SEO: Strategic Primer for a No.1 Rated Blog
For a popular blog, you must understand the process — important basics in search engine optimization (SEO). If you’ve been blogging for awhile, you know success doesn’t keep come automatically. SEO is arduous work.
You must have a strategic blogging goal. Is it to promote your business or e-commerce? A consultancy? Is it an advertising business model?
Whatever you decide, there are certain SEO tips to keep in mind.
They include:
Keywords. Decide your keyword niche, and in what categories you want to be found. Pay special attention to key words, as they are the first step in determining whether you are successful. If properly implemented in search engine optimization, they will help determine when your site appears when users are looking for content. Insert them throughout your text, but don’t go overboard. Use 10 or fewer key words for each topic.
Page headers and titles. The words you use in page headers and titles will be the first read by the spiders and users of your site. So, first impressions are important in describing the value of your pages. Short action verbs should be included.
Bots and spiders. Spiders are important to your success because they crawl your site to view your content and collect data. The spiders determine what pages appear on search engines when users are surfing for a topic.
Ostensibly, the most-sophisticated is Googlebot, which looks for your new and updated pages. Google uses an algorithmic process.
It’s helpful to understand Google’s reasoning for best Web site rankings and how to be optimized for Bing (in some ways, my sense is that bing is more logical). If time constraints prevent you from mastering both, focus on Google because of its 66-percent market-share dominance. If you’re successful on Google, chances are you rank well on Bing and Yahoo. Above all, quality of content rules – Google speaks out about frequency vs. value.
Sitemap. You can improve your odds for success with a Sitemap, which is a list of pages on your site. That’s to insure Googlebot and other spiders can detect your links on pages.
Google says Sitemaps support your cause, if:
- Your site has dynamic content.
- Your site has pages that aren’t easily discovered by Googlebot during the crawl process—for example, pages featuring rich AJAX or images.
- Your site is new and has few links to it. (Googlebot crawls the web by following links from one page to another, so if your site isn’t well linked, it may be hard for us to discover it.)
- Your site has a large archive of content pages that are not well linked to each other, or are not linked at all.
Images. Many people believe images are helpful to make a site interesting to users. That’s true. But they can’t also hurt you, if they’re not inserted properly. You see, spiders can’t detect images. Spiders can read a text description on your images, if you insert an ALT tag.
Flash pages are hip and attract users, but they serve no purpose in maximizing the impact of crawling spiders.
Videos are good. As you might expect, videos continue to surge in popularity.
Format. Keep your site’s format simple. Make sure it downloads fast, keep in mind Google’s continuing quest to increase page speeds because in SEO, your site’s download speed matters to Google. Update content frequently. But don’t insert multiple topics on a page; instead insert links to other pages. Links from one page to others helps your time-spent-viewing. The longer you keep a user on your site, the better off you’ll be.
It’s preferable to make the blog part of your Web site – don’t separate the two. Otherwise, you’ll have to work twice as hard to make sure both rank well. Further, search engines don’t like even the appearance of duplication.
Links. With one caveat, encourage other sites to link to yours. However, make certain the inbound links have a higher Google page rank than your site. If you can persuade a bonafide reporter to insert a link to your site from an authoritative media site – congratulations. If you need tips, here’s how to leverage the news media.
Another strategy is to submit press releases to online press release firms. Some are free, but again check their Google page rank. Quality of links is paramount. Always avoid weak links to you.
Minimize the number of your outbound links. Your site will be penalized.
Social Media. If you want a strong business brand, leverage these social mediums: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google+.
Bear in mind these tips aren’t all-inclusive. But if you put them to use, you’re on your way. Good luck.
From the Coach’s Corner, note achieving strong results on Google is now easier with social networking. Here are 25 best practices for better business writing.
“…the time has come to ask yourselves does your blog suck … and what are you doing to change it?”
- Michael Gray
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Columnist Terry Corbell is also a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?
Internet Marketing Lessons Via Rick Santorum’s Campaign
Jan. 5, 2012
Unintentionally, Rick Santorum’s presidential campaign — with inadequate branding — is providing business with Internet marketing lessons.
Perhaps you’ve noticed the inflammatory results in searching the Web for him. When you search for “Santorum,” the deprecating site of “spreadingsantorum.com” is first on Google, Bing and Yahoo. For curious voters interested in the campaign, it’s an especially disappointing search.
The derogatory site was created in 2003 by a part owner of The Stranger publication in Seattle, who was annoyed by then-Sen. Santorum’s comment about a U.S. Supreme court ruling that was favored by the gay community.
Understandably, Mr. Santorum complained to Google about the rankings – after all there are precedents. Indeed, it can be argued that Google could do something about it.
You might recall Google penalized the derogatory monkey-face depictions of Michelle Obama. There are countless security examples from when Google and the other search engines have issued a warning about a Web site when it believes a site is a security risk to users.
Until and unless Google and the other search engines take corrective measures, the Santorum campaign must focus on what it can control.
However, the campaign fails to use best practices in Internet marketing.
Its salient shortcomings:
- Failure to use SEO techniques
- A call to action without giving the right incentives – branding and value propositions
- Poor organization – lack of preparedness
Failure to use SEO
As a result of his strong showing from largely grass roots efforts, Mr. Santorum’s campaign is attracting an unprecedented number of voters who are now curious about him. They can find the right site easier when they search using the key words, “Rick Santorum.” But if they search using “Santorum,” they get the derogatory site.
In effect, however, the campaign has allowed Mr. Santorum to become a victim of political sabotage sans common SEO procedures.
Yes, the Santorum campaign has options to effectively to eliminate the adverse impact of the sarcastic site. Curiously, “spreadingsantorum.com” only has a Google page rank of 5. That’s not insurmountable for the Santorum campaign, if it employs proper SEO techniques, and understands how to win on Google.
Hint: If you can win on Google, you will on the other search engines, too. So start with how Google details its new reasoning for best Web site rankings, and successfully understand the 23 key questions Google has about your Web site.
As for the Santorum campaign, it needs to develop and focus on one site – just one site dedicated to the candidate. But it mistakenly directs Internet users to a donation form – one of two duplicate content sites (supportricksantorum.com and ricksantorum.com).
Premature call to action
The Santorum donation site sets a poor example. It only asks for money. There are no stellar branding and value propositions. Visitors aren’t readily able to learn anything about him – neither his policy positions nor his background.
All of this means the right sites show up twice – but they’re below the fold on Google.
Moreover, duplicate content hurts the cause. Two different domain names containing similar content defeat the purpose. The two sites effectively insure his Web presence is diluted – the search engines don’t know which is paramount for users.
Poor organization – lack of preparedness
With such a confusing marketing approach, the campaign inadvertently sends two unintended signals.
Firstly, it shows poor organization and lack of preparedness — note the verbiage in this Santorum tweet:
“Your great support has caused some unexpected downtime on our website! You can still support us at our temp page: ricksantorum.com”
Because the campaign instituted some redirects – the tweet sent people to the donation site. That’s a violation of best practices in marketing – never assume the voter has enough incentives before you ask for a vote or beg for donations.
Secondly, such strategies — unbranded donation page and desperate-looking tweets — leave users with the impression that he’ll fail because he’s desperate for donations.
Further, as an example of over-reaching, the campaign constantly changes the tag line that appears on the search engines. The candidate needs to be consistently repetitive with his branding and Web presence. Aside from the duplication issue and failure to imbed the donation page in one site, he needs to attract thousands of new links from good Web sites.
Whether he realizes or not, failure to take such precautions adversely impacts his credibility as a viable candidate. After all, even if he could win his party’s nomination, he’d be facing a Democrat who long ago demonstrated extraordinary Internet expertise.
Good Internet marketing lessons for business from Mr. Santorum.
From the Coach’s Corner, here’s a checklist: 14 strategies to rock on Google.
Additionally, for more resources see this portal’s marketing and tech archives, which are packed with solutions.
“Don’t blame the marketing department. The buck stops with the chief executive.”
-John D. Rockefeller
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Columnist Terry Corbell is also a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?
Checklist: 14 Strategies to Rock on Google
Updated Feb. 2, 2012
Periodic changes in Google’s search criteria and algorithms have indeed hurt many Web sites. But it’s possible to bullet-proof your site’s prominence on Google by taking 14 precautions, which is worth your time and energy.
Google has perennially owned about a 66 percent search-market share in the U.S. and a 90 percent share worldwide. Combined, Bing and Yahoo have about 30 percent in the U.S. Most of the other search engines are also powered by Google.
Now, there’s talk that Google might bid for Yahoo, which would mean another double-digit increase in market share. (True, such a merger would be impacted by the Yahoo-Microsoft search partnership. The implication: Google would then have to buy out Microsoft for the remainder of the 10-year Yahoo-Microsoft partnership.)
So, obviously, it will behoove you to take full advantage of strategies to maximize your presence on Google.
Here’s a checklist:
- Make frequent changes on your home page. But be sure it’s all about quality and relevance to Internet users.
- For content marketing, regularly blog about relevant topics (see Google Speaks Out About Frequency vs. Value).
- Interact with your target audience using the salient social mediums: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+. Here are 8 Tips to Optimize Sales with Social Media, But Beware of a Red Flag.
- Be very careful about what you post – keep it professional and on business. Don’t assume that your professional profile can be separate from your personal life. Did I say be careful?
- Be aware that Google is influenced by links from the news media, quality online press releases distributed by authoritative firms, and other sites with a strong Google page rank (PR).
- Be careful about your other links. Do not allow weak Google PR pages to link to you. Minimize your links to other sites, as Google will perceive you as being manipulative.
- Make certain your profile or bio is professional and consistent throughout. Use the same picture.
- Insert relevant videos.
- Check your Internet reputation on a frequent business. Here are Best Practices to Optimize Your Brand, Manage Your Web Reputation.
- If you have employees, develop and implement a social media policy regarding your business reputation.
- Change your passwords frequently – make sure they’re strong. 6. Separate business and your personal life. Avoid posting compromising photos, text or videos.
- Accelerate your site’s download speed, which is important. See Google’s Continuing Quest to Increase Page Speeds and In SEO, Your Site’s Download Speed Matters to Google.
- Understand what matters to Google – see Google Insights – 23 Key Questions about Your Web Site.
- Despite what you might read, pay close attention to your use of meta tags and key words. They will influence Google and the other search engines.
By the way, don’t be fooled by the incessant hype about Facebook. Your Web site and prominence on Google will always be more important than what you do on Facebook. (See Winners and Losers in Facebook’s Invasion of Google’s Turf.)
My only regret about Google: That it hasn’t found a way to restart its real-time feature with Twitter. If you use the 14 recommended strategies, and if Google and Twitter get back together for real-time results, you’ll really rock.
Oh, here’s more good news — surprise — these strategies work on Yahoo and Bing, too.
From the Coach’s Corner, here are two more resource links:
10 Tips to Optimize Your Web Site for Higher Sales
Startup Toolkit – How to Make a Hit on the Internet
“The only thing Google has failed to do, so far, is fail.”
-John Battelle
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Columnist Terry Corbell is also a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?
Google’s Continuing Quest to Increase Page Speeds
July 30, 2011
Here’s a valuable limited time offer from Google.
For higher performance, Google might complementarily evaluate your Web site for download speed and will enter new code that will make your site faster for enhanced user enjoyment. Google’s service is temporarily being offered to a select number of Web sites.
This process will enhance your site’s prominence on the No. 1 search engine, and it will enable Google to operate at a faster rate for users.
Google’s goal is to enable sites to download more quickly by as much as 60 percent.
“Page Speed Service fetches content from your servers, rewrites your pages by applying web performance best practices and serves them to end users via Google’s servers across the globe,” according to Google.
“The extent of speed up depends on a variety of factors such as content on your pages, browser, geographic location of access, bandwidth, etc.,” Google explains.
On its page-speed service page, Google also provides a link for you to test your site’s speed. Most tests take less than five minutes.
“The test involves rendering your website on the selected browser by directly visiting your site, and repeating the same test by proxying your site through Page Speed Service,” Google says.
Again, better hurry, soon there will be a charge for the accelerating the speed of your site’s download.
“Pricing will be competitive and details will be made available later,” Google adds.
For all the details in Google’s offer, visit Page Speed Service.
From the Coach’s Corner, here are resource links to help your site’s Google presence:
In SEO, Your Site’s Download Speed Matters to Google
Google Insights – 23 Key Questions about Your Web Site
The Key to Internet Dominance: Think Integration
“The Internet is the Viagra of big business.”
-Jack Welch
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Columnist Terry Corbell is also a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?
The Key to Internet Dominance: Think Integration
July 18, 2011 – Updated 5:01 a.m.
Whether you’re a new or established business, it wasn’t that long ago that a strong Internet presence meant having a great Web site with a top ranking. Partially, that’s still true but the competitive marketplace continues to rapidly change daily, which means the No. 1 objective should be a vibrant, integrated presence.
In other words, what matters most is your total Web image – your Web site is an important secondary consideration.
Naturally, it’s important to develop online relationships with social media and other strong Web sites. They will enhance your Web image until it achieves a dominant position in your niche. So, an integrated approach works best.
That means think big picture to achieve a proper balance. Facebook has, of course, become a player. But it’s important to note there are Winners and Losers in Facebook’s Invasion of Google’s Turf, including a threat of cannibalizing your Web site’s presence on the search engines. Here’s a second analysis: Aside from Privacy, Security Issues — Facebook is a Threat 2 Ways. Harness the power of Facebook, but don’t let it make your Web site irrelevant. Use due diligence to capitalize on Facebook.
Besides, there’s another ramification if you allow Facebook to cannibalize your Internet reputation. Why? Facebook appears to be Approaching the End of Its Product Life Cycle. Fixing the problems caused by a faltering Facebook would be costly in time and money. Building a successful Web site consumes a lot of resources. Don’t let Facebook exacerbate your situation.
A Web site doesn’t have to be an expensive venture. With WordPress and other options, you can forget about HTML, which is challenging and time-consuming to learn. You can use a free WordPress template, www.blogger.comor buy a complex WordPress template and customize it.
Another challenge: Cyber security. Be sure you take every security precaution. (This portal has more than a dozen columns quoting nationally respected security expert Stan Stahl.)
If you’re a blogger, the possible downside for not using HTML is that it will be a challenge for you to convince Google that you’re a news site. Stature as a news site, of course, means more prominence. But you can still be successful without HTML – if you lay the right foundation for success.
21 steps for integrated approach
Not to over-simplify, for an overall great Internet presence, here are the basics:
- Research options for your ideal branding.
- Decide on your slogan – three to five words that will pique the interest of your target audience.
- Develop a logo that tells your story.
- Create a favicon, which is a short description for “favorites icon.” A favicon is small, often 16×16 pixels, used as a logo for your Web site on the search engines. If it’s the same as your company’s logo, you’re really rocking. For example, just look at the URL in this search line on this Web page and you’ll see mine. Or look up any major company or site. All the big dogs – successful companies – have a favicon. It will help portray you as a unique firm.
- Install a good site map for the convenience of search engines and SEO (search engine optimization).
- Don’t under-estimate the power of the news media. Include a “Press Room” on your site for the convenience of journalists to read about your firm’s developments.
- Know and implement the right key words for you. If you’re a small firm, include your name and a brief Web description that isn’t too long to be inserted on the search engines when they mention your site.
- Develop your site – if possible, include a blog.
- Consider inserting relevant videos — an increasing draw for traffic.
- Register your site with the search engines.
- Read the search engines’ Web developer tools. However, in the main, if you focus on quality and relevance you’ll do well on the search engines. Many people think you have to have use separate strategies for each search engine, but that’s not the case. Relevance and value are what matter most.
- Immediately establish a Google profile, and create profiles on the four salient social networks: LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter and Facebook.
- Miscellaneous tips – on LinkedIn join all relevant groups focusing on your target audience and your industry. Promote your work on the groups. For Facebook, decide if you want a personal or company fan presence. Grow your Twitter followers every week.
- If possible, include StumbleUpon (see Using StumbleUpon To Drive Traffic to Your Website.) There are more than 340 social media sites from which to choose, but you’ll only have time to utilize a handful of them.
- For your profile, make sure you use a good picture with strong resolution. Use the same picture in all your promotions. Consistency is a requirement to earn universal trust. Include all your profile basics.
- Develop and implement an editorial schedule for your blogs. Life happens. Keep it flexible in case the schedule has to be temporarily altered.
- For every salient event or blog, write an online press release and have it distributed on an authoritative press release service. Many will do it for free.
- Post your blogs on your social media, especially your LinkedIn groups.
- Install a sharing button, such as Add This, to every page. You can also insert separate buttons for your social media. Despite what the conventional wisdom indicates, you can also do the Facebook “like this routine,” but it isn’t crucial.
- Check the Google page rank of all sites linking to you, and you’ll need a lot of them. Google assigns page ranks from one to 10. However, remember your new Web site will have a zero page-rank, and you don’t want other zero-ranked sites linking to you. That goes for your online press-release company. Shoot for links with a page rank of 6 or higher because if you do things right you’ll quickly earn a page rank of one or two. Allow for some wiggle room for your site’s future ranking. (Check sites here.)
- Continue to innovate in all that you do.
The best way to innovate is to keep an open mind. The best way to keep an open mind to spot and capitalize on new opportunities is to practice the “Principle of Contrary Action.”
It’s a tip from a cherished mentor more than three decades ago. Keep track of everything you do and strive to do it differently each time. That includes taking different routes to work or even going to the grocery store. (It was a simple but effective strategy from Dr. Len Brode, who has had many accomplishments as a scientist and as a great human being. He also was a proponent of “how to keep your personal power,” long before I heard of Tony Robbins. He is married to Jade Brode, the author of Marry the Man of Your Dreams and No Is The Word.)
A Web site is important. But an integrated approach is the key to Internet dominance. Good luck in your venture.
From the Coach’s Corner, here are more research links:
Checklist to Build Your Brand on a Budget
Google Insights – 23 Key Questions about Your Web Site
Study Provides Vital Lessons for Web Sites Seeking Profits
Checklist: 19 Quick Marketing Tips for New Entrepreneurs
Marketing Checklist to Measure Your Brand’s Personality
“A strong foundation increases the value of everything you do.”
-Aaron Wall
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Columnist Terry Corbell is also a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complementary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?
Despite Hoopla over Social Media, Web Searchers Stay Longer
May 1, 2011
If you want your Web site to dominate your competitors, you might want to consider that social media doesn’t enhance your odds as much as other strategies. What works best is an investment in content and search engine optimization (SEO). Ironically, the hype about social media makes this seem like an improbable proposition.
However, a new study shows you’re missing opportunities for growth if you’re too influenced by the social media buzz – investing more in social media than enhancing your Web site with frequent, strong relevant content backed by SEO strategies.
The study by Outbrain shows referrals from user-traffic deliver more results than social media. (The firm, www.outbrain.com, provides services for an impressive array of publishers including content and traffic information.)
Outbrain says users that directly visit your site and surf more of your pages constitute about 66 percent of your visitors’ data.
The firm’s study indicates social media enthusiasts will spend less time on your site – the bounce rate is higher – they visit one page and that’s it. On the other hand, surfers who visit your site based on their key word or phrase-search will visit more of your pages.
To quote from Outbrain’s study:
- While search still reigns supreme in terms of directing traffic to content pages (41% of external referrers), social is gaining share at 11%.
- Of the six content verticals examined, stories in the news, entertainment and lifestyle categories are the most likely to receive traffic from social sources.
- Traffic coming from social media sources has the highest tendency to bounce.
- Readers who go from one content site to another (i.e. USA Today to The Daily Beast) are most likely to be engaged in what they’re reading, presumably because they are already in content consumption mode.
- Facebook delivers a more diverse audience than Twitter.
My sense about the study: All traffic – social media enthusiasts and content searchers – is welcome. However, Outbrain is right. With all the hype about social media, if you have to choose between the two strategies, it might seem riskier to invest more in your content and search engine optimization. But your ROI will be stronger.
Candidly, that’s my experience, too, as business-performance consultant and publisher of this business portal. Content searchers tend to be more studious and will spend more time looking for content that interests them. The bounce rate for them is insignificant. That enhances your odds for more revenue – whether you’re marketing products or services or depend on display-advertising revenue.
It may seem riskier in the face of the social media hooplan, but focus on providing frequent, relevant content backed by SEO. The social media efforts should be secondary. If you have to make a choice, remember Web sites with current, strong relevant content earn more respect.
From the Coach’s Corner, if you want more specific tips, you might consider the myriad of business-coaching topics in Marketing/Sales.
“If you don’t make a mistake, you never know when you’re right.”
- Actor Robert Ryan (in the movie, House of Bamboo, 1955)
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For a complementary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?
How CRM, SEO Strategies Can Lead to Higher Sales
True, there are shortcuts you can take for Internet prominence en route to higher sales. However, implementing those dubious tools will ultimately land you in Internet oblivion. Such shortcuts aren’t worth the risk.
The first smart move: It’s important to lay a strong marketing foundation – build your brand equity brick by brick. A rushed job might lead to success, but it’s only temporary. Marketing is a never-ending process. It’s a race – a marathon – not a dash or sprint.
What’s the secret to success? Well, that requires an easy-to-understand set of answers, but it’s laborious to implement for strong results.
Let’s start with strong customer-relationship management. No, not merely CRM software, but it’s important to develop stronger skills in literally managing your customers. In essence, that means developing strong-enough relationships to persuade customers to become effective online brand ambassadors to write reviews for you.
Online reviews have become important. Many sites have become successful partially thanks to customer reviews. Here are 20 User Review Web sites Critical to Small Business. More on reviews later.
Further, strategies with a full complement of SEO – search engine optimization tools – work best.
Much has been written and said about Google’s Panda, which is making SEO more difficult for many businesses. The algorithm upgrade in Feb. 2011 was designed to provide better relevant search results by filtering out content farms and other Web sites of questionable value. But Panda has its critics. Publisher and author Morris Rosenthal depends heavily on the Internet for his survival, and Panda has hurt him badly prompting him to air his criticisms.
Panda appears to allow online reviews to influence its search results.
However, you won’t believe this: One problem with Panda is that a business with poor reviews gets a high Google ranking – yes, even negative consumer reviews are counted as positive results. One would think the opposite would be true.
But let’s congratulate Google on its efforts. It will get better once Google understands the issue.
There has been countless buzz about SEO – search engine optimization, key words and meta tags. It’s mostly accurate. Ultimately, businesses will succeed on the Internet by generating links and search results via marketing.
But to maximize sales, it’s a complex matter.
You have to generate clicks from quality Web sites to yours. Google assumes your Web site is getting a vote from another site when the Internet user visits your site. The more visits you get from quality sites, the more important your site becomes.
You also need to garner telephone calls and attract customers to your place of business for facetime. That means you have to become an orchestra leader of sorts by synchronizing all your marketing efforts.
Historically, you’ve had to start with the right drivers to your Web site, including the right message on the right mediums whether it be TV, radio, newspapers or Internet press releases and ads.
But since early 2010, there have been salient changes:
- In Feb. 2010, I wrote social networking, Facebook and Twitter, had joined the ranks of drivers. For professionals, LinkedIn works well, too. The right social strategies represent 50 percent of the factors implemented by Bing, Yahoo and Google.
- The following month, I wrote: Surprise? Facebook and Twitter Increase Odds for Sales.
- Best- practices in customer service began taking on increasing importance with social media, hence this column: Invigorate Sales with Customer Retention, Referral Strategies.
- During the debate over relevant content, I wrote: Google Speaks Out About Frequency vs. Value. Fresh content was deemed important, but if a publisher has to decide between frequency vs. quality, quality was the most-important. Nonetheless, I advised publishing valuable content but do it as often as possible.
- It’s important to evaluate your social media efforts, as I indicated in this column: Is Your Social Media Working? Here’s How.
Incidentally, in a key word search for your site, don’t be surprised if your social-media mentions – such as LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter pages – rank higher than your site. They will likely continue to have a higher page rank until your site improves in page rank. But that’s OK, if you do it right. It’s all about brand equity.
Good luck! Master these ideas. Your CRM and SEO strategies will lead to higher sales.
From the Coach’s Corner, here’s a tip about the value of a press release to promote your successes.
Pick a press-release company with a strong Google page rank. Every time you achieve a goal, write a good press release. Not only will you generate productive direct links but others will blog or tweet about your press release. That’s when the multiplier effect kicks in. For every good press release, you’ll generate 15-20 times the number of links.
One of my favorite examples:
In June of 2010, I wrote a column and press release quoting security guru Dr. Stan Stahl about the WIFI security issues at Starbucks. It generated about what I expected in visitors to my column. But months later, a blogger who was writing about Starbucks on Yahoo Finance spotted my press release and linked to it. In just a few hours, more than 20,000 of his Yahoo readers read my PR, and at least half of them visited the column on this Web site.
If you promote a lot and your marketing budget is tight, I’d recommend the free online press-release company, www.prlog.org.
It provides at least nine benefits:
- You get to select 10 key words appropriate for your Web site
- Your logo
- Picture
- As many as three live links
- Your contact information
- An archive which it calls “Press Room” – it shows up online with all your press releases
- Your business profile which also links to your site
- It provides user data – readers of your press releases
- Within minutes of publishing a press release, it shows up on Bing Search as well as Bing News with your picture
The only downside is that the complementary press releases indicate they’re free and they contain Google ads. My sense is that the benefits outweigh such factors. Prlog’s $49 option doesn’t include the Google ads and you’re guaranteed to be inserted in Google News.
Note: Don’t use the same headline for your press release as you do in your blog. Otherwise, your article won’t be indexed – just your press release. Not all readers of your press releases will visit your Web site.
“The success of a page should be measured by one criteria: Does the visitor do what you want them to do?”
- Aaron Wall
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Columnist Terry Corbell is also a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?
Web Publishers: Are You Optimized for Bing?
Updated Aug. 17, 2010
The time has come to optimize your Web site for Bing. That’s because the long-awaited deal between Yahoo and Bing is in effect. Microsoft Advertising’s Tina Kelleher explains in a blog post today the change is underway. Initially, the change will take place on English-language Yahoo searches.
Why is optimizing for Bing important? In terms of market share, Yahoo and Bing are expected to combine for 30 percent – hence, the need to act.
Bing is powering the search for Yahoo. However, each will still have separate identities. You might recall that Yahoo and Bing signed the advertising deal for a 10-year duration.
This column originally quoted a Website Magazine report about the change. Website Magazine also suggests you check out Bing’s new webmaster tools.
The magazine reported an alert by Yaho0 to optimize for Bing “…if organic search results are an important source of referrals to your website.”
You know what? Success in organic search listings is indeed noticed by most Internet users.
“It also indicated that Yahoo! hopes to migrate its paid-search ads to Microsoft’s adCenter by the beginning of the 2010 holiday season, but that it may wait until the start of 2011 to take that action,” states Website Magazine.
In my experience, Bing has kept its promise to improve its method of organizing searches compared to MSN. The navigation has proved to be easy. While it’s similar to Google in many ways, personally, I’ve found it to be a great search experience.
Moreover, it’s fairly easy to optimize your site for good placement on Bing.
Here’s a checklist:
- Make sure you add your site to Bing. It has a dashboard for analysis of your summary, profile, links, keywords, site map and crawl issues. Don’t forget to add your site to Bing’s Local Listing Center.
- Like Google, Bing more easily recognizes domain age. Both recognize title tags and keywords for your content.
- Unlike Google, Bing is not as concerned about the quality of back links as it is anchor text. But my sense is great content attracts great links. (In my SEO work for clients, to save time from having to review other linking sites, I simply don’t allow back links with a Google Page Rank of less than 3. Even then, I do check to see the site’s focus before allowing it to back link to my client.)
- Be extra careful with your content, especially the headlines and blog summaries. Bing has a great feature, a document preview, which is a text box that shows up next to your mentions on Bing – the verbiage is copied from your site.
- As both Bing and Google pay homage to flash with stronger prominence, be sure to consider inserting such videos.
- Bing is far more amenable to publishing quality press releases than Google, which accelerate your success. Here’s a sample from Bing News of how some of my press releases appear. They’re in place for four weeks.
- Bing is very cognizant of social media. The more relevant social media you have, the better. Twitter and Facebook are good. Despite what you’ve read about sharing blogs on Digg.com, Digg is still a player. LinkedIn is terrific.
On a side note: If you want to reach professionals — LinkedIn is outstanding — if you participate on a frequent basis. LinkedIn members respond well to good content, especially if you introduce your content with a question. Actually, LinkedIn provides this Web site with more visitors than Google.
To summarize, it’s important not to dismiss the potential of Bing. Bing is attractive and is doing a good job. You’ll find it to be a fairly simple process to optimize for Bing.
From the Coach’s Corner, if you’re launching a new Web site, try to use HTML. That will help you make faster progress than you will with a blog format, such as WordPress. Google gives more preference to HTML, especially if you want to be inserted in Google News. WordPress simply will take you a little longer for success.
Here are some other basic pointers: Startup Toolkit – How to Make a Hit on the Internet.
5 Tips If Your Web Site’s Traffic Slows in Summer Months
Traffic on the Internet slows in the summertime, according to Peter A. Prestipino at Website Magazine. So much so, his article refers to the slowdown as the “Web summer doldrums.” Frankly, I’ve never noticed. But I respect his insights.
From his 10 years experience, he offers five tips for helping your summer Web traffic; they include:
Create 30, 60 and 90-day plans – Mr. Prestipino suggests developing and implementing strategies in 30-day increments.
“The 30-60-90 strategy is ideal as an outline of what you will accomplish, what you want to accomplish, and, finally, what you wish you could accomplish,” he writes.
“In 30 days you will want to have created a media center on your site; in 60 days you will want to have had 10 bloggers written about your website or its products and services, and in 90 days you will want to get coverage from at least one major media news source,” he adds. “There are clearly a lot of steps involved to get there but writing down your plan will get you thinking about how to achieve them. When you plan, you plan to succeed.”
Complete Big Projects – Mr. Prestipino asserts that in the process, you will uncover a challenge that needs to be solved.
“…big projects might be a Website redesign, link building campaigns, conversion testing, etc,” he writes. “When it comes to selecting which big project you want to complete, you’ll need to weigh the potential return against the time commitment and legwork necessary to get the project done.”
He points out the most-complex projects usually don’t provide short-term benefits.
“Decide what would most benefit your business (creating social media campaigns, email marketing campaigns, etc.) and stick with it,” he explains. “When you know what you need and resolve to complete the task, it will make a difference to the bottom line in the near and long term.”
Network until Your Fingers Hurt – He says a good summer-investment of time is working on your connections and contacts.
“If you’ve established a Facebook Fan page, recruit new members,” he writes. “If you’re a LinkedIn user, find colleagues, customers and others in your industry to connect with.”
He believes social media endeavors are vital and it’s important to be uncompromising in your efforts.
“The best place to look might just be in your own customer list and even your own inbox,” he suggests. “Start there and shore up your friend and fan base this summer for long-term Web success.”
Stockpile Information and Ideas – He says even if you want to take easy in the summer, at least start accumulating ideas and information.
“It will undoubtedly be a challenge not to act on the information you encounter on the Web as much of it will probably motivate you to act on the suggestions provided, but doing so will ultimately give you a library of ideas you can leverage in the future,” Mr. Prestipino writes.
He says he always generates about 30 article ideas and another 10 to create revenue for his magazine.
“Stockpiling information and ideas will serve you well when you hit those creative blocks or when you finish one project and want to start another,” he explains. “When you are prepared, your chances of success are that much higher.”
Learn One New Thing – Mr. Prestipino suggests learning at least one new concept.
“Learning is a process,” he philosophizes. “The more you know, the more prepared you are to achieve success — Web success.”
He also invites readers to share their ideas at www.websitemagazine.com.
He deserves a big thumbs-up for his excellent counsel. Actually, his Web site is a must-read if you want timely information.
From the Coach’s Corner, if you haven’t focused on your social-media potential but want to start, why not now?
Search engines incorporate social media activity to assess Web-site relevance, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Business Exchange, Plaxo and Digg, etc.
Whenever possible, synch your social media accounts. Press releases with pictures are beneficial, too.
My salient social links:
Business Exchange: http://cdn.businessweek.com/profile/terry-orbell/tcorbell573/
Tweet: twitter.com/bizcoachinfo
Facebook: www.facebook.com/terry.corbell
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/terrycorbell
More Web strategies:
11 Tips to Make Money on Facebook
Google Insights – 23 Key Questions about Your Web Site
How CRM, SEO Strategies Can Lead to Higher Sales
“Your premium brand had better be delivering something special, or it’s not going to get the business.”
-Warren Buffett
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Terry Corbell is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complementary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?
Google Speaks Out About Frequency vs. Value
In blogging and Web site publishing, what do you think is most important, freshness or quality? Chris Crum raised the intriguing question in his post at WebProNews.
His post is entitled: What’s More Important in Search? Freshness or Quality?
Mr. Crum thoughtfully spotted a Google Q&A webmaster video featuring Google’s Matt Cutts. In the video, Mr. Cutts explains the difference between what is important to users of your site vis-à-vis what’s important in SEO for search engine prominence.
Repeat visitors to your site probably appreciate being able to return to your site and enjoying new content. That gives them a reason to keep checking out your site and is, of course, the advantage that mega sites have over small blogs because they have more resources. They can insert new content every few hours.
However, the situation is different for search engines. If a blogger has to make a choice between frequency and quality, Google’s Mr. Cutts advocates quality over frequency. He states your site will fare better with quality on Google. He also asserts your site will attract more links in the long run.
That’s not to say you should necessarily forego focusing on frequency. When asked about real-time indexing of sites, Mr. Cutts comments in another video.
Mr. Crum also presents some interesting thoughts about freshness and the new Google SERP redesign (search engine results page).
“…the smaller brand sites have a better shot at showing up the more frequently they are updated, wrote Mr. Crum in another post. The bigger brands tend to rank higher, the wider the range of time selected.”
He also wrote about how smaller sites succeed: “Brian Klais, General Manager and VP of Product Mangagement at Covario had a very interesting post at Search Engine Land looking at how the time filter may even help smaller brands get some visibility.”
So, it’s a thought-provoking blog by Mr. Crum. My sense is value is important. But do what you can to accomplish both – delivering value as frequently as you can.
From the Coach’s Corner, some publishers have experienced a sudden decline in their search engine rankings. The solution is to focus on value and frequency, attracting links from highly ranked sites, and promotion success via social media. This column, “Surprise? Facebook and Twitter Increase Odds for Sales,” explains why.
