Online Marketing Blog

For years, rumors have circulated that email marketing is dying and teenagers the world over have proclaimed email as, “something old people do”.  

Whether you agree or disagree that email has one foot in the grave, many online marketers are finding effective ways to leverage email as part of a social media marketing mix. Integrating email and social media was the topic of discussion at a session during the MIMA Summit last week with Loren McDonald, VP of Industry Releations, SilverPop and Brian Brown, Director of Modern Marketing, ideapark.

Social sharing options embedded in online content have helped increase distribution and reach for thousands of web sites. One of the most common ways email has been used in a social context is “Forward to a Friend”.  However, the tried and true ‘Forward to a Friend’ link has less than .1% CTR, so many marketers have taken it upon themselves to find a new way to circulate content amongst networks.

Are you engaged in a Search Engine Optimization program and wondering how to get more out of it?

Look no further, I’m going to share with you 5 Pitfalls to Avoid as part of an SEO program.

Having worked with many, many clients I’ve seen just about everything.

However, there are 5 pitfalls that consistently pop up and limit the return of the program for the client or at the very least create more hurdles than were necessary.

So, here are 5 SEO Pitfalls to Avoid:

1. Designing Sites in a Vacuum
Many a client will search far and wide for the perfect web design vendor without as much as consulting their existing SEO partner. This is a mistake because, while I love web designers, they are not all trained in the world of SEO.

It was standing room only for the SES San Jose session regarding Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues.

Shari Thurow of Omni Marketing started the session off by addressing why duplicate content is a concern.

When there are duplicate content issues it lowers the number of pages available to rank. Less pages to rank can equal less rankings which can lead to lower search traffic.

In addition, Shari mentioned something called ‘Crawler Cap’ which is the maximum number of pages a search engine will crawl of a particular website.

So, if your site delivers duplicate content:

• it lowers index count
• the best converting pages might not appear in search results
• web pages from your shared-content partner sites (affiliates, syndicates) may have better search visibility

Beyond Google. Where will customers be searching in 5 years?

Dixon Jones of Receptional asks the audience: Who doubts life after Google? About half the audience raises their hand.

According to Dixon, there will be life after Google and we are already there. He cites Facebook as an example of a site that is growing links more quickly than Google.

He then goes on to discuss the Trust/Convenience Contract. This contract is illustrated when searchers trust Google to give them data, as opposed to going around knocking on neighbor’s doors to find the answer.

However,  Google isn’t the only choice anymore. Users can and do go to blogs, Facebook, Twitter to retrieve information often removing Google from the equation.

Check out photos from Day 1 of SES San Jose 2009.

Google Booth - it just keeps getting bigger....

Greg Jarboe gets a new shirt!

Hopping in front of the lens to take a pic with my pal, Meg Walker

Down the Rabbit Hole for Search Bash

Adam Singer & smiley friends at Search Bash

Where's Waldo or maybe the Mad Hatter?

Learn search engine strategies and social media marketing from 2009 SES SJ coverage by TopRank Online Marketing

SES San Jose 2009 is off to a rockin’ start and this afternoon I’m sitting in a session about turning web analytics into money.

Avinash Kaushik, from Google, shared this #1 rule with the audience:
Don’t Stink! If you do, nothing else matters.

To get started, figure out which pages Google has determined are your home pages (i.e. the pages they send traffic to) and fix those pages first. The biggest opportunity lies with these pages and reducing bounce rates.

How to Rock It!
1. Focus on user behavior
How many people purchase 0 days after visit, 1 day after and so on.

Try softening the call to actions on the landing pages, knowing that very few want to buy right now. Rather, most are researching and then will go back to the most helpful website to make a purchase. It’s not all about price!

What does Van Halen have to do with Search Marketing?

Let’s find out with John Marshall of Market Motive.

Marshall starts out by illustrating Van Halen’s very unique pre-show requests.

Specifically, Van Halen was very clear that in their dressing room, there should be M & M’s, but no brown M & M’s.

The business lesson of the brown M & M’s is ‘lose early’. They used the brown M & M’s as an indicator of whether or not the contract had been read. If not, then they knew everything needed to double checked including  many steps in the contract meant to protect the band and the equipment used during the show.

As a marketer, you will end up in situations where you cannot move the decision makers. So, if you are going to lose – lose early.

Clay Shirky, Author of Here Comes Everybody, kicks off SES San Jose 2009 as today’s keynote speaker.

He dives right in and shares a story about HSBC, which  launched a program to acquire new accounts from college students. In doing so,  some less-than-great details about the program like extra fees started to enraged those who had signed up.

Instead of students being upset, but having no way to congregate, an upset student decided to rally other students via Facebook starting a group called ‘Stop the Great HSBC Graduate Rip-off!!!’.

Before the offline rally could happen, HSBC stepped in and tried to right the wrong specifically because – as Shirky says  – “Their customers had become organized. Facebook has become not only a social network, but a site of organization.”

At Online Marketing Summit held in Minneapolis and hosted by ClickZ, Caitlin McCabe of Sway Inc spoke to the audience about Social Media and had these insights:

1. For people who think Facebook is just for kids, go search for groups relevant to you and you will find them!  Facebook offers many targeted marketing opportunities.

While there are hoards of people, both professional and not, look for niche social sites where you can reach 100% of your target audience as well as an audience that is more engaged than perhaps the average Facebook user.

People with more friends aren’t necessarily more valuable. Do they know all their friends and who are they? However, on a niche social network like BakeSpace.com, the friends are much more targeted than a big brand like Sara Lee.

Thinking about social media? Or are you waist deep and need some help? A session today at SES NY highlights different approaches to social media, its purpose and how and why you should get involved.

Li Evans, of Key Relevance, hammers home the need for social media strategy within her presentation.

Social Media – done for the sole purpose of traffic or links – probably isn’t social media you should be doing. Social media is not about your marketing message, it’s about what the customer has to say good or bad. It’s about them talking about you.

Whatever you do socially, remember that the end user has control of your message and sometimes your brand. Li goes on to explain that these conversations are happening any way, online and offline, so would you rather be part of it or continue to ignore it?

Do you have a blog? If so, a panel today at SES NY shared how to improve SEO results with your blog and its RSS Feed.

Michael Gray, Owner of Atlas Web Service, shared the following tips to increasing SEO value with your blog.

1. Don’t write blog titles that suck
Bad titles lack keyword focus, are often clever or amusing and therefore not intuitive to a reader or search engine.

Good titles include keywords and are focused on topics covered within the post.

2. Partial feeds are like being half dressed at a party
Why do you want to use full feeds or be fully dressed?
Full feeds allow you to benefit from web scrapers and build links for you. Make sure you put keyword optimized hyperlinks within your post, specifically to pages that are more difficult to build Links to.

In the last session of the day, attendees were rewarded with 8 awesome tips to boost Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Results in a sponsored session  ”Wpromote Workshop: 8 Things You Aren’t Doing That Will Boost Your SEM Results”.  

Using real-life examples, this session promises to teach attendees the secrets top online marketers are using to beat the competition and squeeze the greatest results possible from their SEM efforts.   Topics include: PPC, SEO, landing page optimization and social media. 

Speakers are Michael Mothner, Founder & CEO and Michael Stone, Vice President, Sales & Strategy – both from Wpromote.  Some tips you may know and some you may not, but there is definitely something for everyone.