17.9% 880,550 11.9% 919,996 12.5% DEC 7,215,872 4,062,536 56.3% 1,273,688 17.7% 995,899 13.8% 883,749 12.2% AVG 7,306,931 4,003,692 54.8% 1,474,509 20.2% 842,582 11.5% 986,148 13.5% Source: Nielsen/Netratings
Others, 13%
MSN, 12%
Google, 55 Yahoo, 20% %
Figure 2: 2007 Search Share
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As evidenced by the statistics and the accompanying graphs, Google and MSN grew their percentage share of the search universe in 2007 at the expense of Yahoo and the smaller search players.
What does the above statistical breakdown mean to you? By focusing your efforts on ranking highly in the largest, most popular, search engines you will likely attract more of your desired target audience. Having these statistics to analyze further emphasizes the notion that focusing on the major search engines is worth much more of your time than worrying with the second tier players. There simply isn’t the same amount of traffic being passed through from the second tier sites.
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WHERE PEOPLE FOCUS WHEN THEY CONDUCT AN ONLINE SEARCH
Eye Tracking Study (July, 2005), courtesy of Enquiro
The graphic above is more or less a “heat map” from a study conducted in 2005 by Enquiro depicting the areas drawing the greatest concentration of attention of eyeballs when people conduct an online search. The key takeaways are that people generally don’t surf below the fold and don’t pay much attention to the pay‐per‐click ads to the right of a search result page. The top 4 or 5 results tend to get the lion’s share of attention. If a site is to benefit from any pull‐through traffic from search engines, ranking well is imperative to achieving that objective.
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10 MARKETING QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF
1. How long has your site been “live?”
2. How many leads do you currently generate from your website?
3. If your website was a billboard along a very busy interstate, would you be proud to show it to your family and friends?
4. Where does your site currently rank for “[whatever product/service you provide]?”
5. Do you actively update your website frequently with fresh content that your customers enjoy reading?
6. Do you, or someone within your firm, write articles about your business or industry every month?
7. Do you have a blog?
8. What other related online communities are you a participating member?
9. How much per year do you spend to market your business (including web design and hosting fees) online?
10. What marketing activities provide the best ROI to you?
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5 KEYS TO AN EFFECTIVE SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION CAMPAIGN
ThomasNet and Google state that “83% of today’s buyers use search engines for sourcing new products and services.” With nearly 8 billion searches performed each month (Source: Nielsen/NetRatings), search engine optimization can be an extremely powerful marketing tool to leverage in generating highly targeted and qualified leads for your business through your website.
9 of every 10 search users click on a result within the first three pages of search results (Source: iProspect, “Search Engine User Behavior Study,” April 2006). Placing a billboard in the desert doesn’t make much sense, but having a website that isn’t consistently visible in the upper rankings of search engine results pages doesn’t do a whole lot of good either. In order to achieve success, here are five strategic areas to consider bettering your odds of reaching your online marketing objectives.
Focus on Business Goals
What is your business looking to achieve over the next year to three years, and how could internet marketing contribute to reaching those objectives? The reason to ask this question is a lot of businesses dive into SEO with a goal of ranking well for a certain keyword or phrase without considering the impact on their organization. Assuming you are successful with your SEO campaign, how is your business going to handle a large influx of potential leads? What happens if people begin to order products and services online at a much SEO PRECEPT Page | 19 http://seoprecept.com
higher clip? Are your employees prepared for this, and are your technical resources capable of handling loads of traffic?
SEO is a Marketing Tactic
There are businesses out there that will scrap their existing marketing campaigns in favor of marketing exclusively online. While SEO can provide a solid ROI, it’s not a magic bullet. It’s merely another marketing technique that can provide qualified leads—don’t lose sight of that as your business sets out to attract more of its desired target audience. If anything, look at what works well today and continue with those efforts while implementing SEO instead of something ineffective.
Generate Quality Content
One of the tenets of organic search engine optimization is content generation. You want to produce quality that will separate you from your competitors and help your audience learn more about your industry. If you produce enough quality information that helps your audience, you’ll be looked upon as the go‐to resource or authority.
Test Everything
When implementing a marketing campaign of any sort, testing variables should be incorporated throughout so that the campaign can be measured. Ranking better in a search engine result page isn’t an effective measurement by itself. It’s nice to rank well, but how many more eyeballs does that ranking generate for your website, and what are those extra eyeballs doing once they visit your site? Are they doing what you want them to, or are they following a pattern that suggests change? If you don’t test and measure, you won’t have any way to answer key visitor behavioral questions to propel your business forward.
Strong Call to Action
At the beginning of any marketing campaign, there should be some set of actions you want your desired target audience to do once they interact with your organization. Make those actions crystal clear. Getting a flood of visitors to discover your site is interesting to a small degree, but what good does it do you if they don’t do anything once they visit? Having a strong call to action that you test and monitor will increase your ROI over the long haul. SEO PRECEPT Page | 20 http://seoprecept.com
While search engine optimization can be very cost effective and produce a nice marketing ROI if handled properly, it requires a strong strategic understanding of the underlying business and the potential prospects visiting your website. Following the tips outlined above can help guide you to the Promised Land with your online marketing efforts.
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5 WEBSITE DESIGN TIPS TO INCREASE
SEARCH ENGINE APPEAL
Designing a website can be a daunting task if you’re new to the game and have little time to research the proper ways to develop a site that is both user and search engine friendly. After‐all, what good is a website if no one can find you? Below are some things
to avoid if search engine traffic is a priority.
Frames
Frames are pages within a page. Search engine crawlers, spiders, or bots (small pieces of code the engines send out to inventory websites) read a frameset as one page with very little content. Just because you can’t see the frames distinctly when viewing a page online doesn’t mean the search spider sees the site as a human does. If you want to see the site as a crawler does, right click on the main area of the page in question and view the source code of that page. Avoid frames especially for main/home pages of a site.
Flash
Flash is a very cool and hip way to do a page as it can incorporate interactivity and entertainment into a site or page, but it has little value to a search crawler. The fact is a search crawler cannot read
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a Flash page or component so all of that content and interlinking you worked so hard to develop earns you nothing in terms of search value. Your viewers may love your site, but you’re unlikely to attract new viewers without the help of the search engines. One caveat: it’s okay to mix in some Flash, but stay away from pure Flash for your website if your goal is to attract the masses.
Java-script Navigation
Search crawlers can’t execute lines of code therefore they won’t be able to navigate your site if you implement a lot of Java‐script to guide users. The purpose of a crawler is to inventory a website to report back to the engine what it found. Once the search engine has a pretty good inventory of a site, it can mix that site in with the search engine results pages (SERPs) for a given keyword phrase. Try to make the crawler’s job as easy as possible by limiting the amount of scripting navigation per page. If you insist on using scripting for navigation, make sure you have some form of HTML navigation visible as well. At worst, have an HTML link on each page to an accurate site map for your site.
Dynamic URLs
Most search engines will not list dynamic URLs in their results pages. Dynamic URLs are typically used for database driven sites or script based sites. The above paragraph outlines the reasoning behind avoiding scripts, and dynamic URLs are no different. If you must use dynamic URLs, try to have a main page that doesn’t so that the search engines can find you.
Image Map Navigation
Search crawlers frequently get stuck within image maps and can’t accurately inventory your site. Stick with standard HTML navigation schemes if at all possible.
When designing your site, keep in mind that it needs to be easy to navigate for users and search engine crawlers alike. A slick site is of little use if no one can find you especially a search engine crawler.
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30 LINK BUILDING TIPS
Link building is one of the primary tenets of effective search engine optimization. To that end, here are 30 link building tips (plus a bonus) you can utilize to pole vault your site to the top of the charts.
1) Generate quality content that is worthy of linking to
2) Write articles to share on your site
3) Submit articles to online e‐zines and industry trade journals
4) Submit your site to free web directories including DMOZ
5) Start a blog
6) Create RSS feeds for your sites
7) Maintain links to all of your domains (provided you own more than one and they are legitimate)
8) Have a blog roll (links to related other sites from your blog)
9) Use trackbacks on blogs
10) Comment on blogs related to your site and topic
11) Link only to related sites that rank fairly well
12) Send link requests to webmasters of related sites
13) Join link exchange sites such as LinkMetro or GotLinks (do your homework with these types of sites; some links may be of poor quality) SEO PRECEPT Page | 24 http://seoprecept.com
14) Create a podcast (interview someone, be interviewed, share quality information)
15) Create a video
16) Host a teleseminar or webinar that requires registration
17) Create a top 10 list (people love lists!)
18) Host a free helpful tool on your site
19) Purchase a link on a high ranking site
20) Use a pay‐per‐post site
21) Add industry related news to your site
22) Report on an event that isn't getting a lot of coverage
23) Survey your clients to generate a unique free report based on the survey results
24) Generate and submit press releases
25) Join and contribute to social community sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, etc.
26) Contribute to industry forums and message board discussions; use signature to link back to your site(s)
27) Ask or answer a question to members of Yahoo Answers
28) Join and utilize social bookmarking sites such as Digg, del.ici.ous, StumbleUpon, Scribd, etc.; use signature to link back to your site(s)
29) Add your site to local government sites
30) Add your site for inclusion in local search results
31) Have a contest with a valuable prize given to the winner (people love prizes!)
Next time you're looking for a little inspiration on a link building campaign, review the tips above to try something you may have not tried before and monitor its progress. Link building doesn't have to be hard, but it should definitely be included in your search optimization campaign.
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CASE STUDY: HOW I TOOK A BRAND NEW SITE TO A TOP 10 ORGANIC GOOGLE RANKING IN LESS THAN ONE WEEK
With nearly 150 million domain name websites registered (source: NetCraft) and a phenomenon known as the Google Sandbox, where new sites are placed into a moratorium of sorts until they have proven to be legitimate sites, getting a new site to quickly appear within search engine results is an enormous challenge all webmasters and site owners face when launching a new site. According to Nielsen Netratings, there were approximately 8 billion search queries performed in the month of October 2007 which means search engines are a popular tool to discover websites. Based on the total US population of 303.5 million (US Census), that equates to 26 searches for every single person in the US in October alone.
Leading organic search engine optimization firms suggest that it can take anywhere from three to six months to achieve a top 30 ranking in the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN dependent on the competitive online search landscape. Additional statistics from NetCraft indicate there have been over 40 million new sites in 2007 so the search ranking challenge is becoming greater and greater each month.
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Recently, I developed a new site (radio.smbconsultinginc.com) dedicated to my marketing internet radio show as a sub‐domain off of our main company site. The site went live on Sunday, December 2, 2007 and was indexed by Google and Yahoo within five days. Furthermore, the site ranked within the top 20 search results for "marketing radio show" according to Google (#9) and Yahoo (#16) on December 7, 2007. Taking into consideration the number of competing pages within Google (5.48 million) and Yahoo (112 million) for that particular phrase, this is an accomplishment that many webmasters and site owners would like to duplicate so let's take a look at how it was achieved.
Special attention was paid to the title and description tags for each page of the site with the main page getting the lion's share of keyword focus. The keyword tag wasn't even utilized for this site as a test to verify its dwindling importance to search engines.
A link to the new site was placed on our main established website homepage which gets indexed regularly by all crawler based search engines.
Placing strategic comments on very popular and heavily linked to blogs improved the odds of the site being indexed and created a little awareness.
Signing up for a directory submission service that submitted the site to nearly 500 online directories for around $100 saved tremendous time. This ploy was implemented to speed up the indexing process while also creating permanent links back to the site which focus on targeted keyword phrases.
A sitemap was created next and submitted directly to Google in order to improve the odds of getting more pages indexed once their crawler discovered the new site through one of the strategically placed links from any number of sites targeted in the first few steps.
Since the site's true purpose is to focus attention on the great guests featured on the show, an e‐mail was sent to each guest to alert them of the site and encourage them to promote their own individual page in any way they deemed appropriate.
The content generated for the site will lend itself well to naturally attracting links as time goes on which will further improve the site's rankings for various keyword phrases. SEO PRECEPT Page | 27 http://seoprecept.com
Now that the site ranks well for a few keyword phrases within the search engines' organic rankings, show popularity and guest awareness will increase which help all parties involved better attract their desired target audience which is one of the key values of organic search engine optimization.
The next time you produce a new website and want to improve the odds of your site getting indexed quickly, follow the steps outlined above and hopefully your site will rank well in the process.
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THE NEXT FRONTIER: SOCIAL MEDIA OPTIMIZATION
Social media optimization (SMO) is a set of methods for generating publicity through social media, online communities and community websites. Methods of SMO include adding RSS feeds, adding a "Digg This" button, blogging and incorporating third party community functionalities like Flickr photo slides and galleries or YouTube videos. Social media optimization is a form of search engine marketing.
Social media optimization is in many ways connected as a technique to viral marketing where word of mouth is created not through friends or family but through the use of networking in social bookmarking, video and photo sharing websites. In a similar way the engagement with blogs achieves the same by sharing content through the use of RSS in the blogsphere and special blog search engines such as Technorati.iii
SOCIAL NETWORKING
Social networking is more than just MySpace especially when it comes to the business world. That said, the companies connecting with Generation Y the best seem to be doing so through popular Social
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Networking sites such as MySpace. As evidenced by the table below, MySpace has a tremendous hold of the market in the social networking space. MySpace Received 76 Percent of U.S Social Networking Visits in 2007
Facebook traffic increased 50 percent yearoveryear;
95 percent of traffic to MySpace.com was returning in December 2007
NEW YORK, NY – January 16, 2008 – Hitwise, the leading online competitive intelligence service, today announced that MySpace.com averaged 76.35 percent of all U.S. visits in 2007 [1] among a custom category of 53 leading social networking websites. Facebook.com, Bebo.com and BlackPlanet.com received the next largest number of visits, as each received 12.57, 1.24 and .87 percent, respectively. The remaining 49 social networking websites in the custom category accounted for 8.97 percent of U.S. visits.
For December 2007, MySpace.com received 72 percent of U.S. visits among the social networking category. Facebook.com received 12.57 percent of visits and Bebo.com received 1.09 percent of visits. U.S. traffic to all the social networking websites increased four percent year‐ over‐year. MyYearbook experienced the largest gain in market share in December 2007, increasing 407 percent compared to December of the previous year. Facebook and Club Penguin followed, increasing 51 and 48 percent, respectively.
Market Share of U.S. Internet Visits to Top 10 Social Networking Websites YoY % Rank Name Domain Dec‐07 Dec‐06 Change 1 MySpace www.myspace.com 72.32% 78.89% ‐8% 2 Facebook www.facebook.com 16.03% 10.59% 51% 3 Bebo www.bebo.com 1.09% 0.99% 10% 4 BlackPlanet.com www.blackplanet.com 1.04% 0.96% 8% 5 Club Penguin www.clubpenguin.com 0.80% 0.54% 48% 6 Gaiaonline.com www.gaiaonline.com 0.76% 0.58% 31% SEO PRECEPT Page | 30 http://seoprecept.com
7 myYearbook www.myyearbook.com 0.73% 0.14% 407% 8 hi5 www.hi5.com 0.63% 0.64% ‐1% 9 Classmates www.classmates.com 0.55% 0.58% ‐7% 10 Yahoo! 360 360.yahoo.com 0.54% 0.91% ‐40% Note ‐ data is based on a custom category of 53 of the leading social networking websites ranked by market share of U.S. visits, which is the percentage of online traffic to the domain or category, from the Hitwise sample of 10 million U.S. Internet users. Hitwise measures more than 1 million unique websites on a daily basis, including sub‐domains of larger websites. Hitwise categorizes websites into industries on the basis of subject matter and content, as well as market orientation and competitive context. Source: Hitwise SOCIAL NETWORKING POPULARITY & DEMOGRAPHICS
rs Use ed r s ia te r d le y 25 35 45 e egis a ‐ ‐ ‐ 5 M R M Female <18 18 26 36 >4 Facebook 2,600,000 36% 63% 17% 52% 21% 5% 5% MySpace 11,300,000 36% 63% 20% 40% 27% 7% 6% Hi5 4,500,000 60% 39% 21% 44% 23% 6% 6% Friendster 2,300,000 58% 41% 12% 39% 36% 7% 5% LinkedIn 800,000 61% 38% 2% 9% 49% 24% 16% Plaxo 1,300,000 62% 37% 16% 39% 24% 10% 11% **All statistics courtesy of Rapleaf (11/13/2007): http://blog.rapleaf.com/2007/11/13/statistics‐on‐googles‐opensocial‐platform‐end‐users‐and‐facebook‐users/
Based on the chart above, a business targeting women may want to create and optimize a profile on Facebook or MySpace and try to connect with women between the ages of 18‐35 whereas those targeting men may be wise to setup shop on Hi5 and Friendster.
Since the predominant age group on the most popular social networking sites is 18‐25, businesses which target that particular demographic would do well by establishing a strong presence on MySpace and Hi5, in particular, with a keen eye on Friendster, too.
Firms looking to befriend those individuals a little more mature (26‐45+) may start out their social networking campaign with LinkedIn as that is a professional social networking site
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So how much time do people really spend on these social networking sites? Glad you asked.
In December 2007, the average time spent on Bebo led among the top five social networking websites with users spending an average of 30 minutes and 24 seconds on the website. Facebook experienced the largest growth in average time spent, increasing 100 percent in December 2007 to 19 minutes and 51 seconds from just under 10 minutes as compared to the same month in 2006.
Average U.S. Time Spent for December 2007 (in minutes & seconds) YoY % Rank Name Domain Dec‐07 Dec‐06 Change 1 MySpace www.myspace.com 29:36 30:05 ‐02% 2 Facebook www.facebook.com 19:51 09:56 100% 3 Bebo www.bebo.com 30:24 29:19 4% 4 BlackPlanet.com www.blackplanet.com 25:16 22:26 13% 5 Club Penguin www.clubpenguin.com 13:27 12:00 12% Note ‐ data is based on the average U.S. time spent from the Hitwise sample of 10 million U.S. Internet users. Hitwise measures more than 1 million unique websites on a daily basis, including sub‐ domains of larger websites. Hitwise categorizes websites into industries on the basis of subject matter and content, as well as market orientation and competitive context. Source: Hitwise
BLOGGING
If you are the type of person who likes to write, share your opinion, or connect with the public at large, blogging may be something which interests you. Blogs are a great way to express your individuality in a more journal like fashion. Websites are designed to get someone to do something whereas Blogs are there to encourage interaction and open the door to someone getting to know someone or the company a little better. There are free Blog generators out there including:
• Blogger.com (http://blogger.com) (owned by Google)
• WordPress.com (http://WordPress.com)
• MovableType.com (http://MovableType.com)
• TeraPad.com (http://TeraPad.com) (combines website functionality with blogging)
• TypePad.com (http://TypePad.com) (one of the more popular pay blogging sites which has a lot of nice functionality built in) SEO PRECEPT Page | 32 http://seoprecept.com
• HubPages.com (http://HubPages.com)
• Propeller.com (http://propeller.com)
Some blog sites will pay you to blog for them. A few of the better known include:
• Weblogsinc.com (http://WeblogsInc.com)
• PayPerPost.com (http://PayPerPost.com)
• SponsoredReviews.com (http://SponsoredReviews.com)
• Blogvertise.com (http://BlogVertise.com)
• ReviewMe.com (http://ReviewMe.com)
If you’re looking to make a little extra money on the side by writing about something you enjoy, paid blogging may help you achieve that goal.
Blog software like WordPress can also be integrated directly into a website as long as the host supports PHP. The benefit is the Blog will keep the same look and feel as your website and increase your credibility. If you do not know how to integrate a Blog into your site, or you do not have a programmer that can do so, there are a variety of free Blog options that you can still connect with your website. The following exercise will show you how to set up a Blog using one of the many available software options for blogging.
35% of large companies plan to start corporate blogs by the end of 2006, while 34% of large companies are already blogging (JupiterResearch, June 2006).
HUB PAGES
An option which can lead to royalty money from Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay is HubPages.com (http://hubpages.com) where you can publish articles, thoughts, and general commentary on a shared writer blog without setting up your own separate blog. You can include your affiliate IDs from AdSense, Amazon and eBay to make a little
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money off of the visitors reading your article should they click on one of the ads. This is a good tool for those just looking to get their feet wet in the online publishing arena while possibly making a little pocket change on the side without making the commitment to blogging regularly or writing frequent articles. The traffic at HubPages can be fairly substantial and generating awareness can be another benefit to posting there. Another nice feature of HubPages is the incorporation of your Google Analytics code so you can track the number of visitors reading your content much like you can with your own site.
Sites such as Squidoo and Helium offer an experience similar to HubPages, but their payment structures and setup procedures seemingly aren’t as easy, and it’s unclear at the time of this writing whether the tracking mechanisms are available either.
SEO implications for HubPages include the lack of no‐follow restrictions on your outgoing links so the link value can be passed through to your sites easily. The site also allows you to place sidebars on your articles. Here’s a quick tip list for maximizing your experience, from an SEO perspective, on HubPages:
• Link to your sites from your HubPage
• Create a “flagship page.” This is considered a “go‐to” resource on a particular topic, and HubPages will even pay you a little meal money to create one of these. It takes a lot more effort than the average article, and there are strict and detailed guidelines so read those over before setting sail on creating a potential flagship page. You’ll have to work to develop one of these, but the traffic and awareness payoff could be well worth the effort. Here’s a link to a guide on how to create one by one of the freelance writers (Lissie): http://hubpages.com/hub/How‐To‐Write‐a‐Flagship‐ Hub. Furthermore, they provide a list of topics they’re seeking flagship writers: http://hubpages.com/help/flagship_hubs_pool
• Check the topics requested list to see if there are any topics you may like to write about: http://hubpages.com/requests/latest/
• Embed any YouTube videos SEO PRECEPT Page | 34 http://seoprecept.com
• Maximize your own RSS feeds from other sites, such as blogs, you maintain
• Link TO your HubPage from each of your sites including any social networking and bookmarking sites.
RSS FEEDS
If your site provides regular content updates to keep visitors returning, you may wish to give users a way to automatically have the content fed to the via RSS (really simple syndication) feeds.
Mark Pilgrim wrote the following on xml.com to broadly explain RSS:
RSS is a format for syndicating news and the content of news‐like sites, including major news sites like Wired, news‐oriented community sites like Slashdot, and personal weblogs. But it's not just for news. Pretty much anything that can be broken down into discrete items can be syndicated via RSS: the "recent changes" page of a wiki, a changelog of CVS checkins, even the revision history of a book. Once information about each item is in RSS format, an RSS‐aware program can check the feed for changes and react to the changes in an appropriate way.
RSS‐aware programs called news aggregators are popular in the weblogging community. Many weblogs make content available in RSS. A news aggregator can help you keep up with all your favorite weblogs by checking their RSS feeds and displaying new items from each of themiv.
A couple of feed generator sites to consider:
• FeedBurner (http://FeedBurner.com)
• FreeFeedGenerator (http://www.freefeedgenerator.com/)
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SOCIAL BOOKMARKING
A common method to pick up links and promote your content rather easily is through social bookmarking sites such as:
• SocialMarker.com (http://SocialMarker.com)
• Digg.com (http://digg.com)
• Stumbleupon.com (http://StumbleUpon.com)
• Reddit.com (http://reddit.com)
• Furl.net (http://furl.net)
• Slashdot.com (http://SlashDot.com)
• Del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us.com)
• Newsvine.com (http://NewsVine.com)
• Scribd.com (http://scribd.com)
• Technorati (http://technorati.com)
• Squidoo (http://squidoo.com)
If your site updates its content rather regularly, this may be an avenue worth pursuing as you can “tag” the content you’re looking to promote with keywords that relate to it. Blog sites usually have links to bookmark their content on many of these sites, and more websites are mixing their content to become more appealing to regular visitors. If you feel you’ve written a particularly interesting article, consider submitting it to one of these sites to promote it a little bit.
Sites like Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon can provide massive amounts of traffic to your site. Sometimes all you need to do is write a brief article on a popular subject, and you’ll get hundreds of additional visits to your site as a result. Digg, especially, is great if you’re involved with technology, current events, or entertainment. Try checking out the front page of Digg to see what’s popular. Once you get a feel for the kind of content that works on Digg, try to create some of your own. A few minutes with your story on the front page of Digg can lead to invaluable results for your SEO campaign. SEO PRECEPT Page | 36 http://seoprecept.com
SOCIALMARKER.COM
SocialMarker can help you spread a link on 32 of the best social bookmarking sites in under 15 minutes!
• It helps you get a lot of backlinks.
• It helps you increase your traffic.
• Your link gets indexed by Google in a matter of minutes.
• Best of all, it's free!v
DIGG
“Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web.” From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by their user community. Digg doesn’t employ editors — the user community collectively determines the value of content and subsequently change the way people consume information online.
How does Digg do this? Everything on Digg — from news to videos to images to Podcasts — is submitted by their community. Once something is submitted, other people see it and Digg what they like best. If your submission rocks and receives enough Diggs, it is promoted to the front page for the millions of visitors to see.vi
STUMBLEUPON
StumbleUpon helps you discover and share great websites. As you click Stumble!, StumbleUpon delivers high‐quality pages matched to your personal preferences. These pages have been explicitly recommended by your friends or one of 4,408,051 other web‐surfers with interests similar to you. Rating these sites you like automatically shares them with like‐minded people – and helps you discover great sites your friends recommend.
Using search engines to locate relevant content typically means hunting through pages of results. Rather than searching for quality web sites,
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StumbleUpon members are taken directly to web sites matching their personal interests and preferences.vii
SEO implications for this service include:
• Find highly relevant sites based on your preferences
• Build a community like group of likeminded individuals that will loyally read your content and likely stumble it
• Attract large amounts of traffic in an instant should your site move up in the Stumble rankings
DEL.ICIO.US
del.icio.us is a collection of favorites ‐ yours and everyone else's. You can use del.icio.us to:
• Keep links to your favorite articles, blogs, music, reviews, recipes, and more, and access them from any computer on the web.
• Share favorites with friends, family, coworkers, and the del.icio.us community.
• Discover new things. Everything on del.icio.us is someone's favorite ‐‐ they've already done the work of finding it. So del.icio.us is full of bookmarks about technology, entertainment, useful information, and more. Explore and enjoy.
del.icio.us is a social bookmarking website ‐‐ the primary use of del.icio.us is to store your bookmarks online, which allows you to access the same bookmarks from any computer and add bookmarks from anywhere, too. On del.icio.us, you can use tags to organize and remember your
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bookmarks, which is a much more flexible system than folders.
You can also use del.icio.us to see the interesting links that your friends and other people bookmark, and share links with them in return. You can even browse and search del.icio.us to discover the cool and useful bookmarks that everyone else has saved ‐‐ which is made easy with tags.viii
SCRIBD
No, that’s not a typo. Scribd.com (http://scribd.com) is a website that is similar to an article directory site or e‐zine with a twist: you can submit your articles or content in its native format (DOC, XLS, PPT, PDF, etc.), and their engine will index the content just like it were HTML text including embedded links. Pretty cool, huh? Imagine fancying your articles with a graphic, logo, picture, or nicely laid out text versus the limited options with plain old bold, italics, and underlining you get with traditional article directories. Same with presentation files and spreadsheets—you’re not limited by HTML restrictions.
If you take the opportunity to repackage your content in a fashion that is more easily consumed, or already have a lot of content already in a nicely packaged format, it’s bound to generate some word of mouth and pass through some quality link value provided it’s top notch.
SEO implications for this include uploading reports, manuals, brochures, catalogs, newsletters (especially back issues), presentations, eBooks, e‐ mail broadcasts, and other documents which are higher quality with the hope that others will link to the content, discover your firm, research you further, and ultimately do business with you or reach out to communicate somehow.
TECHNORATI
Currently tracking 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media.
Technorati is the recognized authority on what's happening on the World Live Web, right now. The
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Live Web is the dynamic and always‐updating portion of the Web. Technorati searches, surfaces, and organizes blogs and the other forms of independent, user‐generated content (photos, videos, voting, etc.) increasingly referred to as “citizen media.”ix
SQUIDOO
Squidoo.com is a site where you can create mini‐web page, called a “lens,” within minutes about any topic you wish. It can contain articles, top‐10 lists, tips, links to other resources, and much more. Much like HubPages, you can monetize your page to take advantage of affiliate links to major retailers which Squidoo will pay you a piece of the profit.
The SEO implications for Squidoo include:
• Quick link indexing from an authority site
• Content generation that can be viral in nature
• Build awareness for a new site without having to deal with the dreaded Google “sandbox”
• The ability to create multiple lenses in little time that can be indexed almost immediately
• You can purchase a Squidoo site that already has traffic to leverage for your site
A themed approach to building lenses might be your best ticket to leveraging the power of Squidoo, but that’s a topic better suited for The SEO Bible (http://the‐seo‐bible.com).
WIKIS
In order to be “official” in the definition of what a “wiki” is, the following text has been shared from wiki.org:
Wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. Wiki supports hyperlinks and has a simple text syntax for
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creating new pages and crosslinks between internal pages on the fly.
Wiki is unusual among group communication mechanisms in that it allows the organization of contributions to be edited in addition to the content itself.
Like many simple concepts, "open editing" has some profound and subtle effects on Wiki usage. Allowing everyday users to create and edit any page in a Web site is exciting in that it encourages democratic use of the Web and promotes content composition by non‐technical usersx.
One of the largest wikis around is Wikipedia.org. If you want a high quality .org link pointing to your website, consider submitting an objective entry about your company there. It’s free, and it may generate some quality traffic in the process of educating people about your company and its website.
VIDEOS, PHOTOS & PODCASTS
You’ve undoubtedly heard of YouTube, digital photos, and podcasts, but have you considered creating your own material to post on one of the many content sharing sites? A video may attract a new demographic to your website or business that otherwise wouldn’t know you even existed. Same with a sharp photo or an informative podcast.
Other sites worth considering for submitting your “new media” content:
• Veoh.com (http://veoh.com) —video sharing site with a nice interface and layout. The “next” YouTube? Some have called it that.
• Imeem.com (http://imeem.com) —music, videos, photos playlist sharing site.
• PhotoBucket.com (http://PhotoBucket.com)
• MetaCafe.com (http://MetaCafe.com)
• Last.fm (http://Last.fm)
• Podcast.com (http://Podcast.com) —submit your own podcast feed to share with the world. SEO PRECEPT Page | 41 http://seoprecept.com
• Flickr.com (http://flickr.com)
• Grouper.com (http://grouper.com)
• OurMedia.com (http://OurMedia.com)
• vSocial.com (http://vSocial.com)
• FreeIQ.com (http://FreeIQ.com) — A mini‐YouTube for internet marketers and business people. Highly recommended.
Videos, podcasts, photos, and other forms of “new media” have a tendency to spread a lot quicker than text so this presents a way for savvy companies to connect with a broader audience. Whenever you produce one of these, be sure to include it on your website with a way for people to link to it. This is a fabulous link baiting technique!
YOUTUBE
The graph below shows the monthly visitors to YouTube (http://youtube.com) each month for the past 12 months. More than 55 million visits were made to the site in January of 2008.
xi
YouTube makes it possible for anyone with a video camera and/or screen capture software (such as Camtasia – http://TechSmith.com) to create video and content similar to that which was only possible by renting studio time and accessing production resources as recently as five years ago. With traffic numbers such as the ones depicted in the graph above, that video content stands a good chance of attracting some attention, too.
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PODCASTING
Podcasting will become ever more popular (251% projected growth by 2012) as evidenced by the eMarketer (http://emarketer.com) graphic below:
“Active” podcasters (individuals who download an average of one or more podcasts per week) will maintain “active” status at a fairly steady rate (around 38%) for a few years according to the eMarketer report, but the numbers indicate that more and more people will be jumping on the audio content production bandwagon. Due to its ease of generation and the fact that people can talk quicker than they can type, podcasting is a great tool to include in your content generation arsenal.
Podcasting will garner its fair share of advertising and sponsorship revenue over the next five years according to the same eMarketer report:
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With a projected 163% growth in podcast advertising spending between 2007‐2012, this is a clear indication that podcasting is becoming more mainstream and an accepted media for marketers to spread their messages.
Want to view the entire eMarketer podcasting article? Visit: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1005869
Not familiar with podcasting? Visit: http://radio.smbconsultinginc.com/podcasts/ted‐demopoulos.html to listen in on Roger Bauer’s interviews of Ted Demopoulos about podcasting and/or blogging.
Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?xii
While this site’s purpose is puzzling to many, it’s concept is similar to that of MySpace’s status bar where users can update it at any time to share what they are doing at that particular moment. In the social media world, this “service” is increasing in popularity so it’s one to watch even if you are a little freaked about someone knowing your every move. Beware of stalkers as you share your activities and whereabouts!
Visit http://twitter.com to learn more or sign up for a free account.
REPUTATION MANAGEMENT
With all of this talk about Social Media and Networking, there has to be a section, call it a disclaimer, about managing your online reputation because that’s the biggest thing at stake here. The sites and services outlined below can help you monitor and manage your online reputation rather easily:
• Google Alerts (http://google.com/alerts) – free tool that is amazingly quick at discovering new content about your chosen keyword or phrase. It’s recommended that you at least set this up to monitor your own name to track what is being said about you, but that is the entry point to managing your reputation as a business. SEO PRECEPT Page | 44 http://seoprecept.com
• Yahoo Alerts (http://alerts.yahoo.com) – very similar to Google’s alerting service. Same rules apply although choosing one or the other service should cover you.
• Monitor a few message boards/forums related to your industry or whatever you’re into. The following services can be of tremendous benefit in making sense of it all:
ForumFind.com (http://ForumFind.com)
BoardTracker.com (http://BoardTracker.com)
BoardReader.com (http://BoardReader.com)
Big‐Boards.com (http://Big‐Boards.com)
• Create your own search engine at Rollyo.com (http://Rollyo.com)
• Check out Techmeme.com (http://techmeme.com) to get a feel for stories that are “hot.”
• “Ego surf” (search for things written or said about you) at these sites:
Technorati (http://Technorati.com) – predominantly a blog search engine that now includes some nice social bookmarking features.
BlogPulse (http://BlogPulse.com)
IceRocket (http://IceRocket.com)
Feedster (http://Feedster.com)
Google Blog Search (http://Google.com/blogsearch)
PubSub (http://PubSub.com)
Want to learn more about reputation management? Visit http://radio.smbconsultinginc.com/podcasts/andy‐beal.html and click on the microphone to listen in on Roger Bauer’s interview of Andy Beal where the two discuss reputation management and SEO as a tactic for
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that. Andy also has an excellent resource on reputation management which you can access for no cost at http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2007/08/26‐free‐tools‐for‐buzz‐ monitoring.html
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TOP 7 KEYS TO SELCETING AN SEO PARTNER
1. Peruse their results—a legitimate search engine optimization partner should have demonstrated at least three sites within the top 10 rankings on one or more of the major search engines for a term or group of terms with greater than 400,000 competing pages. The greater the number of competing pages indicates a highly competitive search term. If a firm demonstrates that they have achieved elevated rankings within ultra competitive keyword arenas, your confidence level should be much greater that they know what they are doing and should be able to duplicate similar results for you.
2. Seek testimonials—a legitimate SEO firm will have no problem delivering testimonials or contact information for current or past customers. Find out how long it took for the firm to begin to demonstrate results and how informative they have been to the customer throughout the process. Notoriously black hat practitioners will be rather elusive as to their methodologies utilized to achieve success in the search universe.
3. Find out if they provide access to SEO education as part of their fee structure. Organic search optimization is not a onetime event. It takes time to climb the search engine results pages, and any firm worth their salt will stay on top of the market. A true partner will have no problem sharing their research and a methodology with you before, during, and after an SEO campaign is complete. Find out whether a potential partner is willing to share their methods with you once you become a customer especially if you desire to bring the tasks in‐ house down the road.
4. Read published articles—a prospective partner’s articles can greatly aid you in your determination if you agree with their approach or not and whether their strategies mesh well with SEO PRECEPT Page | 47 http://seoprecept.com
your organization. Remember, you’re selecting a firm to help you achieve marketing success so that firm should be practicing some of the methods they preach.
5. Listen to interviews of key personnel—many search firms don’t want to be in the limelight out of fear that they may be discovered as illegitimate. Quality firms generally have someone within their organization participating in media relations of some sort whether that is conducting interviews or being interviewed—seek those that aren’t hiding, and you’ll likely find one that will do a great job for you. Why would someone hide from sharing their knowledge if they are confident and assured that what they are doing is above board?
6. Do your homework! You should have a basic understanding of what is involved in an SEO campaign before you decide to outsource the work or seek professional help. This will not only benefit you but the firm you ultimately hire. While most reputable firms willingly share their methodologies, bogging them down with repeated status checks or hounding them daily about your ranking within the search landscape for your chosen keywords isn’t going to help things. Once you decide upon a firm to help propel you to the top of the ranks, let them do their job, and ask questions when you legitimately want to learn something, but don’t expect miracles overnight or within a week.
7. Be leery of firms that guarantee #1 rankings! This should probably be the top tip, but we saved the best for last. No firm can guarantee a top ranking within any of the major search engines. Search engines are constantly changing and evolving so it’s similar to hitting a rapidly moving target. That’s not to say that the best firms can’t get you to #1 because they can on a consistent basis, but they shouldn’t guarantee that due to the complex nature of search. Keep in mind that search engines are dynamic tools that attempt to inventory a massive amount of data, and every site cannot be top ranked.
Did you know that 2 out of 3 search marketers who outsource their SEO encounter obstacles that prevent them from implementing their vendor’s SEO recommendations? Furthermore, 1 out of 2 search marketers underestimate the resources required to implement their vendor’s SEO recommendations. (iProspect: “Natural SEO Outsourcing Study” 2005)
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WEB DESIGN RESOURCES Top Web Design and Development Websites and Blogs
• Digital Web (http://digital‐web.com) ‐ A leading online magazine for web designers and coders. Learn good coding practices, CSS tips and design standards.
• Smashing Magazine (http://smashingmagazine.com) ‐ A top blog dealing with all kinds of subjects ranging from web design to copywriting. Plenty high quality free resources can be found here.
• DezinerFolio (http://DezinerFolio.com) ‐ Blog dealing mainly with web design, offering very high quality tutorials and lots of great free resources.
• WebAppers (http://WebAppers.com) ‐ The absolute BEST on the internet when it comes to free tools and resources. These guys hunt down all kinds of great free software covering all facets of the Net.
• Open Source Website Templates (http://oswd.org) ‐ A huge library of free web design templates. Don't know how to design a website? No problem. You'll be sure to find a great and easy to use template here.
Web Design Tools
• Stripemania (http://StripeMania.com) ‐ Horizontal stripes are a hot trend in web 2.0 design and difficult to create from scratch. With this free, web‐based tool, you can create your own striped
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background patterns for use in web site backgrounds and images.
• TabsGenerator (http://TabsGenerator.com) ‐ Generate stylish web 2.0 tabs for navigation on your websites with this free tool. No design experience needed!
• Fresh Badge (http://FreshBadge.com) ‐ Freshen up your website with Fresh Badge, an easy to use tool that allows you to create customized badges for your websites. Easy and totally free.
• My Cool Button (http://MyCoolButton.com) ‐ Create cutting edge web 2.0 style buttons for your websites using this free web‐based button generator. No design experience needed!
• Free Fonts (http://1001FreeFonts.com) ‐ Download thousands of free fonts to use for your websites.
• Free Stock Photos (http://www.sxc.hu) ‐ This website offers an incredible database of free stock photos for you to download and use on your websites. All you need to do is create a free account and you'll never need to buy another stock photo again!
Blogging
• Wordpress.com (http://WordPress.com) ‐ Great for beginners. Get a blog up and running in minutes, and the best part is, it's FREE! You won't be able to host your own Blog, however.
• Wordpress.org (http://WordPress.org) ‐ Download the powerful Wordpress framework for free and install it on your own server to have a Blog up and running, and take advantage of the flexibility of Wordpress to customize your Blog and use powerful plugins. Requires some technical knowledge.
• Wordpress Themes (http://themes.WordPress.net) ‐ Search through a vast library of free Wordpress themes to find a design that suits your blog. Themes are easy to install, and you'll have your Blog looking unique as ever with a few clicks of the mouse.
• Wordpress Plugins (http://WordPress.com/extend/plugins/) ‐ Take advantage of literally hundreds of free Wordpress plugins for your Blog. With plugins you can make your Blog do a variety of great things, from automatically generating Google Sitemaps to adding social networking buttons to your posts.
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SEO RESOURCES General SEO Information
• SeoChat.com (http://seochat.com) ‐ Great resource for the SEO community. Many sections to nibble on to increase your knowledge.
• SearchEngineGuide.com (http://searchengineguide.com) ‐ pretty good advice to be found here along with some other sections that may help your business thrive.
• WebProNews.com (http://webpronews.com) ‐ provides one of the better newsletters for the SEO community. News, tips, blogs, videos, reports, articles, and advertisements make up this healthy resource.
SEO Blogs
• SEO Bible Blog (http://the‐seo‐bible.com/blog/) – The companion site for this report and one of SMB Consulting’s core sites that focuses on SEO and internet marketing. Highly recommended. ;)
• SEOMoz.org (http://seomoz.org) ‐ This site has a little bit of everything for someone interested in SEO ‐ great articles, opinions, tools, links to other great resources, a blog, and a premium section for those wishing to pay a little each month for extra tidbits not found in most places.
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• SEOBook.com (http://seobook.com) ‐ Aaron Wall is the author of the SEO Book and respected SEO contributor to many different forums and the like. His blog is worth a look, and the book is worth considering if you want more in depth information on any of the topics covered in this report.
• MattCutts.com (http://mattcutts.com/blog) ‐ Matt is an employee of Google that frequently contributes to the SEO Community on various platforms. If you want a view from the “inside,” Matt’s blog may be worth a peek.
• SearchEngineWatch.com (http://searchenginewatch.com) ‐ one of the more respected sites related to search engines is searchenginewatch.com. It has lost some of its edge of late, but it’s still a pretty decent resource for staying current on the industry.
• SearchEngineBlog.com –(http://searchengineblog.com) decent resource for links to things that are happening around the search sphere.
• Seopedia.com (http://seopedia.com) ‐ another resource that supplies a lot of links to happenings while also providing some good commentary.
• SearchEngineLand.com (http://searchengineland.com) ‐ Danny Sullivan is a name you’re sure to hear if you travel even remotely through the SEO space. This is one of the bigger SEO information sites out there. Danny also has a personal blog (daggle.com) that shares a little more about the guy and his life if you’re interested. He used to be at searchenginewatch.com, but fallout led him to leave and start his own thing after the site got purchased by Incisive Media.
• TopRankBlog.com (http://toprankblog.com) ‐ good resource that blends SEO, marketing, and PR which is really what marketing is all about.
• LinkBuildingBlog.com (http://linkbuildingblog.com) ‐ part of TextLinkAds.com that focuses on link building. Worth looking at to get some ideas on how to improve your link building “prowess” or if you’re considering purchasing links.
• SeoBlackHat.com (http://seoblackhat.com) ‐ Black hat SEO is definitely not encouraged, but it can’t hurt to stay up to date on everything – good and bad.
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• BlackHatSeo.com (http://blackhatseo.com) ‐ Aaron Wall tossed this site up to accomplish many of the goals mentioned for seoblackhat.com—to paint a more complete picture.
• SeoRoundTable.com (http://seoroundtable.com) ‐ calls itself “the pulse of the search marketing community,” and there is a lot of good content to read for those looking to keep their finger on the “pulse.”
• StuntDubl.com (http://stuntdubl.com) ‐ good blog that has a lot of categories and solid information to share.
• SEO 101 Podcast (http://podcast.neo1seo.com) ‐ Although they do tend to cover a lot of basic topics relating to SEO, there’s always useful information in every podcast. They also interview a lot of big names in the industry, so you can get fresh information right from the pros. The best part is you can download the podcast and listen to it on the way to work or while you’re working out.
• Wolf‐Howl.com (http://wolf‐howl.com) ‐ SEO guru Graywolf shares tips and opinions on SEO. It’s updated regularly, and learning what the real experts are doing can help put you on the right track.
SEO Message Boards & Forums
• The SEO Bible Forum (http://forum.the‐seo‐bible.com) ‐ If you're looking for a great SEO forum, look no further than our own SEO forum. We are building a community of SEO enthusiasts of all skill levels. Whether you're a novice or a seasoned SEO expert, we encourage everyone to stop by and participate in the ongoing discussion.
• SearchEngineForums.com (http://searchengineforums.com) ‐ has multiple sections to browse and post. Good information to be found all over this site and a lot of activity to boot.
• HighRankings.com (http://highrankings.com/forum/) ‐ one of the better “white hat” SEO forums around. Moderated a little heavier than some, and there are rules to observe so don’t forget to read over those before you sign‐up or enter. Jill Whalen is behind this site, and she’s one of the more recognized SEO personalities out there.
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• Spider‐Food.net (http://forums.spider‐food.net) ‐ This site doesn’t get a ton of activity, but it has a lot of categories and a fair amount of information to digest.
• SeoChat.com (http://forums.seochat.com) ‐ one of the most popular forums on SEO out there. Robust topic set along with heavy interaction make this a must read forum!
• DigitalPoint.com (http://forums.digitalpoint.com) ‐ one of the bigger and most popular forums that have a pretty active community that encourages participation.
SEO Conferences & Conventions
• Pubcon.com (http://pubcon.com) ‐ search engine and marketing conference information. If you get the opportunity to attend a search conference (search engine strategies is another popular one), you’ll meet some interesting folks along with learning a ton of stuff.
• SearchEngineStrategies.com (http://searchenginestrategies.com) ‐ another popular search engine and marketing conference that may be worth scoping out if you are looking for a trip idea to merge with your search optimization campaign.
• searchmarketingexpo.com (http://searchmarketingexpo.com) ‐ a newer search marketing conference started by Danny Sullivan. Danny is considered one of the top search engine marketing “gurus” so this should be a highly anticipated conference event that is sure to please.
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SEO TOOLS
Some of the best organic SEO tools on the web are free, and anyone experienced in SEO will tell you tools play a vital role in the success of any organic search engine optimization campaign. There are tools for many different aspects of SEO from keyword research to competitive analysis, and we've made a list of our favorites. If you know of a free SEO tool that should be added here, please contact us.
FREE KEYWORD RESEARCH TOOLS
• SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool (http://tools.seobook.com/keyword‐tools/seobook/) ‐ tool shows top keyword phrases from Wordtracker.
• SEO Book International Keyword Suggestion Tool (http://tools.seobook.com/keyword‐tools/international/) ‐ works by grabbing regional search volume data from Overture.
• Google AdWords Keyword Suggestion Tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) ‐ recommends keywords based on a keyword you enter or a URL you have the tool analyze
• Google Suggest Tool (http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword‐information/) ‐ shows frequently search for phrases starting with the words and letters in your query. grab the source code
• Wordtracker Free Keywords (http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/) ‐ free keyword SEO PRECEPT Page | 55 http://seoprecept.com
suggestions from Wordtracker. Wordtracker also has a more advanced paid version, and sells top keyword reports.
• Key Compete (http://www.keycompete.com/home.asp) ‐ Free tool allows you to research and download your competitor's keywords and adwords, a more comprehensive paid tool is also available.
• Keyword Combinations (http://www.ranks.nl/tools/keyword_combinations.html) ‐ Free keyword list generator; create large keyword lists and find long tail keywords.
• Keyword Discovery (http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html) ‐ free keyword tool from Trellian. Trellian also has a more advanced paid version of Keyword Discovery.
• Microsoft Keyword Forecast (http://adlab.msn.com/ForecastV2/) ‐ shows predicted Microsoft search impression count and historical trends.
• Wordze (http://www.wordze.com/) ‐ nice for generating decently large keyword lists quickly and inserting them into paid search campaigns.
• Google Traffic Estimator (https://adwords.google.com/select/TrafficEstimatorSandbox) ‐ shows the estimated bids prices and ad clicks for the top ranked AdWords ad. Allows you to check for [exact match], "phrase match", or broad match.
• Xinu (http://tools.seobook.com/xinu/?lang=uk) ‐ free competitive analysis tool which pulls in site age, social bookmarking data, and link data. grab the source
• Compare Search Engines (http://www.ranks.nl/tools/compare.html) ‐ This free tool will allow you to enter a search query and compare results from up to 5 different search engines.
• iGoogle Link Analysis Gadget (http://tools.seobook.com/google‐ gadgets/#links) ‐ Allows you to query the search engines for a wide variety of link search types. It is as easy as copying and pasting a piece of code.
• Google Toolbar Buttons (http://tools.seobook.com/buttons/) ‐ Allows you to add quick links to SEO tools and RSS feeds to the
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Google toolbar. They only work with the new beta Internet Explorer version of the Google Toolbar.
• Firefox Bookmarks (http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/bookmarklets.html) ‐ Links to various useful free SEO tools that you can add to your Firefox bookmarks toolbar.
• Top 10 analysis tool (http://www.webuildpages.com/tools/) ‐ shows how your site's age and backlinks compare to the top 10 ranked sites
• NeatO Tool (http://www.webuildpages.com/tools/) ‐ shows backlinks and anchor text used in the backlinks
• Backlink Watch (http://www.backlinkwatch.com/) ‐ shows backlinks and anchor text used in the backlinks
• Keyword Density Analyzer (http://www.ranks.nl/tools/spider.html) ‐ This free tool will analyze the keyword density, prominence and placement of keywords within pages on your site.
• Shoemoney SERPS Tool (http://www.shoemoney.com/serps.php) ‐ By far the quickest way to check a URL's rankings for a given keyword across the top 4 search engines.
FREE WEBSITE ANALYTICS TOOLS
• Google Analytics (http://www.google.com/analytics/) ‐ powerful full featured analytics tool. Even allows you to track your ROI by keyword for each AdWords ad position. Google AdWords also has internal split testing and conversion tracking software.
• Google Website Optimizer (http://services.google.com/websiteoptimizer/) ‐ allows you to A/B split test landing pages and track how well Google AdWords traffic converts.
• 103 Bees (http://103bees.com) ‐ Free web analytics "search traffic analysis tool". Similar to Google Analytics, but with a focus on organic SEO.
• Site Meter (http://sitemeter.com) ‐ starts off as free, but charges for advanced features
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• Stat Counter (http://statcounter.com) ‐ starts off as free, but charges for advanced features and bandwidth usage.
• Webalizer (http://www.mrunix.net/webalizer/) ‐ default log analyzer on many servers.
• Analog (http://analog.cx) ‐ default log analyzer on many servers.
• Microsoft Project Gatineau (http://advertising.microsoft.com/Gatineau) ‐ not publicly launched yet but accepting invitation requests.
• Website Health Check Tool (http://tools.seobook.com/website‐ health‐check/) ‐ checks to see if your site has any pages indexed in Google that are missing page titles, have duplicate titles, or if your site has other common SEO related issues.
SEO TOOLS FOR COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
• SEO for Firefox (http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/seo‐for‐ firefox.html) ‐ Import useful marketing data (like link details, site age, site size) right into Google and Yahoo search results.
• Alexa (http://alexa.com) ‐ shows traffic trends for competing websites. Alexa has a heavy webmaster bias that is nowhere near as noticeable at Compete or Quantcast.
• SEODigger (http://seodigger.com) ‐ free tool which shows you keywords that a site ranks for out of a database of 44,000,000 keywords
• Compete.com (http://compete.com) ‐ shows you traffic trends for competing websites. Allows you to compare sites head to head. Also offers a paid search analytics tool which is both exceptionally useful and affordably priced.
• Quantcast (http://quantcast.com) ‐ shows site traffic and demographic trends and details. Also allows you to download a list of their top 1,000,000 websites.
• Archive.org (http://archive.org) ‐ see how old a website is and what it looked like in the past
• DomainTools (http://domaintools.com) ‐ see Whois data and how many times a domain has changed hands
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• Xinu (http://tools.seobook.com/xinu/?lang=uk) ‐ lists some SEO related data plus more general web related data points like Alexa ranking and Del.icio.us bookmarks.
• IndexRank (http://soloseo.com/tools/indexrank.html) ‐ scores how well your site is getting indexed in Google compared with related sites.
• SEOMoz Page Strength Tool (http://seomoz.org/page‐strength) ‐ estimates how strong a page is based on inbound links, age, PageRank, etc. Grabs some of the similar data points that SEO for Firefox grabs.
• Top 10 analysis tool (http://webuildpages.com/cool‐seo‐tool/) ‐ shows how your site's age and backlinks compare to the top 10 ranked sites
• URLTrends (http://urltrends.com) ‐ shows a sample of keywords that a site ranks for using a database somewhat smaller than SEODigger
SEO TOOLS PROVIDED BY SEARCH ENGINES
• Google AdWords Keyword Research Tool (http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) ‐ allows you to plug in a URL and shows you what keywords Google thinks the page should be advertising for
• Google Traffic Estimator (http://adwords.google.com/select/TrafficEstimatorSandbox) ‐ estimates the number of Google AdWords ad clicks and bid prices for the top ad position.
• Google AdWords (http://adwords.google.com) ‐ if you bid broad match on competing brands you can track your ad impressions to see how much traffic they get.
• Google AdSense (http://adsense.com) ‐ if your competitor is running AdSense ads on their site you can run a site targeted ad to see how much traffic they are getting.
• Yahoo Mindset (http://mindset.research.yahoo.com) ‐ let Yahoo show you how they can change results for commercial and informational queries
• Yahoo Term Extraction (http://tools.seobook.com/yahoo‐ keywords/) ‐ delivers a list of most important keywords contained inside a piece of text. grab the source code SEO PRECEPT Page | 59 http://seoprecept.com
• MSN AdCenter Labs (http://adlab.msn.com) ‐ offers many keyword tools, including a content classification tool and demographic prediction tools
MISC. SEO TOOLS
• URL Trends (http://urltrends.com) ‐ Enter a URL and instantly analyze URL trends such as inbound links, directory listings, PR, Alexa Rank and more.
• Meta Tag Generator (http://vipsem.com/meta‐tags‐ generator.html) ‐ Don't want to bother coding your own meta tags? Just use this free and easy meta tag generator!
• HTML Code Snooper (http://vipsem.com/html‐code‐ snooper.html) ‐ Enter any URL and this tool will display the entire HTML code for the page you enter.
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SEO PRECEPT CHECKLIST
To help you achieve basic success in the combined world of SEO and Social Media Optimization (SMO), here is a basic checklist to browse over and reference to maintain focus and remain productive.
1. Create regular quality content that you upload to your site(s) frequently. This will increase your “linkability.” Quality content may include one or several of the following characteristics:
Solves a common problem
Disputes an accepted theory with evidence and research to validate the dispute
Makes people’s lives easier
Shows people how to do something
Covers a popular event that didn’t have a lot of media exposure
Offers free advice or information that is hard to find
2. When communicating online, attempt to write in a similar fashion to which you speak. In other words, be conversational whenever possible.
3. Reward those that link to you with a link back or some form of recognition.
4. Stay on top of your online reputation by utilizing free alerting tools such as Google or Yahoo alerts. When something negative is said, do everything
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you can, within reason, to alleviate the problem or complaint. While you can’t please everyone, and some people won’t meet you halfway, most people understand that accidents happen and mistakes are made. Doing nothing is far worse than making an attempt at turning a negative into a positive.
5. Continue traditional SEO campaign tactics such as link building, updating sitemaps, keyword analysis, on page adjustments, and code enhancements to meet industry standards.
6. Upload/submit your content to online outlets which drive traffic to your site(s). The only way to know which sites send you the most traffic is to test so don’t lose sight of the impact testing has on your marketing campaigns in general. SEO is no different, and knowing your online metrics is key to success.
7. Embrace social media and networking sites as potential avenues to prospects and customers versus a “playground” for young adults. If the average person has a circle of influence of around 250 people, connecting with more people online increases your circle of influence exponentially. Today’s marketplace is migrating to this media so it behooves you and your business to be a participant versus a spectator.
8. Perform a spider simulation on your sites to see what search crawlers see. If something alarms you, make adjustments and measure the impact. Remember: you’re writing for people who will hopefully buy from you and not search crawlers, but it never hurts to see things through a search crawler’s perspective to make sure your site is viewable by search engines. Nobody will find you if the crawler can’t index your site.
9. Encourage visitors to spread your content as much as possible. Naturally you don’t want someone plagiarizing your work, but you want it to be viral in order to increase awareness. Place a disclaimer at the
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bottom of your content that encourages passing it along provided the proper credit is given/referenced.
10. Don’t forget the potential impact of sites like Scribd where you can upload content in native formats.
11. Make it easy to bookmark your content through the bookmarking tool of choice. Services such as AddThis (http://AddThis.com) make this a cinch.
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EAGER TO LEARN MORE?
5 INTERESTING & EDUCATIONAL BLOG POSTS
Most of these have been out there for awhile, but they’re still applicable, and this underscores how quickly things can change—SEO isn’t a “mature” industry by traditional terms, but it’s evolving daily to include more and more facets of internet marketing. The take home message is “it’s not too late to get involved” and become successful at online marketing.
• “15 Fundamental Truths About Social Media Marketing” by Glen Allsopp of SearchEngineLand.com: http://searchengineland.com/080129‐122519.php
• “5 Rules of Social Media Optimization” by Rohit Bhargava of “The Influential Marketing” blog: http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com/weblog/2006/08/5_rules_of _soci.html
• “Social Media Marketing, eh? Let's See What's in Our Bag o' Goodies” by Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz.org: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/social‐media‐marketing‐eh‐lets‐ see‐whats‐in‐our‐bag‐o‐goodies
• “How to Leverage Web 2.0 & Social Media Sites to Market Your Brand & Control Your Message” by Jane Copelan of
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SEOmoz.org: http://www.seomoz.org/article/social‐media‐ marketing‐tactics
• “The Beginner’s Guide to Social Media Optimization” by Lisa Barone of SearchEngineGuide.com: http://www.searchengineguide.com/lisa‐barone/the‐ beginners‐guide‐to‐social.php
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A Louisville, KY native, Roger Bauer has been involved in business for most of his life having grown up around a family business. It is this upbringing that led to Roger want to become as well versed in business as possible, and his desire to help other small business owners drove him to start this consulting firm in 2005.
He has worked in several industries including: retail, education, healthcare, technology, sales, logistics, and hospitality.
Roger values honest communication, quick results, teamwork, and low pressure tactics. He enjoys watching Jim Cramer's Mad Money, bicycling with the Louisville Bicycle Club (http://LouisvilleBicycleClub.org), and University of Louisville (http://louisville.rivals.com/) athletics in his spare time. He is also an automobile enthusiast, general sports fanatic, animal lover, and always interested in improving himself.
Roger is a Sullivan University (http://Sullivan.edu) graduate with a BSBA with Emphasis in Computer Science. He achieved a 3.86/4.00 GPA while completing his undergraduate degree and takes great pride in his academic accomplishments.
Roger is the founder of SMB Consulting, Inc., a nationally recognized sales and marketing consulting firm specializing in personalized marketing campaigns, search engine optimization and strategic initiatives. To learn more about the firm, point your browser to http://smbconsultinginc.com. To learn more about SEO, please visit http://the‐seo‐bible.com.
“There are plenty of additional tips and techniques to incorporate into your optimization tactics, but it is my hope that this overview and guide has been helpful.
You are encouraged to spread the word about this guide by having your friends, family, and co‐workers visit http://smbconsultinginc.com or http://seoPrecept.com and having them register for updates on the right side of either site.
Thank you for viewing this report, and congratulations for making it this far!
Talk at you soon . . . “
Roger
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REFERENCES
iii http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_optimization iv Mark Pilgrim. “What is RSS?” December 18, 2002 (http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/12/18/dive‐into‐xml.html) v Copied from http://socialmarker.com/ vi Adapted from http://digg.com/about vii Adapted from http://www.stumbleupon.com/about.html viii Copied from http://del.icio.us/about/ ix http://technorati.com/about/ x “What is Wiki?” http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki xi http://siteanalytics.compete.com/youtube.com/?metric=uv xii Copied from Twitter.com, http://twitter.com
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