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I definitely don’t envy newcomers in today’s SEO arena. Back in the day, there were only a handful of “authorities” on the subject and they were all teaching identical techniques and tactics because it was what worked. Today, the rules have changed and there is now a myriad of blogs, sites, forums, feeds, articles, ebooks and “experts” peddling SEO advice. And with so much information to now weed through, I’m guessing that the problem for newbies has shifted from finding things to read and learn, to deciphering which advice to absorb and which to tune out. (more…)

Image by Franco Folini

Want to know how to use Social Media in Business… Follow an Airline.

I am extremely impressed with how the following four airlines are using Social Media. So much so that I will go as far to say that Business Owners confused with how to use Social Media activities in their business should look towards the following four airlines for examples. (more…)

Although it is difficult to get data on the relative sizes of the mobile web versus the Internet as people access it from their desktop PCs, it seems likely that the mobile web will outstrip the regular Internet, if it has  not done so already.  The relative costs of a smart phone or mobile device is a strong inducement and it is extremely handy to be able to stay in touch when you are on the go.  In some parts of the world the mobile web will be the only way individuals can be online.  The arguments are even stronger for the under 30 crowd, which some have labeled the digital natives. (more…)

One of the problems large websites encounter is getting new pages or recently revised pages in the index. Since large websites also have a tendency to also be very deep, this adds to the complexity in getting these pages indexed and ranked, since links to these pages are often two, three or more levels deep. (more…)

When you are building a website, a key element is deciding what type of content is best and how to build it into the site architecture. I like to think content comes in three different flavors evergreen, news/current events, and linkbait/viral content.

Evergreen Content

Evergreen content, like evergreen trees is “green” all year. It doesn’t have a limited shelf-life and should really be the cornerstone of the information on your website. Sometimes evergreen content falls into simple instructional style posts, like “How do I change a flat tire” or “What is the Best Way to Store DVDs“. In other cases evergreen content can become the cornerstone of your website, becoming a truly valuable industry resource. This is a subset of evergreen content sometimes known as flagship content. Flagship content is the hardest thing to create and should not be rushed. The advantage is it gives you something to link to internally for years to come. Examples of flagship content could be:

• A list with short bios for every driver who has ever won the Daytona 500 on a racing website.
• Recipe with step by step instruction and pictures of how to make fondant icing on a cooking website.
• A step by step walk-through of how to hang wall paper – with video how to.

Flagship content should be the same as a really great Wikipedia page without any of the inaccuracies or petty bickering

News & Current Events Content
News content is anything that is time related, time sensitive or deals with industry current events. That’s not to say it can’t be scheduled but generally speaking it has a very short lifespan of usefulness. As an example “How to bake cupcakes” would be evergreen, “How to bake Halloween cupcakes” would be more news/current events focused. If your website has a blog this is most likely where that type of content should go.

Linkbait and Viral Content
Linkbait or viral content is content that is a bit edgier, shocking, provocative, funnier, entertaining or in some way more compelling than standard content. It’s the kind of thing that’s popular on social bookmarking sites or that your really annoying friends forward to you in chain letters where they forgot to use BCC so everyone can see your email address. It’s content that’s written specifically for attention and links. Viral Content can fall into the evergreen category “50 Funniest Car Commercials” or the news category “5 most ridiculous things automotive CEO’s said at the bailout hearings“.

Pulling the Content Together
The key is working all three areas simultaneously to your advantage. Come up with your big list of evergreen and flagship content, and prioritize it. If you’re a new site decide what you need before launch and what you can add after launch. Decide what’s an acceptable and maintainable schedule for news and current events. Some industries may require more frequent short posts, some less frequent longer posts. The best is a hybrid strategy that mixes less frequent longer in depth news and current events with frequent daily coverage.

Every content strategy should integrate some form of viral content, again the key is finding the mixture that’s right for you. Some industries can get away with one viral post a week, for others once a month is the right time frame. Experiment and find a schedule that you have the time, money and resources for. Don’t focus on creating viral content that keeps targeting the same user base. Grow and expand into other areas “10 Fastest Production Cars” would work on Digg or Reddit, “10 Cars with the Smallest Carbon Footprint” for green sites, and “10 Most Beautiful Car Advertisements” (with pictures) for stumbleupon.

Content creation should be thought of as an ongoing process, not something that’s done at sight launch and then forgotten. It’s something that has to be nurtured over the life of a website.

Unless you have been trapped on a deserted island I’m sure you have all heard of the CBS reality show Survivor. The basic premise of the show is that at least 16 strangers are put on a deserted piece of land and have to basically fend for themselves. They prepare their own shelters, find their own food, boil their own water. Occasionally, through winning challenges, they are provided with certain items that make their life without the mere basics easier and sometimes they even win luxuries such as gourmet meals. Each week someone is voted off of Survivor and the last one remaining is sole Survivor winning a Million Dollars. (more…)

Before any marketing campaign can get off the ground, there is some essential information that needs to be looked at. This includes target audience information, recent statistics and reports, and most importantly, keyword research – that is; what words or phrases is my target audience using to find my services/products/content?

Unfortunately, many site owners fail to understand the importance of conducting the research and, in turn, they fail to reach their full organic traffic potential. In reality, keyword research is possibly THE most important aspect of any online venture, especially where the outcome involves the intention of gaining significant natural search traffic.

Keyword research will generally uncover information that can be used to:

- help customers find you online
- better define your business to users
- create targeted anchor text
- create more descriptive page titles and Meta descriptions
- create compelling titles for blog posts
- find targeted topics to write about
- create/word your website navigation or internal linking structure
- create online marketing/promotional materials

If you’re selling anything online, be it a product, content or whatever, chances are there are more than just a few phrases your potential customers will use to try and find you. And since the search engines aren’t exactly openly sharing that info (with site owners at least), conducting keyword research is the only way to investigate what those phrases might be. (more…)

.. put your right footer out, right footer in and you shake it all about.

Wrong context I’m afraid.  Nor are we talking about cement shoes.  The topic is something you see on 99.99% of web pages and which rarely gets respect.  We’re talking about the humble web page footer.  It’s a carry-over from the printed page in books, where every page might carry a similar block of text at the bottom, mostly to remind you where you are in the book.

When dealing with the Internet, it’s always unwise to just go with your preconceptions that you developed when dealing with printed pages.  Even with a large screen every part of a web page real estate is important.  How can one best use every part to the maximum effect?  How can the footer best use the space it is allocated?

In considering that, you must always consider the question from two points of view. The first and most important is how your website visitor will view the page.  The second is how a search engine robot will view the page and how that will translate into more visitors to your website.  Very often the two may be equivalent but not always. (more…)

Blogs designed with a magazine layout are a pretty hot design trend. This design approach also has long-term prospects as a viable layout and user interface strategy, particularly as mammoth, older blogs require new ways to better present and organize their arsenal of content, and as other blog owners incorporate new models of content into their sites.

But not all blogs are created equal, and not all blogs are great candidates for a magazine layout style. In fact, a vast majority of blogs, particularly personal blogs, and those that aren’t updated frequently, are best served by the traditional, 2 or 3-column scroll down approach. When considering a new layout approach for your blog, your content should really drive the form (layout methodology) you choose.

• Pros and Cons of Magazine Style Layouts
• Blogs and sites rocking the magazine layout trend

(more…)

Last week we took a look at some tips for universal search optimization for video, in this post we’ll be looking at tips for optimizing for local search. (more…)