Goodbye 2010 (and using that to your advantage)

I spend a ton of time on Twitter.  I love it- sweet, succinct messages from people whose opinions I appreciate and I can easily ignore Justin Beiber and Lady Gaga, even though I am apparently alone in that.  In any case, over the last few days there has been this outpouring of nostalgia on Twitter for the past year, and I am not alone in thinking it wasn’t so hot (naughty words in that link).  But that doesn’t mean it’s without advantages.

The great thing about social media in general is that it’s pretty damn instant.  December 31st? Four billion tweets about 2010.  January 2nd?  Probably none.  For the businessperson using Twitter as a marketing tool, this is both good and bad.  The bad part is that you have to be on top of it- if you have something relevant to a trending topic, you better use it in a tweet, fast, or the chance is gone.  The good news is that you have that chance, and as your influence grows, you can even affect it.  Even better, you can plan for it.  Holidays, new years, industry events all mean that people will be seeing- and sharing- more about those topics.  Have a plan for those times.  Use the hashtags that are trending.  And have something to share (even if it’s F%^& You, 2010).

 

See you next year (and good riddance, 2010)!

SEO Advice 2: Trust Your Instincts (and How to Train Them)

Odds are that if you are at the point in business where you are considering an SEO campaign, you have a pretty good idea of what you’re doing.  There are (obviously) exceptions to this, but like all the posts in this series, this is not aimed at the directionless, unsure businessperson.  These are aimed at business owners and managers who know what they’re doing and know how they want to do it (so if you’re starting out and have no idea what you’re doing, there are other blogs & books you should be reading.  Then come back).  So, assuming you have a plan in place, you have some (hopefully) decent business instincts, right?  Right.  So how do these benefit you when it comes to SEO?

SEO Advice pt 1: 10 Questions to Ask an SEO Consultant Before you Hire

Before I delve into the actual questions, allow me to digress, and point out something: While here I am dealing with SEO, I mean it very generally, and this can be applied to social media, marketing in general, etc.  So note these questions, and use them anytime you think of hiring a consultant.

On to the questions:

This Post is Not About the New Twitter

So it’s been a week since my last post, which is exactly what i advise people not to do.  Last Wednesday, I had (still have) an outline for a post about the new twitter, but I still don’t have it, and I’m not spewing advise about something I haven’t gotten my hands dirty with, so I’ve been stuck for inspiration.  That’s no excuse, but I’m using it anyway.

But last night, inspiration struck (sort of)!)  First off: Disclaimer: I do not watch a lot of TV.  In fact, the only TV I watch is Saturdays and Sundays between late August and February.  That’s it.  Not Glee, not Mad Men, not The Event or whatever.  So when I do watch some TV (as I did last night), I am always amazed by commercials (I hate commercials in any form.  Which is probably why I’m so big on organic marketing).  Usually, it’s just mild annoyance.  But now there are about 452,649 commercials aimed at small businesses telling them to get a website through X company and they will instantly rank #1 on Google.

This has got to stop.  There are hundreds, if not thousands of these SEO/Marketing companies that straight up lie to people and take their money, and it gives the good ones a bad name.

That’s my rant for now.  When the new Twitter finally shows up, I’ll post about it.  But for now, I am going to write a series of blog posts, and each will tackle a different thing businesses should watch out for.  If you are one of the SEO/marketing good guys, please comment or email with topics you’d like to see covered, problems you’ve encountered with these cookie-cutter-outsourcing SEO firms, and how to promote good, quality organic SEO.  Also, because this is more about the good of the SEO community, and keeping our (potential) clients informed, if you have articles or blog posts on this topic, let me know and I will be happy to include a link to them.

First up: Ten Questions you Should Ask an SEO Company Before you Hire Them

Focus on Conversions

We’ve all been there- shopping for something somewhat general, you go into about 20 stores before you find what you are actually looking for.  Usually, those 19 other stores have some form of what you are looking for, or at least close enough to work.  So why not buy from them?  Was it the service?  The store layout was so bad you couldn’t find what you were looking for?  The way the item was presented?  There are many possible reasons, and we have all walked out of stores because they didn’t give us a good reason to buy.

Your website is no different.  What can you do to make it easy for visitors to convert?

Simplicity Wins the Day

This post is inspired by the awesome Mohammed Al-Taee.  If you’re not following him on Twitter, you should be.  He tweets and retweets some of the coolest stuff around.  The other day, he retweeted Luay Rahil‘s statement that “[simplifying] your life is the key to happiness”, and said it was a good subject to blog about.  Lauy and Mohammed are speaking, of course, about simplicity in life, and I absolutely agree.  I try to live simply, and usually fail, but I try.  But in this blog post I want to point out simplicity in web design, search and search engine optimization.

What Does Google Instant Mean for SEO?

Lately, Bing and Yahoo have been getting a lot of press about sharing search results- and rightly so.  But today, Google reminded us why they’re the trend-setters and everyone else is still playing catch up.  Google Instant displays search results as you type, which will be a dramatic time saver for anyone using.  So what is it’s effect for businesses appearing in the search engine results?

Google Instant displays search results as you type- this means searchers will be using shorter terms in searches, so optimize for them!

SEO & Local Business

As a local business, how can you benefit from optimizing to rank higher in search engine results on the worldwide web?  After all, you’re not trying to sell to people on the other side of the world, country or even state.  However, there are certainly benefits to investing in SEO for your local business- in fact, you may benefit more from it than the big guys who sell worldwide!

Blogging & SEO

Should your business have a blog?  With very few exceptions, the answer is yes!  Why?  There are many reasons: It helps your SEO, it helps potential customers see the ‘human’ side of your business and can provide helpful information, as well as many others.

How does it help your SEO?  A well written blog post with proper keywords can actually rank in search results itself, and will give search engines additional context to establish who and what you are.  In addition, the fresh content a blog gives your website will ensure that the ‘spiders’ crawl your site more often and rank it higher.

In addition, when real, actual human beings (who SEO is actually about) read your blog, you change in their eyes from an impersonal business trying to sell them something into another real, actual human being who offers something they can use.  So in addition to being SEO friendly, be sure to write warmly and personally (my favorite color is green).  Also, keep your length to somewhere between 200-600 words.  We live in an age of shortened attention spans, so don’t overwhelm your readers.

Lastly, your blog can provide helpful information to readers.  Be it about a new product, some service you offer, your blog can take them beyond the basic information provided on your site.  When writing about something you offer, be candid and don’t oversell it.  You’ll lose the trust you are trying to earn.  Instead, if you are honest about it- even if you mention potential drawbacks- the reader will trust the information you provide and will be more likely to convert.  Speaking of, always include a link back to your home or contact page in your blog post so they know what their next step should be!

How Should Meta Tags & Descriptions be Used?

There is a lot of confusion, to say nothing of conflicting opinions, over the proper use of meta tags and descriptions for SEO.  The problem and, in many cases, reasons for the disagreement over them is that they are very useful to SEO- too much so.  Tags in general and meta descriptions are ripe for keyword stuffing, and that’s just what has happened all to often- the meta tags and descriptions just get stuffed with keywords and no real information, and search engines places far less emphasis on them they they might have otherwise.  Does this mean they are useless?  Far from it!

Remember, SEO is not just about being #1- that just helps the end goal of more conversions.  Well written meta tags and meta descriptions can go a long way to helping you get more conversions.  How so?

Do a quick search for something-  I searched for a term I just started optimizing a clients site for “Bellingham Apartments“.  First off, look at the meta descriptions.  Most have the term they have optimized for (in some cases, probably inadvertently) right up front, and it appears in bold- attracting someones eye to it.  Also, you’ll notice most of the descriptions end in an ellipsis- try to write concise descriptions so anyone looking for what you provide will know right off the bat that you are what they want.

Clicking through a couple of the page one results (none of which are my clients- they just signed with me), you’ll see some meta tags that go on forever with nothing but keywords- and that’s why search engines are ignoring them.  Put something brief in there with they keyphrase you are optimizing that page for and a short description of the page, and you’re done.  Any more than that and you’re throwing words at Google that they’ll just ignore.