Spaces on the Wall

It's Not That Easy

"C'mon, SEO must be easy? I mean it's not rocket science right?" I was posed the question last week - during an irrational, mind numbing session on how company x is planning on gaming Google.

First half of the meeting is focused on how they want to do it. The other half focused on why it's such a bad idea. 

I'm getting pretty good at letting companies down (gently). Besides, "you just don't deserve to be number one" is a hard pill to swallow. But it's a realty check, and one I'm happy to administer. Because once the (insert stupid SEO hack here) is off the table and out of minds reach, we can actually focus on what should really be done, and how it can really be achieved. No tricks, no magic bullets. Just hard work.

The companies that stick around are the ones who get it (and are the ones we can add value to).

Scrapping For Numbers

Ben and Jackie make a good point here. Not to be consumed with the sheer number of X. SEO's know how to rig the game and so do Twitter / Facebook / LinkedIn whores. What? I'm not bitter. Just consider the source, connect with people you like and respect, and not for the sheer numbers. That's not a connection, it's a trophy. It's like being in high school sometimes, only as professionals - we should know better.

P.S. The bit about Jason Calacanis is pretty damn funny.

Powerful Partnerships

Google and MySpace have tied the knot. Google is going to crawl MySpace's 127 million user pages - essentially opening up a whole new slice of the web to feed off of. Facebook should be concerned - even with last weeks standards launch.

Netflix is partnering up with Xbox and TIVO to integrate their services into already established hardware. Blockbuster's response is to force you buy a (ugly) product that will be outdated in 6 months in order to obtain the same level of on-demand video rental services.

I think there's a pattern developing here.

Collaborate: unite with powerful partners in complimentary ways or Isolate:  struggle alone by making everything (half-assed) on your own. Last week I would have said Facebook's bold move to go it alone was brilliant. This week, I'm not so sure.

What do you think?

Influencing the Masses

How can I remove negative online comments about my company?

If you belong to a reputable company that encounters inaccurate or unflattering comments in the search engine results, here are two tactics to consider in order to clean up your company’s good name.

1. Sign up for a Google Webmaster Central account, and present your case directly to Google using their automated tools. Be aware, Google will not remove listings based on your opinion, but rather on technical guideline violations. Fortunately, many of these “negative review sites” engage in such violations (i.e. paying for links to artificially boost website authority). Once exposed, the power that this website once had over your company is lost or removed from the Google index entirely.


2. If your dealing with review sites like Yelp – there is hope. Yelp offers business owners the opportunity to Claim Their Business Page. Setting up your business owner account is quick and painless. You’ll know how many people viewed your business on Yelp, engage in private customer messaging, and quickly update your business' facts. Sure you won’t be able to remove those unflattering reviews, but at least your taking proactive measures to listen and respond to frustrated customers. Doing that alone goes a long way.

Drop me a line and let me know if these tactics end up working for.

My rankings have dropped significantly from Google. What happened?

Assuming your not deliberately spamming the search engines, there are many legitimate reasons why a website loses its position and ranking. Recent website redesigns, direct abuse of Google’s guidelines or engaging in deceptive practices are typical causes for sites to be re-evaluated or penalized by Google.

We recently engaged with a company that had been doing quite well with their organic optimization efforts until the big drop - nearly a thousand percent decline in unique visitors overnight.

This is where we take into account Forensic SEO - A practice in which site owners must investigate possible signals like incorrect XML sitemap structures, broken inbound links, questionable on-page code tactics, and improper page redirections. The trick about Forensic SEO, is that you must be able to separate SEO fact from SEO fiction.

By making only four minor SEO modifications, we were able to restore this company’s traffic patterns back to normal in just 3 short weeks. I’m curious to know if you’ve encountered such events and what you’re doing to restore your position.

GLMV IT Seminar Slides

For those of you who attended the GLMV Information Technology Seminar and want to see my presentation slides regarding search engine optimization please click here.

Note:  If you weren't there , these slides won't make much sense. That's how I do it. ;-)

Getting Transparent

I've been meaning to blog about this for quite some time now. Wired had a terrific review regarding the use of blogs. Namely blogging that opens up the company to the public. I think that is what makes blogs such a powerful business communication tool. Old school companies keep well guarded secrets, making it difficult for customers, clients, and readers to peer into the heart of the organization. What are they trying to hide? Why aren't they being open with us? They inadvertently paint themselves as secretive shifty types, causing distrust.

Blogging creates an open conversation with the audience. We know this. What makes a great company blog is open discourse - full disclosure without spin. Sure, levels of transparency can be controlled by the company.  That is to be expected. But isn't it great when companies admit the truth about their products or services. Or better yet, silencing customer complaints with knowledgeable insider explanations. Some companies think blogs are PR tools, treating them like glorified news and events. Others treat blogs like FAQs for core product lines. I think the true magic lies somewhere in between. Companies need to promote their products and services, while still maintaining integrity and open discourse about their products and services.

Here's why I blog: I have an historical record on what I think works, on how I view doing business and how my organization does things. I don't mind sharing these viewpoints with our clients (and prospects). It builds a greater sense of trust and a better working relationship. I like that.

Bands on the Bandwagon

Todd works for a great indie rock record label. We had a quick email chat this week about current shifts in commercial websites thanks to the crowd sourcing powers of web 2.0. Since the dust has settled, web 2.0 has given many commercial websites a more user centric direction.

When it comes to rock band websites, the flash glitz is a thing of the past. It was cool (and perfectly acceptable) to have a huge flash driven website - blinking, swishing, fading and beeping superficial messages at you in hopes the audience would get it. These pages exist just to fill up space, giving the illusion that things are really happening here. Yeah its pretty, but it doesn't tell a real story. This is the television media model. As Marshall McLuhan puts it: a cool medium.

Todd's label is riding a new reachable wave. Bands who sign on with Fearless Records use good old fashioned MySpace pages to reach more people, get more people, and sell more people. No glam here, just some simple pics, some easy to follow links, tour dates, etc. Their fans (who commit, comment and contribute) build the site with their feedback. It makes the band (and everything that they do) look real, and in this marketspace that perception is most important. The killer app is not flash anymore, its conversations.

5 Major Search Engine Ranking Factors

Here's 5 major things I find very helpful if you want to rank well on Google and Yahoo. Not all are bullet-proof, but these are things I find most useful across client landscapes.

1. PageRank (PR) alone doesn't work. Hard-coded anchor text with your keyword phrase is more important from a PR 5  than from a non-keyword phrased anchor coming from a PR 7.
2. To be optimized for a particular keyword phrase, the word must be present on that particular page. (content or code)
3. Each page should have unique titles and descriptions. The first 65 characters matter in the description so try to avoid punctuation (use dashes instead). Titles should include the keyword phrase.
4. Don't keyword-stuff pages. 1-2 keywords should suffice per page.
5. Use sitemaps.org