SEO & internet marketing

Are You Thinking Like Google?

Posted on September 3, 2010 by admin

No, not like that, but in the good way!

The following is a guest post by Jim Kukral highlighting one of the most fundamental tips to succeeding online.

Have you ever really taken a step back from all the technical SEO stuff and thought about why Google wins? The real reasons why they have mass-market share and why they continue to dominate? It’s time you should, because once you understand how to start thinking like Google, you can finally begin to go beyond just ranking better, but also how to be a master Internet marketer so you can get more sales, leads and publicity.

After all, once you’ve been found, you now have to convert. Otherwise, it’s a waste of time.

So why does Google win? Because Google is the world’s biggest, and best, problem solver. The truth is that there are only two reasons why we all go online, using Google or not. Those two reasons are:

1. To have a problem solved
2. To be entertained

That’s it. Everything, and I mean everything you do online falls under one of those categories. For example, let’s say you’re planning on cooking your wife her favorite chicken marsala dish for your anniversary. You go online and do a search for “chicken marsala recipes”. Boom, you now have recipes, and videos, and images and cookbooks and all kinds of information to help you solve your problem.

As another example, let’s say you wanted to relax after work and watch your favorite musician play some of your favorite songs. You go to YouTube and do a search for “Rolling Stones Videos” and boom, you’re now watching video content that entertains you.

YouTube, which is owned by Google, is already the number two most searched search engine on the Internet (behind Google of course). That means that today billions of people are actively searching the Internet for video content. That also means that because of the public’s fast-growing massive hunger for content in video form, that regular people and businesses alike are now able to profit from the creation of that said video content.

The truth is, Google (and your business) has to solve problems for their (your) customers, the Internet searcher. If they (you) can’t do that, they (you) lose customers. It’s that black and white.

So I’ll ask you again. Are you thinking like Google? Have you sat down and figured out what your target audience’s biggest problems are? If you haven’t done that you need to do it now. Anticipate what they need. Figure out their pain and then create products/services that take that pain away.

Just like Google.

For over 15-years, Jim Kukral has helped small businesses and large companies like Fedex, Sherwin Williams, Ernst & Young and Progressive Auto Insurance understand how find success on the Web. Jim is the author of the book, “/a>”, as well as a professional speaker, blogger and Web business consultant. Find out more by visiting /a>. You can also follow Jim on Twitter /a>.

Originally posted here:
/a>

Posted in SEO articles | Tagged anniversary, because-google, business, google-or-not, money, rolling-stones, target-audience, wife | Leave a comment

Win a Free Pass to MN Blogger Conference

Posted on September 2, 2010 by admin

img class=”size-full wp-image-11503 alignright” style=”margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px;” title=”MN Blogger Conference” src=”http://www.toprankblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/mbclogofinal-small.png” alt=”Minnesota Blogger Conference” width=”180″ height=”178″ />

/a> is proud to be a founding sponsor of the first /a>. Tickets for this event “sold out” within a few hours and there are over 100 people on the waiting list. Thanks to conference founders Melissa Berggren, Arik Hanson, Suzi Magill and Katie Schutrop, it’s already one hot event.

The date is Saturday, Sept 11 (the day I fly to Hong Kong) and the location is at /a>. Topics to be presented range from “how to blog” to “how to get your blog published as a book” to “how to make money with a blog” to “blog analytics” to a “business blogging panel” that will include Adam Singer from TopRank Marketing.

If you’d like to attend this networking rich and information packed event, you can’t. It’s sold out!

However, what you can do is win a free pass from TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog.

All you have to do is:

Write a blog post explaining the most important thing you’ve learned from blogging yourself
Or if you don’t blog yet, one thing you’d like to learn
Why you should get to attend the MN Blogger Conference
Use the MN Blogger Conference logo above in your post and also include a link to the page you’re reading right now: http://tprk.us/mnblog

All blog post entries must be published and we must be notified (mnblog at toprank dot org) by Friday 9/3 at noon Central. Once received, all posts will be linked to from the bottom of this page and the TopRank Online Marketing staff will decide who wins. The winner will be announced at 5pm on Friday.

So what are you waiting for? Get started now on a compelling, creative and persuasive blog post that explains why you should be the winner of a very rare MN Blogger Conference pass.

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Posted in SEO articles | Tagged from-the-bottom, katie-schutrop, location, marketing, marketing pr conferences, networking, online-marketing, other events, presented-range, singer | Leave a comment

Everything I Know About Marketing I Learned from Google

Posted on September 2, 2010 by admin

/a> is an accomplished digital marketer that I know through MediaPost’s Search Insider Summit conference. He reached out to me while writing his new book, “Everything I Know About Marketing I Learned from Google”, and asked if I’d like to contribute. Such a request is a great honor to me but unfortunately, I never did end up sending anything to Aaron even though he was incredibly patient and went out of his way to make it easy.

I know what you’re thinking: Smart AND nice guy? Yes indeed, that’s Aaron and now he’s on a blog tour to promote his new book, graciously stopping by Online Marketing Blog with a video recognizing how TopRank Online Marketing “Acts Like Content” (/a>) as well as offering insights from the book on the value of content for marketing. Overall, the book offers 20 lessons “straight from Google’s playbook” that I think you’ll get a lot of value from. Check out the video:

Aaron also talks about a blog post by TopRank’s Adam Singer, /a>, that offers specific tips and guidelines on how marketers can make their brands memorable. He finishes up with a freestyle rap that you’ve got to hear. Well done Aaron and thanks for the TopRank Marketing love.

Be sure to check out the /a> site and blog tour page to see where Aaron is going to show up next. You can /a> at Amazon and anywhere else great marketing books are sold.

Posted in SEO articles | Tagged aaron goldman, amazon, book, content marketing, googley-lessons, learned, marketing, online-marketing | Leave a comment

How To Write Good

Posted on September 2, 2010 by admin

Yes, deliberate mistake

It grates when people write poorly, huh. When writers write well, the words almost become invisible. The focus shifts away from technical details, and onto the message.

Is there an easy way to write better blog posts? E-mails? Web copy?
Let’s take a look at three guidelines for web writing.

1. If You Can Say It, You Can Write It

The Dilbert Mission Statement Generator – sadly now offline – comes up with convoluted gems this:

“Our challenge is to assertively network economically sound methods of empowerment so that we may continually negotiate performance based infrastructures”

Satire, one would hope.

However, the US Air Force uses the following mission statement:

“The mission of the United States Air Force is to deliver sovereign options for the defense of the United States of America and its global interests – to fly and fight in Air, Space, and Cyberspace”

“Deliver sovereign options”?

Who talks like this? Well, apart from the US military.

Nobody.

Good web writing is the same as good spoken language. Use short sentences, short words, simple structures and a natural, predictable flow of ideas. Avoid waffle, hyperbole and words that hide meaning. Whenever you finish a piece of writing, read it aloud. Cut or rephrase phrases that sound clunky, because they’ll read clunky, too.

Your writing will sound warm and human.

The human voice is especially important online. Communicating at a distance, particularly two-way communication, is relatively new to humans. To help people connect with one another more easily, it pays to write in a warm, conversational style that mimics personal conversation when conducted in close, physical proximity.

When you think about how you would say something, especially to a specific person, you choose words, expressions and structures based on that personal context. Try to imagine that person in front of you as your write.

This approach works well for all applications – from formal legal sites, to personal sites.

2. Planning

Planning what you’re going to say helps you to complete any writing task more quickly and easily.

1. Identify and list your goals. What is the message? What is the desired action you want your reader to take? What is the key thought you want your reader to take away?
For example, a goal list might look like this:

*inform people the last project went well, even though there were problems
*highlight the good aspects about the project
*highlight the problems
*present ideas on how these problems can be overcome in the next project
*get everyone revved up and excited about the next project
2. Think about the audience. Who is your audience? What do you know about the person or group?
3. Determine the right tone and format based on answers 1& 2
4. Write quickly. Don’t edit, even if your writing is a mess. Separate out your writing and editing functions.
5. Draw a solid conclusion. Calls to action work well.
6. Read aloud what you’ve written. Cut, fix and tighten. Writing comes alive in the rewrite.

Solid blog posts sound spontaneous, but they’re not. They’re often structured, worked and reworked.

3. Hyperbole Doesn’t Work On The Web

Hyperbole means extreme exaggeration. i.e. “All the perfumes of Arabia could not sweeten this little hand”. Web readers tend to gloss over the flowery and the convoluted.

On the web, people scan, so the shape of your writing – how it appears on the page – can be just as important as what you say. So think about the shape and form of your writing. Can you use bullets, headings and images to break up large blocks of text? Sometimes, the best thing to do is not write at all. Can an image convey your message? If so, use it.

Also consider context. When visitors arrive on a page, a page deep within your site, do they know what your site is about from glancing at that one page? If not, consider using chunks of content to provide context. These chunks of information can be repeated on every page of your site, and should be self explanatory. Think directory entry. Your repeat visitors will become blind to it, but your first time readers will appreciate it.

We could go on all day about web writing. However, we’d like to hear your tips. How do you approach writing on your site? Do you plan? Do you wing it? What style of writing gets the best results?

Continue reading here:
/a>

Posted in SEO articles | Tagged america, audience, dilbert-mission, goals, hyperbole-doesn, message, person, project, reader, shape, space, tips, united, words | Leave a comment

The Real Cost of Buying Links for SEO: $4 Million

Posted on September 1, 2010 by admin

stack of money I was reading a copy of the Inc. 500 issue on my flight back from Dallas this weekend and came across an article about a seasonal online retailer that was “penalized” right before the Holidays for paid links. He estimated the revenue loss due to plummeting organic search visibility at $4 million in sales. Now he’s “thanking” Google for the spanking because he’s mended his ways and is reborn as a social media enthusiast.

I’m not sure I buy the “social media has turned things around” story exactly, but I do wonder how many companies and consultants roll the dice and take shortcuts and loopholes to get ahead only to find out later it’s worthless? The notion of paid links is an old story (/a>) but many of the tactics used to shortcut results for SEO will always be a fresh topic of discussion.

It turns out the retailer in the Inc. story was doing SEO internally then hired two SEO companies to help out. The story goes on to say that a SEO company was to “reach out to relevant sites and ask them for links. Instead, one of the companies admitted it was paying for links.” That’s worded in a way that makes you think maybe the retailer didn’t know the SEO company was buying links.

We don’t buy links at TopRank Marketing.

We never have. Not ever in 10 years of being in the search marketing business. As far as the retailer in the Inc. article, it’s surprising because buying links isn’t cheap. If a company didn’t know the SEO consultant was buying links, it’s peculiar any way you look at it. Where did the money come from to buy the links? How did the SEO company not report what it was doing? How did the company owner not know what the SEO company was doing?

I polled followers of /a> on Twitter whether they or someone they knew knew had ever been penalized for buying links. Almost all of them said yes. When I’ve mentioned that we never buy links to other search marketers, the disbelief was like I told them I didn’t need to breathe air.

The point of relating this story to you isn’t so much about the risks and rewards of paid links, defining exactly what “/a>” (what about a 3 way barter?) or even judging those that sell and buy links. The point is that the online retailer in the story says social media tactics were largely ignored and now they’re committed to blogging, Tweeting and being active on Facebook. He claims all is now well in their SEO world. “We’re back on top.”

The point: Why didn’t the online retailer commit to a better online marketing strategy in the first place?

It’s been promoted for years that /a>. People like Google’s Anti-Spam Czar Matt Cutts make their perspective clear and make it easy to/a>. Right or wrong, it’s the way search engines want to play. Obviously, paid links with the right anchor text from very authoritative and relevant websites have a positive impact, or SEOs and website owners wouldn’t participate. It’s important to note that Google /a> per se, but with paid links that pass PageRank.

The question I have for companies that rely too much on shortcuts and loopholes is, “Why not suspend the “free money now” attitude and invest in a smart and competitive online marketing program that can get results AND stand the test of scrutiny?” Won’t a customer focused marketing effort that provides optimized and linkable content to a growing social network earn more links, more traffic and more revenue anyway?

I don’t think there’s much reason to put your brand and revenue at risk if you have a long term view of how the search and social web works. The investment in understanding and engaging customers plus the staff, software and time to implement content, analyze performance data and ongoing /a> is well worth the cost and there’s virtually no risk.

“Don’t bring a sword to a gun fight”

Years ago at a search conference discussion about black hat and white hat tactics, Tim Mayer, ex head of Search at Yahoo! /a> “”If you’re being entirely organic and going after ‘Viagra,’ it’s like taking a sword to a gunfight. You just aren’t going to rank” when discussing acceptable tactics in really aggressive industries like “PPC” (pills pron casino).

The temptation and pressures to profitability are great in industries that are flush with heavily optimized and marketed web sites. However, most companies don’t fall in that category and I think smarter and more creative marketing can still win for the vast majority of websites, especially in the long run. We’ve seen it happen with our own clients nearly 10 years.

Why rent when you can own?

The reason I’ve never participated in link purchases or endorsed the practice isn’t as much about Google’s rules on paid links that pass PageRank. It’s because I could never understand why anyone would “buy” something with such risk associated with it when they could “earn it and own it”? With roots in Public Relations, our /a> has been accustomed to earning media placements and often times highly desirable links since we started the business in 2001. It can take more time to see aggressive results, but when you focus on making creative content and doing the hard work of promotion to earn traffic and links, the cost is one of investment vs. the often higher cost of advertising with no equity in what you’ve purchased. Then there’s the cost if the links are devalued by the search engines and subsequent lost revenue. I’d rather build, promote and earn those links that will be in place indefinitely.

Using that strategy, Online Marketing Blog has accumulated a substantial number and quality of links (according to Majestic SEO). The devil is in the details with this sort of thing of course, since it matters very much what the topic, anchor text and PageRank are of the link sources. But suffice it to say, we experience very good results in each of those areas as evidenced by over 21,000 different keyword phrases that sent organic traffic each month and top visibility for important and challenging keyword queries.

Gross Backlinks Accumulated

What’s your experience with managing risk with SEO tactics? Have you experienced what the online retailer above went through and focused anew on a sustainable and longer term online marketing strategy?

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Posted in SEO articles | Tagged dark side of seo, gross-backlinks, links, marketing, online-marketing, paid-links, public-relations, retailer, seo | Leave a comment

Tomorrow Apple Event: Any Expectations?

Posted on August 31, 2010 by admin

The announcement dates back to just one week ago and it has already sparked the usual trepidation around the web about what the next shiny little device from Apple could be.

From the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco on September 1, Steve Jobs will reveal the Apple’s news, music-themed this time of the year: it will probably be a product to be launched in the coming weeks, but about which we don’t have many clues yet.

The most reliable voices report about a complete redesign of the iPod lines that could probably inherit the dual cameras and Retina display from the new iPhone 4, and a New Service That Could let users listen to streaming music over the Internet without downloading songs directly to their own computer. Credible speculation, if you look back at December 2009 when Apple acquired /a>, a streaming digital music service – currently suspended – which allowed the users, among other interesting features, to purchase streaming-only Web albums.

Some rumors report that Jobs could also introduce a new iPad model, with a smaller screen size of 7 inches versus the actual 9,7 inches, Retina display equipped and priced significantly lower than the $ 499 needed for the current basic model of the tablet.

Probably, however, despite many who want a smaller model of the Apple tablet, that’s easier to carry and less bulky than the currently available version, we won’t see anything like that before next year anyway, because the introduction of a different product concept would be too close to the launch of the original iPad of just a few months ago.

Finally, we expect the announcement of the possible relaunch of the not-so-lucky Apple TV with its brand new name “iTV” which would then benefit from on-demand movies, television series and programs through a special decoder.

 We’ll see then. Any expectation on your side?

img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Woork?d=yIl2AUoC8zA” border=”0″> img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Woork?i=xsLq36v6Kkg:5z84kwiRdWI:F7zBnMyn0Lo” border=”0″> img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Woork?i=xsLq36v6Kkg:5z84kwiRdWI:gIN9vFwOqvQ” border=”0″> img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Woork?i=xsLq36v6Kkg:5z84kwiRdWI:V_sGLiPBpWU” border=”0″> img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Woork?d=qj6IDK7rITs” border=”0″>

The announcement dates back to just one week ago and it has already sparked the usual trepidation around the web about what the next shiny little device from Apple could be.

 We’ll see then. Any expectation on your side?

Go here to read the rest:
/a>

Posted in Web Design | Tagged announcement, apple, around-the-web, from-the-yerba, internet, introduction, ipod, steve-jobs, streaming-music, time, yerba, yerba-buena | Leave a comment

Social Media SEO Success with Blogging

Posted on August 31, 2010 by admin

Army Golden Knights: SFC Dave Herwig (@gkdave), SGM Steve Young (@gksteve), LTC Joe Martin (gkjoe)

My presentation on how to leverage Social Media SEO to improve the reach and effectiveness of blog content for marketing at OpenCa.mp DFW this weekend ended up being a lot of information in a very short period of time. The use of a video interview I did with Brian Clark as the segue into my presentation ate into some of the 30 minutes I had to present plus I simply had too many slides.

(Thanks to Lt Colonel em>Joe Martin for the photo taken right after the presentation. His team were literally sponges for information at the event.)

The good news is that there’s Slideshare, so I’ve embeded a copy of that presentation below. /a> and /a> gave witty, informative and entertaining presentations on blogging and copywriting for blogs before me, so the stage was set to talk about marketing that blog content.

Marketers familiar with “Push and Pull” can relate to Social Media being the push, where (along with listening & engagement) you syndicate, update and share your content via social channels. The pull is SEO, where you optimize that content with customer centric keywords they can use on search engines to easily find your content ahead of the competition.

My presentation shared a model that I call the Cycle of Social & SEO that starts with creating, optimizing and promoting content along with listening to and growing social networks. As the relevant content gets shared socially and others link to it, the exposure and traffic builds momentum to a point where search traffic and the social community you’ve fostered provides priceless data via social media and web analytics on what content to create and share on a go forward.

Guessing what keywords and what social channels your customers are connected to is the reason why so many companies don’t see an impact from their efforts. Being smart from the start and planning on developing a cycle that continues to provide value and refine effectiveness at meeting customer search and social media needs is a win for all.

Companies in the marketing space like /a>, /a> and our own agency at /a> have made strong commitments to content as well as SEO and Social Media with the payoffs coming in the form of competitive search visibility and growing social communities.

We’ve recently been engaged by another well known company in the online marketing space that sees the value in both our strategic marketing & implementation expertise, but more importantly, is making a commitment to content and it’s role in customer acquisition and customer retention through Social Media & Search Optimization.

Check out the presentation below and let me know what you think.

Better Blog Marketing with Social SEOView more /a> from /a>.

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Posted in SEO articles | Tagged marketing, media, online-marketing, photo, search, social, social seo, social-media | Leave a comment

Brian Clark Interview: Copyblogger on Content Marketing with Blogs

Posted on August 30, 2010 by admin

OpenCamp’s Sunday schedule included presentations on blogging that included /a>, Brian Clark and myself. I caught up with Brian before he gave his presentation to give us a little preview. John P. ended up using the video as the segue between Brian and I as we changed microphones.

Watch as Brian talks about the importance of planning content and understanding its purpose in order to be effective with blog copywriting. He also mentioned that traditional media is still doing some things right and we new media types would do well to identify what those things are and use that insight for our own publishing and /a> efforts.

I think Brian’s presentation on content planning and editorial was a perfect setup to the marketing of content presentation that I gave afterwards, but of course I’m biased. Of course you can find a cornucopia of copy writing and content marketing advice at /a>.

My next and last post from /a> will include a summary of my presentation along with the actual PPT deck embedded within the post.

Posted in SEO articles | Tagged brian, brian-clark, chris-pirillo, content marketing, importance, marketing, online, online-marketing, other events, the-importance, using-the-video, video, watch-as-brian | Leave a comment

Internet Killed Blockbuster. Who’s Next?

Posted on August 29, 2010 by admin

Dallas – The bomb blew up just a few days ago when a Los Angeles Times article reported that Blockbuster Inc., the video rental giant, is ready to file for bankruptcy.

Overwhelmed by debt and losses amounting to over $1 billion since 2008, the video rental chain is yet another of the world’s most famous names to join the long list of once successful companies that have not been able to adapt their business to the radical changes in the market introduced by the Internet. Another high-profile victim.

In a recent note (August 13), Blockbuster reported total revenues for the second quarter of 2010 were $788 million, with a loss of $194 million compared to total revenues for the same period one year ago. Net loss for the second quarter of 2010 was $69 million with a negative increase of $32 million compared to net loss in the second quarter of 2009.

As with the entire music industry, that in the early 2000, with the rapid spread of the Internet, has witnessed the failure of its revenue mainly because of music piracy and as, more recently, the bookstore chain Barnes & Nobles, which is paying for a significant delay in entering the business of electronic books (which record is firmly in the hands of Amazon), Blockbuster pays his choice of sticking to an old distribution model for its core business, a model that’s no longer adequate in the age of the Internet and unable to compete with Netflix or iTunes.

If it is true that over the next five years entertainment, music, books, videos, video games, will be distributed mainly via remote connections – it’s already happening right now, you know – I believe we have to realistically expect that the classic physical media will suffer a further drastic reduction and that this change will cause another earthquake which will spare only those who will react in a timely fashion.

To cope with the losses, Blockbuster plans to shut down 500 to 800 of the 3,425 on the United States territory. The bankruptcy will be filed probably by the end of September.

img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Woork?d=yIl2AUoC8zA” border=”0″> img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Woork?i=-jT8nGF2G_0:tPWEQba7GsQ:F7zBnMyn0Lo” border=”0″> img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Woork?i=-jT8nGF2G_0:tPWEQba7GsQ:gIN9vFwOqvQ” border=”0″> img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Woork?i=-jT8nGF2G_0:tPWEQba7GsQ:V_sGLiPBpWU” border=”0″> img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Woork?d=qj6IDK7rITs” border=”0″>

Dallas – The bomb blew up just a few days ago when a Los Angeles Times article reported that Blockbuster Inc., the video rental giant, is ready to file for bankruptcy.

To cope with the losses, Blockbuster plans to shut down 500 to 800 of the 3,425 on the United States territory. The bankruptcy will be filed probably by the end of September.

Chris Pirillo on SEO & Social Media @ OpenCa.mp

Posted on August 29, 2010 by admin

At the OpenCa.mp conference in Dallas this weekend I was able to re-connect with Chris Pirillo of Lockergnome and the Gnomedex conference (We’ve interviewed each other in the past). We both jumped out of the same airplane with the /a> last week and are also speaking today about blogs at /a>.

I caught up with Chris to talk about his take on SEO and social media. He had pretty strong opinions about people who are too aggressive and not always relevant in the social connections they’re making. This is what he had to say:

You can find Chris online by Googling “/a>“. How’s that for the effect of links on search engine visibility?

Posted in SEO articles | Tagged always-relevant, chris-pirillo, dallas, links-on-search, lockergnome, online, seo, social, social-media, strong-opinions | Leave a comment

1. If You Can Say It, You Can Write It

2. Planning

3. Hyperbole Doesn’t Work On The Web

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