StepForth SEO News Blog

Friday, April 10, 2009

1. You can change and thus optimize the public URL for your profile.
   I changed mine from my name to http://www.linkedin.com/in/websitemarketer
   Personally I would rather have both URLs but I like this a little better. NOTE: if anyone knows how to secure the second URL for the same profile (w/o creating a second profile) please let me know.
   
   
2. Where you add your website URL you can actually make a small change that allows significant customization (select the "Other" option where the link drop-down is shown). See the video for a far better example or go to my Web site marketer profile where instead of seeing "My Website", "My Blog", etc. in the list of "Websites" you will see some great customized titles that I created.
   

Labels: Ross Dunn, SEO Tips, Social Marketing, Tutorials, Web Marketing Tips, YouTube

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Two Great Tips for Optimizing Your Linkedin Account

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Labels: Baidu, Blogs, Brayden Reger, Facebook, Google, MySpace, Net Reality, Privacy, Social Marketing, StepForth

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Big Brother’s Internet

Friday, September 05, 2008

Labels: Scott Van Achte, Social Marketing, Yahoo

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Ad Views: Myspace Surpasses Yahoo

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Labels: Scott Van Achte, Social Marketing, Yahoo

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: So Long Yahoo Mash

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

The social web is rapidly growing and Google is trying to tap into this massive industry with the launch of Friend Connect. Released in a limited preview, Friend Connect allows web site owners to incorporate a number of gadgets to their site in an effort to improve the overall user experience.

Friend Connect helps webmasters make their websites more appealing, engage users, and help increase the average time on site. Incorporating a number of available social features is made easy, and does not require any programming skills whatsoever.

Webmasters select from a list of Google and Member gadgets, choose their colors and other options, and then simply cut and paste the code directly to their site.

When your site visitors opt in to use Friend Connect within your site, when they enter a review, post photos, or interact with your gadgets, notices are posted within their friends various social media accounts which can attract them to visit your site.

Currently Friend Connect is available only in a preview release, with select sites being accepted. If you are interested in participating, fill out the application form and cross your fingers that Google will accept you.

Labels: Google, Scott Van Achte, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Google Goes Social, Launches Friend Connect

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Labels: Online Statistics, Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: UK Mobile Phone Usage for Social Networking

Thursday, April 10, 2008

In this article two important marketing strategies are reviewed: search engine optimization and social media.

Just as the spokes of a wheel are held together and strengthened by its hub so too is the planning for a successful marketing campaign. The greater the integrity and quality of the hub, the better are the chances that the spokes will stay true and provide far reaching performance.

In this series we have looked at several ‘spokes’ that contribute to a winning web marketing strategy. Part 1 looked at several of these building blocks: marketing budget and timelines, market research, and competitor analysis while Part 2 discussed the importance of keyword research, focus on achievable phrases, creating relevant textual content and search friendly website design. A future article will deal with the remaining spokes: link building, blogs, newsletters, and website analytics.

But central to all of this, the hub, is search engine optimization. A properly optimized site will make all its associated components strive for greater potential. SEO raises the bar. With the rapid maturation (sophistication?) of the internet it has become ever more challenging to keep up to date with recent advancements and techniques in one’s online quest in search and being found.

Here are some guidelines that have withstood the test of time and will likely continue to be valid for the foreseeable future. The list is not all inclusive and as search engine algorithms constantly change so do the weighting of these variables. The higher a search engine’s confidence in these elements, the higher will be organic placement in their index. Ensure your website has the following focus:

• Keywords: develop a universe of achievable keyword targets and then create sufficient textual content to support these keywords on critical pages in the site so it is optimized for maximum search engine relevancy. Consider having keywords with descriptive or geographic modifiers, if applicable.


• Title Tags: unique and keyword enriched descriptive Title tags must be written for each page in the site. The Title tag is often used as the title for whatever search engine listing you achieve. This makes the Title tag not only a crucial element for achieving listings but may also influence prospects to visit your web site. As a result, it is very important to consider the structure of the Title tag and what message you wish to convey.


• Description Tag: unique keyword enriched Description Meta tags that are page-specific are a critical component in optimizing the site. If the Meta tags are relevant to the page they are on, this may add extra leverage for achieving placement under other keywords. It should be optimized to suit the specific content of the page.
  
  
• Navigation: a text-based navigation map should be available at the bottom of each page in the site. This is especially true if your site utilizes a fully graphical navigation bar or image menu. Text links are extremely important within a web site because they are easily indexed by the search engines.


• XML Sitemap: create an XML site map and feed it to Google. When changes are made to your site Google is notified and this may encourage increased spider frequency.


• Keyword Ratio: keyword to non-keyword ratios should be tested on each page to approximate the average keyword density found on successful competitor’s pages.


• Alt Tags: descriptive image Alt tags should be optimized.


• Links: ensure there are no broken links in your site; repair or delete them.


• Primary Keyword Phrase: the Home page in your site must provide for a specific focus on your primary keyword phrase. A reasonable description length would be 100 – 150 words.
  
  
• Secondary Keyword Phrases: have internal pages focus on secondary keyword phrases that are unique to that page.


• Text Links: place keywords in the text links. Take the opportunity to cleanly add keywords into these links and they may enhance the placement outcome. Refrain from using generic terms such as ‘Home Page’ or ‘About Us’.
  
  
• Splash Page: It is irrelevant to have a splash page as your Home Page as there is no text present for spiders to read, record and index.
  
  
• Pop-Ups: do not use pop-ups in place of internal pages as search spiders will not read information contained in them.

As always if you are in the development phase of a new website or revamping an existing one it is always a good idea to purchase a few hours of quality consulting time. Such a precautionary measure can save you from expensive launch delays or having to reprogram code.

When a website is optimized it is important to recognize that SEO is not a one time event. The online environment is a dynamic one and constantly changing. As such, websites require continual management and maintenance. Frequently revise content to keep it fresh to both the search engines and your potential customers.

There are 10 organic listings available on each of Google’s index pages and your goal is to be as high up on that first page of results as possible. Because if you are not there, you can bet it will be your competitor. Implementing a sound SEO campaign and actively maintaining the site will help you get there.

Ross Dunn, StepForth’s CEO authored two extremely popular downloads about SEO. I highly recommend checking them out. Here they are - The Ten Minute Optimization REDUX - A SEO Tips White Paper and Is Your Website Search Engine Friendly? - Your Personal SEO Checklist

On Social Media and What Social Media Can Offer Your Company

Social media communities have the enormous power to change how people view and discuss your product online. You can optimize specific content you have for broadcast to a set of social media channels and their most relevant platforms. Some of the best ways for increasing your exposure on the web can include question and answer websites, blogging, and forums, to myriad social media sites and networks with ten of millions of users.

Is social media marketing a bubble or will this new flurry of interaction really change the face of online visibility? Although it is still early in the game to judge, here are some interesting possibilities that can further promote your online presence.

• Community building: most social media sites are composed of communities, individuals, and groups who can drive large amounts of traffic to your site. Build relationships in these areas to benefit your company and its goals.
  

• Brand Awareness: your identity on the web! People are probably chatting or looking for your products and services on the web right now and you want your brand to be found when this happens. Increased exposure and visibility on social media sites will lead to your site being found and possibly seen as a leader in your industry.
  

• Reputation management: social media creates a better online presence for your products and services. It is important to know where your presence is found and what people are saying so you can control your message. Monitoring tools for keeping track of your online presence, social media achievements and pertinent industry news will keep you abreast.

• Improved search engine ranking: social media creates fresh and relevant content that will be indexed on the search engines and social media sites. Some social media sites are indexed on certain search engines and thus can provide greater exposure of your services. This can lead to information on your site being ranked higher and more often on the search engines.

• Increased visitor traffic: having your presence on social media sites can greatly affect your online traffic. Social media traffic will produce more qualified leads and highly targeted traffic to your website and can lead to viral online exposure.

One of the benefits of a social media program is to promote your site so it is seen as an authority in its field and the place to find information about your product or service. Where is your company or product online in relation to the top social media and niche social media sites related to your industry? Where does your target audience go for industry news, information and resources and which social media sites do they use?

What are your competitors up to in social media? Where are your competitors found on social media sites, where they are promoting their brand online, and what is giving them success online?

Develop marketing content (text, video, and/or audio) to produce a campaign that will showcase your products or services and increase traffic to your site. Determine which web communities (from large to niche social media sites) are best designed to promote your content. Then leverage and target the top social media communities to increase your website’s visibility.

Not only can social media help businesses find their clients online but it can build a positive brand experience where you are seen as a leader in your field having a product or service that many people recognize, trust and use.

Social media marketing works well within a strategic web marketing plan that may also include consultation, competitor analysis, keyword research, a multi-month, hands-on search engine optimization campaign or website analytics.

For a more in depth discussion on social media please see Do it Yourself Social Media Marketing - A StepForth White Paper

Labels: Bill Stroll, SEO, SEO Tips, Social Marketing, Tutorials

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Part 3 - The Genesis for a Successful Online Marketing Campaign

Friday, March 28, 2008

• Have you been tracking key performance indicator(s) (KPI) since the inception of the campaign?
  Let me explain; say you launched an SEO campaign to drive more traffic to the “Norco Bikes For Sale” page on your website. In this case a very simple key performance indicator (KPI) would be how many visits the page has received from people that stayed longer than, say 6 or 7 seconds (this time qualifier would all-but-eliminate low quality clickthroughs). If you tracked this all the way from the inception of the campaign and you saw that this KPI had increased perhaps more research is in order before cancelling this campaign. If you saw no measureable improvement in your KPI then the campaign should be canned, or at the very least, paused.
  
  


• If you haven’t adequately monitored the success of a campaign from the start is there a way to determine it now?
  Usually there is a method to determine the success of a campaign using historical data but the method depends on a multitude of circumstances. Here are a couple of the most common methods:
  
  Dig into your web statistics: any hosting company worth its salt (like LunarPages or WeDoHosting) will have web statistics compiled for your website. These stats can provide revealing historical information on the ups and downs of traffic on your website.
  
  Note: I recommend setting up Google Analytics on your website (free) for an alternative view of your stats. I find it best to have Google Analytics installed if even just for piece of mind that you have a backup of your stats (if you move hosting providers for example). If you do this, however, please read this handy article by Matt McGee on protecting your privacy while using Google Analytics.
  
  If web site statistics are not an option then you may have to review your income history and see how much of your income you can tie into the specific marketing campaign. This process is not likely to be painless and may very well be impossible if you have a large number of campaigns going on at the same time; however, it could prove worthwhile if it keeps you from wrongly shutting down a profitable campaign.
  


• What do your frontlines say? Are you getting more sales from the web?
  Every sales person in your office should be asking how prospects found you and they should be keeping meticulous notes on this information. If they are then ask them if they have seen a marked increase in web-related phone calls and whether they found you through a (specific) search engine. This kind of info is invaluable to determining the success of any marketing campaign.
  
  


• Is the campaign nearly profitable but not quite?
  If you can see the campaign is close to being profitable then I strongly recommend sticking to your guns (if you can afford to) and conduct testing to increase the viability of the campaign before giving up on it.
  
  Multivariate testing is often a great technique for improving a campaign. Multivariate testing is a term used to describe the tweaking of a landing page in manner that (hopefully) influences a desired reaction from the visitor. Tweaks could be as simple as removing an image of a Norco Bike at the top of the landing page which in-turn moves the marketing text higher up the page. A multivariate test would examine how this seemingly minor change positively or negatively affects the page. Usually a positive reaction would be an increase in clickthroughs to a goal page (such as a purchase page or an inquiry form).
  
  Here is an excellent example of successful multivariate testing.
  
  


• Did you check to see if your pay-per-click campaign was profitable before turning it off?
  When you are looking at cost cutting your attention will most likely be focused on major expenditures like pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns and rightfully so; a poorly performing campaign can be a major drain. That said, you must do your homework before shutting down a PPC campaign because it could be delivering the profit you desperately need. In a perfect world this question would be a waste of space but I am sure a vast number of PPC campaigns are run without proper monitoring so I feel this reminder to verify profitability is warranted. If your campaign has not been properly monitored then I suggest thinking carefully about your next step. You can either turn it off for the time being and see what effect it has on your sales OR immediately install the appropriate mechanisms to track a pay-per-click campaign and monitor it long enough to determine if it is in fact successful; the time required depends on the breadth of the campaign but 2 weeks should do the trick.

• Has there been a regular and distinct increase in subscribers to your blog RSS feed or newsletter subscriptions?
  If you are using Feedburner or another RSS management tool look at your average sign-ups on a weekly basis (take more than one sample) before you start your SMM campaign(s) and then compare that to a sampling of a few weeks over the past month or two. Do the same examination for your newsletter subscriptions (using whatever management tool you use to monitor signups). Do you see a substantial increase in signups on a weekly basis? If not then have an in-depth discussion with your SMM team or vendor and determine where the disconnect is. After all, these assets have to be doing something for their money – perhaps they see another metric increasing.
  
  


• Are you seeing more traffic from social media websites? If so, are they of a high enough quality?
  Open your web site statistics, go to your referral stats and look for increased traffic from social media websites your SMM team is concentrating on. If you don’t find any additional traffic stop at this point and have a serious discussion with your SMM team.
  
  If you do find an increase of traffic from social sites then further segment this data and determine the quality of this traffic. For example, using ClickTracks Professional it is easy to create a filter that shows only visitors from StumbleUpon (or another group of social sites) that stays on your website longer than 5 seconds; this will eliminate zero second (aka “useless”) traffic and leave you with the worthwhile data. Now take this traffic and compare it to the expense of acquiring it through your current SMM campaign. If the numbers appear favourable and you feel the benefit outweighs the costs then you have your answer – keep the program. If the numbers are unfavourable either sit down with your SMM team to adjust/tweak/modifiy your campaign (by finding more appropriate social sites to become active on) or shut the campaign down until the winds are again favourable to refocus and try again.
  
  


• Are you or your company getting talked about more often? Is it positive or negative talk?
  No matter what type of campaign you have running it is important to keep tabs on your online reputation. While running a SMM campaign it is easy to step on toes and cause ill-will; especially if your marketers are not taking care to understand the unique etiquette of each social property they participate in. If you are not sure of your current reputation then try searching Google for specific iterations of your business name and your key employee names. Document anything that appears positive or negative. Also make certain to setup a Google News Alert for specific key phrases so that you can be alerted whenever relevant fresh content is made available in Google’s vast database. If you find negative press then handle it immediately by responding to it (decide how this best be done) and quickly inform your SMM team of the issue so they can learn from it and avoid a reoccurrence. If you find a lot of negative press then you need to decide if your SMM campaign is worthwhile continuing since you have to spend so much time pursuing damage control.

Labels: PPC, Reputation Management, Ross Dunn, SEO Tips, Social Marketing, Tutorials

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Recessions Can Teach Valuable Marketing Lessons

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Labels: Andrew Clough, Google, Link Forth, Online Statistics, Social Marketing, StepForth

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Today's Social Media and SEO Linkforth

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Labels: Link Forth, Reputation Management, Social Marketing, YouTube

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Today's Social Media Linkforth

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Labels: Google, Link Forth, PPC, Social Marketing, Yahoo

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Today's Social Media Linkforth

Friday, February 22, 2008

Labels: Andrew Clough, Google, Link Forth, Social Marketing, Video

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Today's Social Media Linkforth

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Labels: Andrew Clough, Link Forth, Social Marketing, Yahoo

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Today's Social Media Linkforth

Monday, February 11, 2008

• Jeff Quipp's article on passive and aggressive approaches to attaining friend's within social media.

• Andrew Goodman shows us the makeup of a good web site in relation to how the Google's "adsbot" views it.

• Want to know why Social Media is so important to advertisers? It is because Social Networks have the information that allows "behavioral targeting" of us as the consumer. Being able to target the individual creates a "trusted environment for reaching high-value, frequent purchasers."

• CBS and Facebook have created the NCAA Basketball Championship March Madness brackets application. Not only are they providing this service but they have free, live, online coverage of the whole tournament.
  

• Ever wanted to know what it's like to work at Google? Here's your inside guide.

Labels: Andrew Clough, Google, Link Forth, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Today's Social Media Linkforth

Friday, February 08, 2008

"If Google's vision proves appealing and social data loses its linkage to a specific social site, Facebook and MySpace may find their ability to retain users substantially diminished. Without the added value of social graph exclusivity, Facebook and MySpace become merely providers of Web hosting for the HTML averse. It's doubtful Facebook could sustain a valuation of $15 billion were it pitched as 'Geocities, but with widgets.' "

Labels: API, Google, Scott Van Achte, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Google Introduces Social Graph API

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Labels: Andrew Clough, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: The Sociology Of Social Media

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

• Jeff Quipp does a great job of commentary on the current status of Digg. He combines theories on its new algorithms to a psychological approach on how it hooks new submitters.
  
  
• Arun Radhakrishnan shows us a search engine dedicated to combining social media and traditional search options. Seachles uses “search + circles” to find relevant information.
  

Labels: Andrew Clough, Digg, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Today's Social Media Linkforth

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Labels: Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Super Bowl Twitter Activity Plotted

Thursday, January 31, 2008

• Andy Beal and his ongoing discussions on Social Media Marketing (SMM) are always intriguing and timely.
• Jeff Quipp and his team at Search Engine People work hard to keep on the cutting edge of SMM so I recommend reading their blog.
• SEOmoz, Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal all feature excellent articles on SMM on a regular basis.

Labels: Ross Dunn, SEO Answers, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Marketing Questions From SEO Blog Readers

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

• Packs by Topic
• Packs by Location
• Packs by Company
• Packs by Events or Meet-ups
• Packs by Identity

• Twitter's Usefulness Underscored During San Francisco Storm
• Twitter Get's a Guide
  

Labels: Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Tell the World About Your Twitter Profile

Friday, January 25, 2008

Up until now there has been no way to measure digital presence, to see where you fit in to the online world. At Garlik, we've analysed the digital profiles of the nation and have made available a QDOS score for every UK adult . Your QDOS score is made up of 4 different components:

Popularity
Who you know and the extent of your online network.

Impact
How much people listen to what you say online.

Activity
What you do online e.g. shop, chat, blog.

Individuality
How easy you are to find online according to your name, your age etc

"In the digital world, there is information that other people, companies or even the Government makes available about each of us which we are often not aware of, including government database information such as UK births, deaths and marriages. In fact, you could say there is ‘background digital noise’ about all of us."

"The key to tackling data abuse is for consumers to make themselves ‘hard targets’ and the purpose of QDOS is to wake people up en masse to the fact that their identity is worth protecting. Once consumers start to recognise this fact in a major way, it will become harder for fraudsters to abuse their data."

Labels: New Tech, Reputation Management, Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: QDOS Will Take North America by Storm

Friday, January 04, 2008

1. I caught a tweet from Michael Dorausch of Planet Chiropractic that provided a resource of links to the latest California weather news and travel info. The posting appears quite helpful to Californians because it provides alternative sites for those who find the most obvious ones too busy to access.
   
   How it Helped: This is weather posting is a great resource for friends and family in California - pass it on to those who may not know how to navigate the Net well - it could save a lot of headache for anyone travelling or planning to travel.
   
   
2. Evan Williams kindly posted a driving warning for his Twitter network: "Driving thru town in the storm. Brannan blocked at 8th by fallen tree. Multiple traffic lights out."
   
   How it Helped: Stay away from Brannan and 8th and keep the heck of the roads if you have any choice in the matter.
   
   
3. Jeremiah Owyang posted that his home was without power and he was bailing water as his garage flooded. He posted a few times on this over the past 10 hours. Poor guy sounds miserable! I wish I was in the area to help - if I were I could thanks to Twitter.
   
   How it Helped: Monitor your basement and garage for water and prepare for outages if you haven't already. Oh and stay away from Jeremiah's neighborhood ;-)
   
   
4. Adam Glickman lost a TV converter to a power surge. As a result, he decided to plug his replacement into a UPS.
   
   How it Helped: Now is the time to use those all important surge protecting power bars and to use UPS equipment on anything that is too valuable to lose. Oh and pray you kept the $5000 warranty coverage pamphlet that came with your power bar if it doesn't work out for you.

Labels: Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Twitter's Usefulness Underscored During San Francisco Storm

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Labels: Fun, Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: A Little Facebook Comedy

• My Twitter friend and social networker extroardinaire Tamar Weinberg wrote a great article that shows which social media networks she networks across different social sites:
  "How Do You Network On Social Sites?"
  
  
• ResourceShelf has links to recently posted research papers by Google employees. These papers can be gems for foretelling the future of search: Recently Posted Research Papers and Biblographic Info by Googlers. Special thanks to Barry Schwartz and his helpful Tweet that brought me to this info.
  
  
• The unofficial Facebook blog ("AF") discusses the incredible potential of social shopping heralded by Facebook's recent Beta test of a payment system. You will be hearing a LOT more about this very soon.
  
  
• Did you know that Democrats "participate more fully in social technologies"? This is just one of the interesting nuggets found in this fascinating post by Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research: Social Profiles of Political Candidates. The posting has excellent information sourced from a Forrester research document.

Labels: Online Statistics, Other News, Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: A Few Excellent Posts of the Day

Thursday, December 13, 2007

(image credit, The Register)

Labels: Reputation Management, Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Wikipedia's Wikiality Stronger Than Ever

Monday, December 10, 2007

1. An offline social shopping experience at Bloomingdales that was chosen by Time Magazine as one of 2007's best inventions. Created by IconNicholson this innovative concept highlights the use of text messaging, shared video, and virtually trying on clothes to aid shopping in the real world. This concept is extremely very interesting and I imagine there are ways to apply this concept to many different offline marketplaces. If you think of a way to adapt it to yours please keep me (ross at stepforth dot com) informed; I would love to see how it turns out for you.
   
   
2. The article also noted some recent research from SellPoint that suggests audio/video tours of products can increase time spent on site and ultimately translate into more sales. SellPoint happens to sell services offering audio/video tours so I would take this info with a grain of salt, however, as a consumer I have to admit I am a huge proponent of these types of interactive product tours so I feel this data is worth passing on.

Labels: New Tech, Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Successful Online Sales Approaches

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Dear Ross,

Responding to your invitation at SiteProNews, I am an author at Citizendium (http://en.citizendium.org.)

We believe the world needs a more reliable free encyclopedia. We are creating a trusted general reference work by giving people a place to work under the direction of experts, and by expecting personal accountability, professionalism and by requiring the use of real names. Our goal is to capture humanity's multivariate understanding of reality, and thereby to paint a maximally broad and detailed portrait of our universe as accurately as we understand it. An indispensable means to this end is the involvement of many experts who will help guide and, ultimately, approve many of our articles. We expect our approved articles to be, in the long run, as authoritative, error-free, and well-written as encyclopedia articles can be expected to be.

As to quantity, we hope to grow to hundreds of thousands of articles within a few years, and millions a few years after that. This is not the traditional goal of encyclopedias, which has been to offer up only mainstream views of the most important aspects of the most important topics. Cheap disk space and bandwidth, and the potential of participation by ultimately millions of people, means that we can capture humanity's understanding of reality with far more nuance and detail.

We are also creating a new sort of online community. We welcome experts as well as the general public; we will be built not by top-down orders but as and where contributors wish to work; and we will be organized as a republic governed by a rule of law. This means that there will be no "dictators," but a regularly changing group of people tasked to manage a public trust in conformity with a relatively stable code of rules. It also means that we will have very little tolerance for the sort of immature disruption, abuse and gaming that plagues so many other Internet communities.

On a personal note, I left Wikipedia, because whilst there are a number of competent editors there, the combination of anonymity, people gaming the system, an overemphasis of 'style' over 'reliable content', and a lack of interest in the management to manage, leads to endless unproductive arguments. In part, it's success is due to exactly those factors - contributors start writing a few articles and are then seduced by the politics - see <this Wikipedia link> as just the latest appalling example - people either burn out become 'wikidrama' addicts.

Not for me I'm afraid.

Kind regards,
Russ McGinn

Labels: Interviews, Other Engines, Reputation Management, Ross Dunn, SEO News, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: An Introduction to Citizendium by Editor Russ McGinn

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Labels: Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Twitter Poster Shows Top Twitter Personalities

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Labels: Mobile, Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Twitter Gets a Guide

Monday, October 15, 2007

More Details

More Details

Labels: Online Statistics, Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Study Shows Social Networkers Love to Shop

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

One thing is for sure... Facebook nay sayers should definitely take a step back and reconsider their standpoint because I am in good company believing that Facebook is poised to be the Google of social media.

by Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth Web Marketing Inc.

Labels: Google, Ross Dunn, SEO News, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Today Facebook Opens the Gates to Search Engines

Friday, August 31, 2007

• Yahoo! Buzz
• Google Trends

Labels: Online Statistics, Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Wikirage Offers More Fascinating Insight into Trends

Monday, August 20, 2007

• URLs vs Name Brand: the big advertisements are more often recommending prospects search for their name online rather than provide a URL. This is because a high percentage (sorry can't remember the #) of prospects cannot remember the URL later but have little problem remembering the brand.
  
  
• Cover Your Assets: When advertising offline make certain to buy paid placements for the many potential misspellings from your campaign. This recommendation also includes purchasing the applicable misspellings of the campaign URL for those that use it. If you fail to cover these gaps you can lose a substantial number of potential buyers.
  
  
• The Special K Campaign: One of the speakers noted a branding campaign that many of us likely witnessed during the 2006 Christmas/New Years season by Kellogs. The concept of the popular TV commercial was that Special K wanted to help you in your bid to become healthier. The crossover to the Internet occurred when anyone typed in "Special K" into Yahoo (who was a participant in this campaign) they were provided with a co-branded customized search result page that provided targeted routes for users. One such route was to a forum area where users could get help and ask questions about their bid to get healthier. The other was a co-branded tips section where there was plenty of advice on snack eating, associated diets, food myths, etc.
  
  So what does this branding campaign demonstrate? Special K took an approach that is now the spirit of social marketing; they were not directly asking people to buy Special K but they were building credibility for their brand by partnering with their prospects in their bid to get healthier. Brilliant!
  
  
• A Funny Bit About Contextual: I have never been a big fan of contextual advertising so when the search agency representatives on the panel were asked how they felt contextual worked into their marketing plans I perked up. What I heard made me grin ear to ear... the panelists seemed a bit perplexed for a moment and then in their own turn essentially said contextual advertising was only considered with any money that was left in a campaign. In other words.... forget about it unless you have some pennies to spare and you want to really blanket the world.
  
  
• How will the growth of universal search affect paid search marketing?: I was surprised by the answer to this question. Essentially the agency panelists agreed that universal search could be bad for paid advertising. The reason they cited was the more accurate organic search becomes the less likely it is that searchers will act on paid advertisements. I was surprised more by their candor than anything. In my opinion they are entirely correct which is why I firmly believe that organic search engine optimization is a key component to every online marketing campaign.
  
  
• Yahoo Universal Search: Yahoo representative Kelly Graziadei noted that Yahoo is currently testing various forms of universal search within its results. One such example can be seen by searching for "Transformers". In this instance Yahoo has decided to keep the top 10 organic rankings intact but they have preceded them with a graphic enticing viewers to check out the movie trailer to the popular movie or see reviews and find show times in their zip code.
  
  
• Local Better than International: Scott Linzer, Director of Search Marketing at Universal McCann loosely noted that the campaigns which made the more time consuming foray into creating locally targeted campaigns experienced a better bang for their advertising dollar in contrast to the more common national approach.
  
  
• PPC and Organic are a Logical Pairing: both of the agency advocates noted that even after achieving a #1 ranking for a specific term there are direct benefits to continuing with a paid campaign for the very same term. To back this up they stressed the benefit of multiple locations for branding but they made an additional point that I thought very logical: the content within paid advertisements are easier to control and to revise to improve clickthroughs than organic rankings currently are.
  
  
• What is a Reasonable Conversion Percentage?: I asked Scott Linzer this question and his response was that 2 percent was a reasonable conversion expectation for a paid campaign. Any lower than 2 percent requires serious scrutiny and continued testing. Of course, I expect no one ever stops testing. I should note that the company Scott works for, Universal McCann, handles a great deal of Microsoft's paid advertising so I was happy to get his opinion on this question.

Labels: Conferences, PPC, Ross Dunn, SEO, SES San Jose 2007, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: How Search Integrates as a Brand Vehicle

Friday, August 17, 2007

Labels: Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Wikipedia Co-Founder Larry Sanger Introduces Citizendium

Thursday, August 09, 2007

DMA advocates industry standards for responsible marketing, promotes relevance as the key to reaching consumers with desirable offers, and provides cutting-edge research, education, and networking opportunities to improve results throughout the entire direct marketing process. Founded in 1917, DMA today has more than 3,600 members from the US and 46 other nations, including the majority of companies listed on the Fortune 100." quoted from "About the DMA"

Labels: Press Releases, Social Marketing, StepForth, Whitepapers

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Press Release: DMA Accepts StepForth Whitepaper

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

1. One commenter by the name of Gregory Kohs defined Wikipedia:
   Wikipedia is not an encyclopedia. It is a blog disguised as an encyclopedia, controlled by a limited number of people with admin tools who have particular axes to grind about living people with real names, all while hiding behind a cloak of anonymity.
   Source, StepForth SEO blog post.
   
   
2. A commenter followed up Gregory's comment with a long reply that included this:
   Durova's advice to openly declare your intentions as COI (conflict of interest) in her article sound good - but like much of Wikipedia, the intentions are good in the script of the rules, but the proof of the "pudding" in implementation often winds up "on the faces" of the business people who naively trusted Wikipedia to be a professional and business-friendly place. It isn't that.
   Source, StepForth SEO blog post.
   
   
3. A Search Engine Land comment caught my eye:
   Are we now to the point in our Web 2.0 society where anonymous persons holding authority positions within Top 10 website communities can say defamatory things (that I lie to journalists), and the end result of my politely personal complaint is to have my "professional reputation" further questioned by the anonymous administrator?

   That's just lovely.

   Thank God I love my wife, daughter, family, and many friends -- who all love me dearly and don't give two whits about Wikipedia. I really can't imagine that if any major donor to the Wikimedia Foundation knew THIS is the type of culture that is fostered there, HOW they would possibly sign that check over to Jimbo and his admins-gone-wild.
   Source, Search Engine Land article.
   

Labels: Reputation Management, Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Is Wikipedia Corrupt?

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Labels: Blogs, Google, Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Consolidating Feeds on Blogger and FeedBurner

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Charts or no charts, however you look at this agreement advertising with Microsoft Ads has just become a lot more tantalizing.

Labels: Microsoft, Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Digg Signs Three Year Advertising Deal with Microsoft

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Labels: Reputation Management, Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: How to Ethically Update Wikipedia

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Labels: Other News, Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Facebook IPO Coming Soon

Monday, July 09, 2007

1. Timelines: in a single, very clear report, the timeline provides the Socialstream user with an overview of the new content added by all of their contacts. This snapshot of networking activity is a crucial concept for the proper administration of multiple networking accounts. What I found most interesting was how the titles for each piece of content in the timeline drove the user's activity.
   
   
2. Multimedia Sharing: in the demo the user sees that a friend posted a new image from a trip he went on. The user then decided that she wanted to share her own image. All she had to do was open a dialog, browse for the picture she wanted to share and post it with a note to her friend. The picture was then posted directly to Flickr seamlessly in a manner that was very Apple-esque in its simplicity.
   

Labels: Google, New Tech, Ross Dunn, Social Marketing, Yahoo

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: A Peak at the Future of Social Media

Friday, July 06, 2007

• Google Bowling: XYZ is dropped off the search engines because their competitor framed them for breaking Google's guidelines in an extreme manner. An example would be to create, overnight, a 1000% more links for a competitor (than they already have). The key would be to produce so many links at once that Google's spam trigger would have no choice but to catch it. There are various ways to increase the chances of this happening but I would rather not describe them - after all this is not a tutorial.
  
  
• Tattling: Is XYZ (the competitor) doing well because they purchased links? If so, and it is something you can prove, then it is entirely within your right to tell Google using their spam report form.
  
  But will this work? It is touch and go whether your complaint will actually do anything in the short term because Google often collects these complaints and then upgrades its algorithm (if possible) to clean out other offenders using the same techniques; a more efficient process. That said, as Matt Cutts said in this video about link buying Google is not above occasionally using manual methods to clean out spam so you might get lucky and see an immediate result.
  
  
• Google Insulation: Is there negative press in the top 10 about your service? Perhaps you have a competitor that just won't budge out of a top position? In either case a Google Insulation strategy is designed to raise the rankings of other websites that positively discuss your company/services/products in order to oust competitors out of the top 10 rankings. In its raw concept I believe this tactic is ethical because it is smart competitive marketing and a great tactic for reputation management (a hot topic these days).
  
  
• Copyright Takedown Notices: If a person desperately needed to drop a competitor out of a top position it could engage in a legal action that requires Google to drop the ranking for a period of time based on copyright infringement. The problem here, of course, is that this tactic exposes the perpetrator so that they can be sued by the offended company if the accusation is baseless. Here is where you can submit a copyright infringement notice to Google.
  
  
• Copied Content: Due to the fallible nature of Google's algorithm it is possible to 'steal' away the traffic to a competitor's particular content (say an article just published) by publishing it on your own site IF your site is more entrenched than the competitor's.
  
  You see if Google is presented with two websites which have the same content it will be forced to choose which site is the original creator. The website with the longer history and/or the highest reputation will often win out and the loser will often find their content ranks lower (if at all).
  
  
• Denial of Service: This is the most evil and clearly illegal tactic for removing a competitor. Denial of service attacks (DoS) are conducted by sending a large number requests to a competitor's web server at one time. The result is the competitor's server will either be too jammed with requests to function properly or it will simply crash from the burden of so many requests - effectively taking the competitor's website offline. Evil indeed.
  
  
• Click Fraud: Click fraud is no different than stealing money from a competitor. This is how it works: people maliciously click on ads to purposely eat away at a competitor's ad budget; even on a small scale this can be damaging to a competitor. The most aggressive click fraud is when a network of computers with specially created software is used to maliciously click on a competitor's pay per click advertisements in order to waste their money and destroy their advertising campaign.
  

Labels: Click Fraud, Google, Ross Dunn, SEO, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Damaging a Competitor's Ranking is Possible

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

1. Titles and Descriptions for content added to Thoof can be updated by users to make them more useful. This is particularly handy since some titles and descriptions are horridly written despite the excellent source content.
2. Thoof uses an algorithm to 'learn' what you like and don't like which ultimately drives the type of content that appears on your personalized Thoof home page.

Labels: Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Social Media News of the Day

Labels: Blogs, Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: FeedBurner is Now Totally FREE

Thursday, June 28, 2007

1. Social Networking Sites
2. Business Networking Sites
3. Social (Collaborative) Bookmarking Sites
4. Content Voting Sites
5. News Sharing Sites
   
6. Collaborative Directories
7. Video Sharing Sites, and
8. Photo Sharing
   

1. MySpace: this site offers the widest variety of tools and social networking capabilities.
2. Facebook: great for connecting with old classmates and creating a personal profile.
   

Labels: Ross Dunn, Social Marketing, Tutorials, Whitepapers

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Do it Yourself Social Media Marketing - A StepForth Whitepaper

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

• Rand Fishkin posted a hair-raising live example of the repercussions of a Google penalty on a real estate agent that had been using manipulative linking practices.
  
• What to do when your company Wikipedia page goes bad: reputation management is a hot topic
  
• Social media and user generated content in the Spanish space: coverage from AdTech Miami
• Andy Beal's blog shares an interesting fact on how un-linked images appear to be counting as links in Yahoo!'s algorithm according to Yahoo Site Explorer.
  
• Compete.com now offers keyword analysis by Jeremiah Owyang
• Facebook is acquiring widget startups in a manner that is very Google-esque and Josh Catone of Read/Write Web wrote a great article discussing the virtual 'Facebook Economy'.
  

Labels: Ross Dunn, SEO News, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: A Sampling of the Latest Marketing News

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Labels: Google, Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Google Announces YouTube International

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Blogs 101 is a resource to provide our clients and readers with a clear concept of what a blog is, why a blog might be a positive addition to their website or marketing campaign, and how to implement, optimize and promote a blog. In Part 1 of this series I discussed the basics of a blog and some of the necessary steps to take before starting one. In Part 2, I explained blog feeds and how to optimize a blog. Now in Part 3, I will explain social media marketing and outline a selection of strategies for socially marketing your blog.

Important Note: Over the past few years social networks have exploded creating a service niche that Social Media Marketing has filled; evolving into a vast and complex profession of its own. In this regard, this article is by no means an exhaustive listing of the social methods for promoting a blog but it will provide you with worthwhile strategies to begin a successful campaign.

What is Social Media Marketing?
Social Media Marketing (SMM) revolves around marketing online media such as blogs, podcasts, or videos through social interaction in various online communities; such as news/content voting (i.e. Digg.com), file sharing (i.e. BitTorrent), video sharing (i.e. YouTube, Revver, etc.), and site/blog voting communities (i.e. Technorati, StumbeUpon, etc.). Here is a snapshot of some of the more popular social marketing communities with snippet definitions from Wikipedia:

1. Digg: Primarily focused on news-related stories Digg is by far the most popular social book marking community online. “News stories and websites are submitted by users, and then promoted to the front page through a user-based ranking system” (source: Wikipedia). If an article gets “Dugg” enough to appear on the front page of Digg.com it is bound to experience a dramatic increase in traffic.
   


2. Del.icio.us: Acquired by Yahoo in 2005, Del.icio.us provides its users with an online repository of websites they find interesting enough to bookmark. When a user wants to create a bookmark they are asked to add related keywords (a practice termed “folksonomy”) to the bookmark so that it can be properly found within Del.icio.us by other users. Del.icio.us is second only to Digg in the social bookmarking community. (Del.icio.us further defined)
   


3. Technorati:“Technorati is an Internet search engine for searching blogs, competing with Google, Yahoo and IceRocket. As of April 2007, Technorati indexes over 75 million weblogs” (source: Wikipedia). To achieve maximum benefit from Technorati you need to claim your blog which will allow you to see additional statistics about your blog’s popularity according to Technorati.
   


4. StumbleUpon: “StumbleUpon is a web browser plugin that allows its users to discover and rate webpages, photos, videos, and news articles. These webpages are typically presented when the user -- known within the community as a Stumbler -- clicks the "Stumble!" button on the browser's toolbar. StumbleUpon chooses which new webpage to display based on the user's ratings of previous pages, ratings by his/her friends, and by the ratings of users with similar interests. i.e., it is a recommendation system which uses peer and social networking principles” (source: Wikipedia). I am personally a huge fan of StumbleUpon and recommend it everywhere; it is easy to use, I love the name and I have seen measurable impact on traffic from a single Stumble on my own articles.
   

Blog Social Marketing Strategies
The following are marketing strategies designed to both enable your readers to find, and then share your content easily.

Note: Even though these tools will need to be added by someone familiar with basic coding (HTML or whatever your site/blog software uses) the benefits are well worth it.

• AddToBookmarks.com: offers a script that will provide a row or column of social bookmarking links (and/or icons) to your blog posting.
  

• The Socializer: There are many other social bookmarking communities that are not listed in the AddToBookmarks socializing widget. These missing communities may not be as popular but they still have users that may want to bookmark your content. This is where the Socializer comes in. The Socializer provides a direct link from any blog posting to a comprehensive list of social bookmarking communities.
  

Share Your Blog Feed
There are countless websites that want your blog content, you just need to provide it. The trick is to find them and add your blog feed to their system. Here are some tips for finding feeds along with a couple of feed directory sites to make life easier:

• Search any of the following phrases and you will find numerous avenues to promote your blog: “submit feed” or “RSS submission” or “submit blog” or “blog directory”
  


• Places to start promoting your blog:
  
  >> Top 55 Blog Directories and Submission Sites
  
  >> BlogUpper.com: offers a huge list of blogs directories

Forums: In order to participate in a forum you need to create a profile which often includes the ability to provide a personalized signature. Within the signature provide your blog URL along with a slogan or description designed to peek the interest of anyone reading your forum post. Of course that leaves one issue on the table… you need to ensure your forum posts are thoughtful and intelligent enough for people to read them AND take interest in you.

Other Blogs: In most cases blogs offer the ability for readers to comment on a posting. In order to do so you usually have the option to attach a web address to your comment. This link should point directly to your blog home page so that anyone interested in reading more about you can visit your blog directly. Again make certain the comment is intelligent so that readers have a reason to click on your link.

Bonus Tip: Promote Bookmarking within Newsletters and Related Materials
Pretty much anything can be socially bookmarked but it cannot hurt to provide reminders here and there for your readers. If you publish articles, news releases, or even how-to’s then it is important you add social bookmarking buttons to each page. One such example is a tutorial I provided recently on StepForth.com which explains how to recapture link popularity using redirects. The tutorial is now a significant driver of traffic and I expect the social bookmarking buttons I placed on the page have participated in its success.

Conclusion
Like most marketing objectives you could spend months learning and honing your social media marketing campaign and still have work left to do. That said, this 3rd tutorial in my Blogs 101 series is designed to push you in the right direction and ultimately help you create a world of fans for your new blog.

by Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth SEO Services
Celebrating 10 Years of SEO Excellence

Labels: Ross Dunn, SEO, SEO Tips, Social Marketing, Tutorials

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: StepForth Tutorial: Blogs 101, Part 3

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

All-in-all I doubt anyone would argue that Wallstrip would have been acquired so quickly without the social marketing aspects of online video sharing. That said, video sharing sites Revver and Blip also played a notable role in their success and I am glad to note them. In fact, thanks to Michael's comment I have now been exposed to both video sharing sites, new to my world; of which Blip.tv seems the most intriguing to me.

Labels: Google, Other News, Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: Wallstrip Owes Thanks to More Than Just YouTube

Monday, May 14, 2007

• Share My Location: opt to let specific friends know where you are at any given moment... creepy but cool. If a friend wants to meet with you their Sprint phone will provide step by step directions to get to your location.
  
• Directions: navigate to any available location using audible driving (or walking) directions provided in real-time by the GPS enabled phone.
• CitySearch: search for specific stores or facilities in your current area. The CitySearch will provide recommendations within a predescribed distance of your location.
• EVites: receive and send invites to friends for parties or simply a coffee meeting. You can create, view, cancel or accept EVites easily from your phone. In each case the EVites can provide directions to the event location.
• Favorite Places: save shortcuts to your favorite locations for easy access to directions wherever you are.

Labels: Ask, Mobile, New Tech, Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: ASK Mobile GPS Provides a Glimpse of What is to Come

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

What is So Great About Blogs?
The 'great' is entirely in the eye of the beholder but here are some distinct advantages that come to mind:

• Blogs are a great medium for your customers and prospects to get to know you and your services better.


• When you post information to a blog the blog software automates the process of updating your website with the new information and archiving old content; simplifying the chore of keeping your website fresh and relevant.


• Blogs can automatically announce (ping) to the world whenever new content is added. Again, this automated process simplifies the all-important (and normally time consuming) promotion process.


• Through the use of syndication methods your blog postings (writings) can be monitored easily by fans of your services/writing.


• Blogs provide a wonderful platform for readers to interact with you by leaving comments.


• Due to the highly social and interactive nature of blogs it is possible that links will begin to appear to your posts from other websites. This can increase your website’s link popularity and will only happen if you write engaging and source-worthy content.

1. Blogger by Google (Free): StepForth has always used Blogger and we have been impressed with some of the options in this free solution. Unfortunately, Blogger is far from perfect and lacks much of the customization potential available in other solutions. We plan on changing to a new system in the future even though it will not be a simple task to change.
   
   There are two types of Blogger; one is the hosted solution (using Google’s servers) called Blog*Spot and the other is a personally hosted solution where updates and archives are automatically posted within your own website. The Blog*Spot solution is not recommended because, like TypePad (#4 below), all of the content and links will not be as influential because they are not hosted on your own website. There will be some benefit because your blog is likely to link to your main website profusely; however, it is best to integrate the Blogger blog within your own website.
   


2. WordPress (Free): WordPress is a very impressive blogging solution that can be easily installed and offers myriad advanced options including simple-to-install plug-ins to extend the capabilities of the program (here is a large list). I have personally installed and used WordPress for a while now on personal websites and I highly recommend it.
   
   One concern about using WordPress is integrating your current website design with it as its templates are solely CSS driven. If your website is not CSS-driven you will be in for a bit of unexpected work. Converting your web design to CSS is definitely a smart move but at that point you are effectively redesigning your website; which makes the addition of a blog much more work than it needs to be.
   


3. Movable Type (Paid): Movable Type is perhaps the most popular blogging tool available because it offers a great deal of flexibility and complexity. Unfortunately these additional elements result in a tool that is not meant for the faint of heart. However, if you want an advanced blogging solution that is sure to stand the test of time then this is the tool for you. Pricing for personal licenses is free but commercial licenses start at $149.95 per year.
   


4. Typepad (Paid): TypePad and Movable Type are made by the same company. The learning curve for TypePad is significantly lower while providing many of the advantages of Movable Type.
   
   In this article, Elise Bauer at LearningMovableType.com actually recommends (between the two softwares) TypePad over MovableType for new users because it requires little or no HTML and CSS knowledge. The downside is that it is a hosted service so it is not an effective option from a search engine marketing standpoint because the content is not hosted on your own existing server but on another. As a result, the content does not directly offer weight and relevance to your own website unless you switch your domain to host it with TypePad - except from the standpoint of backlinks.
   

What You Should Consider Before Creating Your Blog
Having your Webmaster install a blog solution is generally not a difficult task although you will have to put on your thinking cap and plan out the best method to integrate a blog within your website’s existing structure. Here are some of the more important considerations that relate to usability and search engine rankings:

• Carefully name your blog: Your blog is both an extension of your company’s brand and its marketing goals. Consider this when researching the name of the blog.
  
  Start your research by noting the names of your competitor’s blogs; you may find a pattern of keywords emerging. Also review the various search frequencies for blog related keywords in your industry. Using a tool such as Keyword Discovery or Wordtracker you can get some perspective on the popularity of various phrases. For example, when I researched the name of my blog, I decided on the “StepForth SEO Blog” because “SEO blog” was the most searched term in the SEO-related search queries (I typed “SEO” in Keyword Discovery and searched until any phrase with “blog” appeared).
  
  I also checked other keyword variations such as “search engine” using the word “blog” and noted the searches were significantly less than “SEO blog”. You can conduct the very same research which will allow you to brand your blog in a manner that provides maximum exposure. After all, anyone who links to your blog is likely going to use your title and those linked keywords are a great boon to related rankings.
  


• Decide on a simple path: Your blog should be located at a space in your website that is simple to remember and navigate to. For example www.yourcompany.com/blog/ is often adopted because it is the easiest to remember.
  


• Add the blog into your site’s navigation: Are you planning on your blog being a large draw to your website? If so, you should consider where you are going to integrate links to your blog within the main navigation of your website. In most cases I see website owners placing a link to their blog in a space that appears more of an afterthought than a prime location for viewers to access it. Remember that your blog is meant to create a readership over time and providing easy access to the blog is a crucial step.
  
  Tip: Make sure to evaluate the placement of the navigation links over time using your website statistics. It may very well be that your statistics show your blog has become the main driver of traffic to your website. If this is the case then experiment with your navigation by making the link to your blog even more prominent on your home page and see how it affects sales; this may yield higher readership, better ROI and longer time spent by visitors on the site. If you do not have a stats program we highly recommend the award winning ClickTracks traffic analysis program – it is simple to use and we have had excellent success with it.
  
  IMPORTANT: I recommend starting your blog with a positive attitude; expect it to become a permanent addition to your online marketing strategy. This will require you to plan spending the time to make your blog work for you. After all, successful blogs require extraordinary commitment because the only way to draw regular readers is to provide quality content on a regular basis. If you are not sure you can handle this extra time then reconsider creating one for the moment or hire someone who can.
  

Avoiding Duplicate Content Issues on Blogs
When a new posting is created in your blog the system will automatically create two types of archives. One will be an archive by date (by month or week) and the other will be a categorical archive. Categories or ‘labels’ as they are called on Blogger allow visitors to find your postings under certain topics you specify. For example, when I categorize this article in our SEO blog I will likely use the following pre-existing labels; “Social Marketing”, “SEO Tips”, and “Ross Dunn” because they are all related to the article.

These automated archival options provide excellent options for users to find information; however, they also give the search engines far too many versions of the same article. Just consider how many versions will be available in the scenario noted above:

1. On the blog home page where the article is originally posted
   (albeit for a short time – if your blog is updated regularly)
   
2. The “Social Marketing” category will include a copy
   
3. The “SEO Tips” category will include a copy
   
4. The “Ross Dunn” category will include a copy
   
5. The date-driven archive will include a copy, and
   
6. The blog feed which will duplicate either a full copy or a snippet of the original article depending on settings (which we will get into later)
   

In this case you can see there is a potential for 6 identical copies of a single article within this blog. This is not good since search engines are not fond of duplicate content; it adds unnecessary bulk to their databases, drains valuable processing time and it can appear like SPAM.

So how can you minimize duplicate content issues on a blog? Use your Robots.txt file to block sections of your blog from search engine spiders so the same content is not indexed repeatedly through different arenas.

Begin by cutting back the greatest offender: either the date archives or the labels/categories. Two viable options are presented below:

Option 1: My recommendation would be to block spiders from categories since they are the most duplicate-ridden sections of your blog. After all, if you apply three categories to a single posting you will end up with at least three versions of the same article within your blog. If, however, you choose to block categories and only enable date-driven archives then you only have a single version of your article located in the blog over the long term which is far more desirable.

Once the categories have been blocked you will have only 3 duplicates of your article when the complete article is initially posted and ultimately, only one, once the article leaves the blog home page and feed.

Option 2: Neil Patel brought to my attention this alternative method of both operating a blog and minimizing duplicate content.

1. All articles should appear in full format within an article section of your website, separate from your blog.


2. When you release the new article create a teaser in the form of a snippet and post it in your blog with a link to the full article for continued reading.


3. Use your site’s robots.txt to block spiders from the date archives, feed and any other duplicate versions of pages with the exception of labels/categories.


4. When you categorize a blog posting do it sparingly (concisely) to minimize duplicates. Since the snippet is only a portion of the core article there is little chance it will affect the main article negatively.

I like Neil’s concept because the main article remains relatively untouched by any potential negative impact since the blog (that has minor duplication) is used only as an introductory device. Meanwhile the full version of the article stands on its own in a portion of the website that serves as a library of sorts (which could be) controlled by a content management system (offering inherently more long-term scalability).

Next in StepForth’s Blogs 101 Series:

• How to Optimize a Blog
• What is Syndication, and
  
• Exploring Social Marketing Options for Your Blog.

Labels: Ross Dunn, SEO, SEO Tips, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: StepForth Tutorial: Blogs 101, Part 1

Labels: Other News, Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: eBay + StumbleUpon

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

The above screenshots are Copyright © 2007, Forrester Research, Inc.

Labels: Online Statistics, Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

Copyright ©2006-2012, The SEO News Blog, StepForth SEO Services
View this Article Only: The Social Activities of Adults and Youth Profiled

Monday, April 30, 2007

• 33% of the adults polled read blogs, watch "peer-generated video", and listen to podcasts. The average household income of these users is $67,889.
  
• 15% of the adults polled use RSS and tag web pages (i.e. "Digg" or "StumbleUpon"). The average household income of these users is $66,475.

Labels: Online Statistics, Ross Dunn, Social Marketing

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View this Article Only: Discover Which Social Technologies Will Target Your Customers

Friday, April 27, 2007