2008-12-17 Hi Everyone, No newsletter next week as we'll be celebrating Christmas next week. See you all in January! :-) Rachel Phillips
Can Twitter Be Useful For Business?by David WallaceIf you have yet to hear about Twitter, I might ask you if you have been living in a cave and for how long. The micro-blogging platform that few knew about a year ago has now gone mainstream with over 6 million users - a number that is growing daily. Even major news outlets such as Fox News, CNN and others are using Twitter on a daily basis to get viewer reaction and create discussion around breaking stories and issues. This leads me to question whether Twitter can be useful for business or is it simply an outlet to waste... Top 500 Search Engine Keywords Of The Week - December 17, 2008by WordtrackerThis week's list of the top 500 most frequently searched keywords.... Are you keeping tabs on brand experience?by Beth HarteThere's been a power shift and the first mistake many companies make is believing that they do and can control the brand experience. That's no longer the case. It's the people on the other end of that experience that control it. Today, customers sharing brand experiences happen every day, everywhere without being edited or seeking a company's approval.... 5 Search Engine Ranking Killers You Want to Avoid at All Costsby Stoney deGeyterFor as many factors there are that you can manipulate to give you better ranking performance, there are other things that when not properly addressed will do a fantastic job of preventing your site from performing as well as it could and should. While this is not a conclusive list of search engine ranking killers, these five issues can, cause serious damage to your site. Fixing these five rank-killing issues will undoubtedly clear the way for better optimization performance. Puppy's Picks - SES Coverage 12/15/08by Jennifer LaycockI scan hundreds of feeds and read dozens of articles each day so you don't have to. From building a slow and natural link profile to the ethics of sponsored blog posts, find out which articles I dubbed as must-read for the small business crowd today. Why Small Businesses Need Searchby Mike MoranI often talk to small business people who lament at how the marketing deck is stacked against them. The big guys have the connections, the money, and the brand name. "How can I compete," I hear them asking. I always have the same answer--Internet marketing, especially organic search marketing. But when I tell them this, often I get disbelief. These small business owners have painfully learned over the years that marketing is for big companies, not for them. They're wrong.... What I Want for Christmas from the Search Engines: The Sequelby Stoney deGeyterSix years ago I wrote a post about what I wanted from Christmas from the search engines. I thought it would be a good time to revisit what I asked for back then, whether it happened or not, whether I really wanted it (20/20 hind site) and perhaps ask for a few new things. How To Create a Negative Keyword Listby Diana AdamsLast week's Top 10 ways to save money with PPC was a bit tongue in cheek, but I hope you came away with the the very solid point I was making. Negative keywords are the best way to save money on unwanted clicks. When you're after the lowest cost per conversion (as most ecommerce websites would be, right?) you watch where your ad spend is going very carefully.... Traffic Is Cool and All, But How Do You Turn That Into Conversions?by Stoney deGeyterRankings are just one way to generate traffic. There are literally countless ways in which you can drive traffic to your website, via both on- and off-line marketing efforts. Unless you sell advertising by the impression, traffic isn't the end-all, be-all of website performance. For many sites there has to be a conversion. Rankings Are Cool and All, But How Do You Turn Them Into Traffic?by Stoney deGeyterRankings, without traffic are pointless. In fact, while rankings can be a significant factor in growing your traffic numbers, traffic itself is not reliant on rankings. You can be in the number one spot and still get less traffic than your competitor in the number three spot. And even beyond that, you can often get better traffic (higher conversion percentages) not being in that top spot. Leveraging Blogs and Feeds for SEOby Manoj JasraSES Chicago 2008, is happening this week and features a session on the topic of "SEO Through Blogging and Feeds." Lee Odden, CEO of TopRankMarketing.com, is an expert on this topic and is a panelist at this session at SES Chicago. I had a chance to catch up with Lee, to get his insight on SEO through blogging and feeds... Keep Your Comments Organized With BackType!by Mack CollierI've said it time and time again, but the best way to grow your blog, is to leave it. And that means leaving a LOT of comments on other blogs! But if you do this, it can be difficult to keep track of all the blog posts that you have commented on. Difficult that is, until BackType came along. Six Keys to a Viral Message that Sticks - Part Four: Carry Credibilityby Jennifer LaycockAnyone who knows anything about viral marketing knows one of the primary reasons it's so effective is because the message carries the credibility of those who share it. While we may not be willing to listen to a message from an advertiser, we're nearly always willing to listen to a message from friends and family. Of course there's a challenge in getting your viral campaign to pick up the credibility that comes with being passed from one person to another. You have to get that first person to pass it along. Six Keys to a Viral Message that Sticks - Part Five: Tap into Emotionsby Jennifer LaycockWe all do it. We fight the battle between our hearts and our minds as we try to decide which one is right. Some days we try to bury our emotions and think with logic, other days we cast aside reason in favor of following our hearts. It should come as no surprise then that consumers are the same way about making buying decisions. Logic and data has it's place in marketing, but ultimately consumers tend to spend more when they let their emotions lead them. Typo SEO is a No Go Unless You Know the Flowby Stoney deGeyterThere are times when optimizing for typos is necessary. This is never more true if there are significant searches for your brand name spelled incorrectly. You want and need these people to find you. Using these strategies can help you target the typos that are truly important. How Yahoo! Walked Away from $44.6 Billionby Scott BureshWhen we last left Yahoo!, Jerry Yang (CEO) and the rest of the board had just spurned Microsoft's $44.6 billion takeover bid for the supposedly greener pastures of potential deals with AOL, News Corporation, and/or Google. The rejection of Microsoft's bid also put the current board on a collision course with Carl Icahn in what looked to be a battle for control of Yahoo!'s board of directors. Managing by Objectives and Impressions - Redefining the Face of Amendment Campaignsby Paul JahnLast week, I had lunch with Mike Rynchek, President of Spyder Trap Online Marketing. We wound up talking quite a bit about social media and managing-per-objectives and impressions rather than the cost-per-conversions avenue many of us are used to. Mike was gracious enough to be interviewed on how to measure results of different objectives. SEO Sales Spammers Make the Rest of Us Look Bad But We Should Keep Marketing Anywayby Stoney deGeyterI'm not for blind cold calling or email spamming. Good marketing via direct mail is highly targeted, not just sent to random addresses. The same holds true for cold calling and email marketing. Good and proper marketing rules must be followed if you want your business to succeed long term. Top Ten Ways To Save Money With Paid Ad Campaignsby Diana AdamsOver the previous weeks I have made a deliberate point of talking about important it is to use Keyword negatives to save money in your paid ad campaigns. I thought I would put together a quick lists of these top ten ways for saving money. How Do You Decide Who to Follow on Twitter?by Mack CollierIn yesterday's post, I looked at some ways that I have used to get more followers on Twitter. Now I wanted to spin it around and look at some of the criteria I have for who I decide to follow on Twitter. Not Another SEO Checklist Post!by Stoney deGeyterRecently my team and I (mostly my team) have been doing a lot of cool research with some of the free online tools that are available. We find we often use a tool on whatever site we are working on and then somehow forget about it as we move onto other tools and other sites. Eventually we remember and start working with it again but there is no consistency. So what's the solution? Another list. Knowing Your SEO Certification Optionsby Jennifer LaycockOn a fairly regular basis, I get emails from readers asking me about SEO Training and SEO certification. While there's no shortage of options out there for in-person training, (including our own SBMU conferences) it can be difficult to get yourself or your team to the right place at the right time. Thankfully, quite a few options are springing up for people who are looking to expand their knowledge without leaving their office. How Do You Get More Followers On Twitter?by Mack CollierAs Twitter just continues to grow in popularity, more people are wanting to know how to expand their Twitter networks, and get more people to follow them. There are several different ways to do this, depending on how you use Twitter. Here's some of the things that have worked for me. Facebook: Are they really your friends (or customers)?by Beth HarteAre all those people on Facebook really your friends (or customers)? ... Return to the Top of this Page
Return to the Top of this Page In response to... Are You Fighting the Etailer Price War or Circumventing it?I have been reading your articles and find they are very informative.. I have a fairly new online womens clothing store that I run as a part time business and am stuggling with sales due to lack of potential customers. I agree with the info in some of your articles about not running to the stockroom to get the pricing gun and drop prices as that will just throw away my investments in inventories.. Plus - I know my items are price competitive. Its tuff when you are not known. I have a blogsite, but its hard to keep it fresh as our products are not turning over.. and its hard to find new things to write about, plus it takes a lot of time.. I'm trying to get known out there and was wondering if you have any simple ways that might be good for me to try.. My store is at www.ohwhatanightonline.com Thanks for your time. ! Melissa Levesque In response to... 5 Search Engine Ranking Killers You Want to Avoid at All CostsGreat tips Stoney. We deal with man eTailers and find that duplicate content is rampant and a cause for many ranking woes. For large sites on legacy platforms, duplicate or template title tags, poorly constructed URL's, and lackluster site architecture just add to their problems. It's often a good idea for these types of businesses to conduct either an in-house or third-party professional SEO audit. Many of these challenges can be identified supported by custom solutions to give the site increased potential to rank for both long tail and head keywords. While Google came out a few months back saying not to worry so much about rewriting URLs and on-site duplicate content issues, you hit the nail on the head in suggesting that site owners lose control over which URLs are being preferred by the SE's when duplicate content is a root cause. Scott G Return to the Top of this Page Free SEO ToolsThinking of buying SEO software? Then try the best SEO tools free first! Skaffe.com Directory: Show off your website Express Submit today.Quality directories like Skaffe.com offer you strong search engine exposure. Sporge Directory from Skaffe.comUnder new management! All new with low submission prices. WoW DirectoryPowerful and affordable directory marketing services. Submit your website today! New! Team Skaffe Directory from the editors of Skaffe.comUp to 4 links for every submission. Free submission for non-commercial websites. Return to the Top of this Page SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Repeating Keywords Too Much Re-Submitting A Sitemap To Goolge Creates Problem Time Of Day Changes My Google Ranking Google SearchWiki InitiativeOTHER ONLINE MARKETING What Did You Do Today How To Boost Sales Do I Need My Own Website To Blog Free Or Paid Press Releases And How Many Times The Relevancy Of Paid Directory Submission Free Auto Directory Submission Twitter? Can It Help Need Suggestions On Selecting A SSL Certificate ProviderSMALL BUSINESS ISSUES Help! New Business Partner Wants Out Is The Economy Helping Or Hurting YouPREVIOUS WEEK Small Business Forum Update For December 1, 2008 (If you like our search engine news, you'll love our small business news.) Return to the Top of this Page
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