Online Marketing Blog » SEO Training

SEO Training & Learning Resources

Lee Odden — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:03:53 +0000

To learn the art and science of SEO (search engine optimization) it is my belief that the best source is your own efforts at hypothesis, experimentation and refinement.

If you’re starting from scratch and really have no idea what SEO is, then certainly one of the popular SEO books would be a appropriate as well as attending an industry conference like SES, SMX, Pubcon or a regional event.

Both Google and Bing have made great efforts at providing webmasters with resources that are worth checking out as well. Online SEO training like that offered by Market Motive (affiliate link) can help those without the time to attend “real world” events.

For brand marketers, I’d suggest checking out the ad:tech New York Marketing Masters SEM Track in November that I’ve been putting together with case studies and best practices SEO and Integrated PPC insights from VW, REI, Salesforce and several others. (shameless plug)

Every other SEO resource has pretty much been covered in posts like this elsewhere on the web but when sourcing any kind of recommended list (including this one) care should be taken as to motive and real-world validity of the advice and information provided. There are plenty of smart pontificators that have taken “make shit up” to an art form, blending reasonable advice with pure theory and packaging it as SEO gospel. In fact, that same dose of healthy skepticism could be applied to anything you find and read on the web.

Literally everything you’d ever want to know about becoming a successful SEO is online, you just have to sort through what’s theory, rant and outdated information. That’s why, if you create a strong base of knowledge through your own testing and direct observation, you’ll be in a better position to filter quality signal from the noise.

Not to overwhelm, but here’s a list of over 100 SEM information sources and another list of over 400 SEM & Online Marketing Blogs that you may find useful in your journey to learn more about SEO.

We just added a review of the 2012 MarketingSherpa SEO Benchmark Report – a great source of data driven insights about SEO. Very useful as a SEO learning tool. A similar resource that we’ve reviewed: Econsultancy SEO Best Practices Guide is also a great aid in learning SEO.

Whether you’ve been in the search engine optimization game for 1 or 10 years, what have you found to be the best sources of information to learn, maintain and advance your SEO knowledge? What would you recommend to a SEO newbie? Or to an in-house interactive marketer with SEO responsibilities but limited time to test and learn on their own?

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Econsultancy SEO Best Practice Guide for 2011

Lee Odden — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 14:22:15 +0000

Guides about internet marketing tactics like Search Engine Optimization can be very useful tools; not only for practitioners to gain insight into what’s working and what’s not, but also for the agency/client side people working on the business side of things to understand where a particular tactic fits within an overall online marketing program.

While there are many, many credible SEO bloggers, conference speakers and pundits talking about the virtues of the latest SEO this and that, many business leaders are keen on recommendations that come with the credibility of an established marketing publication. The updated Guide on SEO edited by Jake Hird from Econsultancy, “SEO Best Practice Guide - Comprehensive advice for natural search marketers” is a great example of such a resource.

Originally created by Dr. Dave Chaffey, this most recent version has famous SEO expert contributors ranging from Lisa Myers of Verve Search to Dave Naylor of Bronco to Will Critchlow of Distilled to Nichola Stott of theMediaFlow who I did a SEO Dojo podcast with recently on SEO and Public Relations (podcast posts on Monday).

As a living document that gets peer reviewed and edited each year, this SEO guide is “soup to nuts” as they say, covering basics like keyword research, on-page optimization and link building to more advanced SEO topics like conversion optimization and optimizing for mobile. The guide is organized by Success Factors for SEO, including: Planning & Keywords, Indexing, On-Page Factors, Link Building, Process & Conversions.

There are also a number of Appendix items covering: SEO Copywriting, SEO Performance Audit, SEO Ranking Factors, Checklist for Links, a substantial section on Mobile SEO, RFP Template (I’m not a fan of SEO RFPs) and the inevitable SEO Glossary.

Overall, this guide is a great primer for those wanting to learn more about practical Search Engine Optimization as an independent marketing channel. It would be a good resource for marketing, advertising, public relations, copywriters, webmasters, interactive marketers and web designers that want to get a good baseline of SEO knowledge.

With advice on planning, process and sourcing SEO resources, this guide is also useful for companies from both a practical and logistical perspective, that want to include SEO more formally in their marketing mix.

Personally, I’d like to see a little more about strategy and how SEO intersects with other channels, but that would be at least double the size of the current SEO Best Practice Guide which currently weighs in at 323 pages. I’ve reviewed this guide before and I continue to believe it’s a very useful resource that’s practical and actionable for agencies and in-house marketers alike.

The guide is available to Econsultancy members (Silver membership $395/yr and above), or purchase the report individually for $350. Obviously, it’s a no brainer to get the Silver membership since you get access to a range of similar reports and guides for a little more than the cost of an individual report.

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Reader Poll: Best Paid Subscription SEM Communities

Lee Odden — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:48:52 +0000

We recently posted a list of over 100 resources our readers could leverage to learn more about marketing online through search. One of the categories was paid subscription SEM communities that offer training, forums and often times templates, forms and guides for implementing effective Search Marketing programs.

A pioneer forum that has a paid channel in this area is the WebmasterWorld Supporter’s group. SEOmoz has been wildly successful with their Pro community over the past few years and SEO Book launched their training community after discontinuing the actual book. The newcomer to this group is SEO Dojo.

Below you’ll find info and links on each community and if you’re a fan, take this poll to vote which is your favorite:

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

WebmasterWorld Supporters
Since: Posts go back to Nov 5, 2002 but I suspect it was started before that.
Cost: 6 months $89 – 12 months $149
Description: A private forum for WebmasterWorld supporters dealing with Webmaster, Tech, and Business issues related to operating and promoting a website.

SEOmoz Pro
Since: Feb 2007
Cost: Pro $79/mo, Pro Plus $129/mo, Pro Elite $229/mo
Description: Access to exclusive tools, processes and knowledge that SEOmoz staff use to provide consulting to their clients. Offers a guarantee.

SEO Book Training
Since: Feb 2008
Cost: $150/mo – Membership is full
Description: Over 100 training modules as well as forums, templates, videos and tools.

SEO Dojo
Since: Oct 2009
Cost: $30/monthly or $250/full year plus other combinations
Description: Community and training resource for search and Internet marketers that includes articles, chat sessions, worksheets/guides and plans for webinars.

What has your experience been with these communities? What are the best features? Training, Tools, Community. Which paid SEM communities did we miss? Please share in the comments and we’ll update our 100 Resources list as well as include them in next year’s poll.

This poll will run until Tuesday 11/03/09 after which we will name the winner both on Online Marketing Blog, which gets close to 100,000 visits per month and we’ll be issuing a press release for distribution through PRWeb. The winner will also get a free 125X125 ad on the toprankblog.com right side bar for 2 months.

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TopRank BIGLIST of 100+ Search Marketing Resources

Lee Odden — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:00:31 +0000

TopRank BIGLIST of Search Marketing Resources

How do new marketers learn SEO and Pay Per Click? How do professionals stay current with search marketing tactics considering the sheer volume of social media distraction? Last month we ran a poll of Online Marketing Blog readers to discover preferences for learning and staying up to date with current search engine marketing strategies and tactics. Below are the top categories selected by readers. However, we’ve taken it a step further and listed over 100 different resources for marketers to start, maintain or advance their level of SEO, PPC and any other type of search based marketing. Enjoy!

Search Engine Marketing Blogs

TopRank’s BIGLIST of over 400 Search Marketing Blogs (updated weekly/monthly since Jan 2007)
invesp Ranked List of Top SEO Blogs
Daily Blog Tips Top 25 SEO Blogs
HuoMah Big Ass List of SEO Blogs
FutureBuzz Essential List of Marketing & SEO Blogs
SEOmoz Ranking 50 Top Blogs in the Search Space (2006)
SEOBook SEO Blogs and Search Engine Blogs (2006)
Fantomas SEO / SEM Blogs (2005)

SEO/SEM Blog Aggregators:

Testing Tactics on Your Own Web Sites

A/B Testing resources: (Google Website Optimizer, 7 Free Resources)
Multivariate Testing service: (Omniture)
Heatmap & User Testing tools: (CrazyEgg, Clickdensity, Clicktale, userfly and Eyetools)
Web Analytics tools: (Google, WebTrends, Omniture SiteCatalyst, Unica NetInsight, Lyris HQ, Clicky, Yahoo, BLVD Status)
Ranking Software: (Advanced Web Rankings, WebPosition, Web CEO)

Search Engine Marketing Forums

Paid Subscription SEM Communities

Search Engine Marketing Webinars

Search Marketing White Papers, Research, Special Reports

SEO & SEM Email Newsletters

Online Groups for Search Marketers (Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning)

Facebook: SEO
Facebook: PPC
LinkedIn: SEO
LinkedIn: PPC
Ning: SEO
Ning: PPC

The Big SEM Conferences

SEM Consultant/Agency Advice

TopRank Online Marketing – That’s right, we put our own agency - The reality is, your current SEO/SEM agency or consultant should offer some kind of ongoing education and/or training on top of ongoing consulting services. If not, call us!

Print Magazines

Offline Networking Groups or Meetups

Books on SEM

SEO Warrior – John I. Jerkovic
Art of SEO – Eric Enge, Stephan Spencer, Rand Fishkin, Jessie C. Stricchiola
Search Engine Marketing Inc, 2nd Edition – Mike Moran & Bill Hunt
Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day – Jennifer Grappone & Gradiva Couzin
The Truth about Search Engine Optimization – Rebecca Lieb
Search Engine Visibility, 2nd Edition – Shari Thurow
SEO: Search Engine Optimization Bible – Jerri L. Ledford
SEO Made Simple - Michael H. Fleischner
Search Engine Optimization: Your Visual Blueprint for Effective Internet Marketing – Kristopher B. Jones
Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition – Steve Krug
Building Findable Websites: Web Standards SEO and Beyond – Aarron Walter
The Findability Formula: Easy, Non-Technical Approach to SEM -
Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords – Perry Marshall & Bryan Todd
Winning Results with Google AdWords, 2nd Edition – Andrew Goodman
Google Advertising Tools – Harold Davis
Landing Page Optimization – Tim Ash
Website Optimization: Speed, Search Engine & Conversion Rate Secrets – Andrew King
Inbound Marketing - Brian Halligan & Dharmesh Shah
Best Selling “SEO” books on Amazon
No, SEOBook is no longer available
Coming 2010: Search Engine Optimization Secrets – Danny Dover
Coming 2010: Marketing in the Age of Google – Vanessa Fox

Niche or Regional SEO/SEM Conferences and Workshops

Search Marketing Industry Web Sites

SEM Workshops, Training & Certifications

Search Marketers on Twitter

30 Must Follow SEO Twitter Users
200+ Internet Marketing Gurus on Twitter
Follow the Top 40 SEO Experts on Twitter in One Click
UK Based SEOs on Twitter
SEO Tips
@LeeOdden Twitter List of Search Marketers
@Danny Sullivan Twitter List of Search Marketers

SEO & PPC Focused Podcasts

SEO Rockstars – Daron Babin
Office Hours – Vanessa Fox
Webcology – Jim Hedger & Dave Davies
PPC Rockstars – David Szetela
SEM Synergy – Bruce Clay

What did we miss? Please share in the comments.

I took a quick poll on Twitter for some of the resources and want to thank those that made suggestions: @chrisgarrett, @scottclark, @danperry, @katemorris, @jonnytee, @Phil_EH, @steveplunkett, @chiropractic, @pratt, @kennyhyder, @kalena, @goglobalwebs, @scottdeto, @thashow.

chrisgarrett

scottclark

danperry

katemorris

jonnytee

Phil_EH

steveplunkett

chiropractic

pratt

kennyhyder

kalena

goglobalwebs

scottdeto

thashow

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17 Ways to Stay Current with Search Marketing

Lee Odden — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:36:18 +0000

Over the past few weeks TopRank has been conducting it’s own search of sorts, for a Senior Search Marketing Manager as well as a Search Marketing Strategist. One of the questions we ask is, “How do you stay current with tactics and strategies in the SEM space?”. It’s a good question both for hiring agencies to ask as well as companies that are looking for SEM consultants.

Search is a changing marketplace. Whether it’s paying attention to the effect of Google infrastructure updates like Caffeine or industry aggregation like BingHoo, it’s important for companies that want to stay ahead of the competition and for SEM consultants to deliver first class services, to stay current. The question is, how to do that? We offer 17 ways in our current Online Marketing Blog Reader Poll:

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Did we miss any primary methods of staying current with Search Marketing tactics and strategies? How do you use these methods to keep your SEM knowledge fresh?

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Agency + Client = Superhero Link Building Team

TopRank Online Marketing — Thu, 08 May 2008 23:51:41 +0000

Two heads are better than one. How many times have we all heard that in our lives?Â When having a brainstorming session, it helps to bounce ideas off of one another to generate the best possible solution. Even when saving the world, is it always important to have a sidekick. Or a team of sidekicks.

The same is true of link building teams. It can be considered a general rule of thumb to say â€œthe more, the merrierâ€ when it comes to the size of a team working on link building, social media and content promotion. An experienced team working together will generate far more inbound links and traffic to the target website than just one person â€“ bent over a desk, Red Bull in hand, click-clacking away on the keyword.

When it comes to link building for clients, there are two important questions:

Q: Who knows the client’s business best?

A: The Client. Hands down.

Q: Who knows link building and online promotions best?

A: The SEO Agency. Hands down.

One popular misconception is that some companies think it is a good idea to take their SEO and link building 100% in-house. On the surface, this might seem logical. However, the cost of hiring an entry-level person to take on this brand new role, learn and experiment with it on company time is just as high as pulling a seasoned marketing pro away from their traditional marketing job and training them up on SEO. Training seminars and conferences offer robust information, but without experience, the practical SEO knowledge wonâ€™t be there until months or years down the road.

Hiring an experienced agency to tackle SEO content promotion and linking needs is roughly equivalent toÂ one or two entry-level employees’ salary. With a SEO agency, the client will receive years of SEO, link building and online marketing experience from a team of experienced professionals.

The company also benefits from the knowledge SEO agency staff gain by working on many different clients in many different industries. Agencies (like TopRank) are prone to allocating budget and staff to staying up to date on current trends and tactics. The output of that experimentation is information passed along to the client to benefit their SEO and online promotions campaigns.

By conducting training sessions with clients on fundamental linking efforts, the client gains a bit of experience and appreciate. Feeling involved in what is working from a linking perspective reinforces that they are getting their moneyâ€™s worth from their SEO agency.

â€œTwo heads are better than oneâ€: When both client and agency are working their link building and online promotions magic, everyone wins!

As an example, recent training sessions with one of our clients has measurably contributed to the number of inbound links and online brand awareness achieved. Sites we’ve targeted with online promotions have become the top referring sources of traffic and have stayed there for months.

In another example, we conducted link building and content promotion training with a large client, who was very grateful to have the knowledge and to understand the backbone of what our agency were doing.

When it came down to it, the client was wearing too many hats to take on linking and content promotion.Â After budget meetings, presentations, product updates, traditional marketing and advertising, the client was all too happy to turn the link building efforts back over to us and we were more than willing to complete it. Client meetings go a bit smoother as the in-house team better understands exactly what we are doing for them and what it takes to complete.

By overseeing all linking efforts, the SEO agency brings in unique experience and the up-to-date knowledge of what is hot in the online marketing industry. The client gains knowledge and a bit of experience themselves. With our powers combined, client and agency can tackle most any linking obstacle.

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Advanced SEO Course Review – SEMPO Institute

TopRank Online Marketing — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 12:00:14 +0000

SEMPO Institute released their online training program for SEO and PPC late 2007. TopRank has previously written a review of the “Fundamentals Course” now known as the “Insider’s Guide to Search Marketing”. SEMPO Institute students that complete the Insider’s Guide can then move on to the two advanced training courses, one of which is the Advanced SEO Specialist course. I’ve recently completed that training and have the following review:

The Advanced SEO Course builds on the basics covered in the Insider’s Guide to Search Marketing, and then expands into research and execution of many SEO tactics including: keyword research, web page construction, link building tactics and writing appropriate website copy.

SEMPO Institute’s Advanced SEO Course is divided up into 5 learning modules:

Advanced Keyword Research
SEO Diagnostic & Audit
Advanced Link Building
Editing & Optimizing pages
Reporting & Analytics.

Each module is split up into 3 lessons to cover a different section falling under the module umbrellas.Similar to the Insider’s Guide to SEM course, each lesson provides an online course packet and resources available for more information on the specific topic. There are also mini-quizzes placed in between key topics in each lesson to test the readerâ€™s understanding of the previous materials and to highlight the important facts learned thus far.

There is a 20 question test at the end of each lesson covering the topics learned in the lesson. The questions are in a true or false, multiple choice, fill in the blank and matching format, and a score of 75% or higher is needed in order to pass. The tests can be retaken as many times as necessary to achieve a passing score, and once all tests are passed, a Certificate of Completion is issued for display and recognition of passing the SEMPO Institute course.

The difficulty level of the questions vary to make sure the reader pays attention to even the smallest detail in order to pass the test. In the Advanced Link Building module there are questions such as â€œMatch the link building tactic channel with its categoryâ€ referring to using del.icio.us as part of your social media marketing mix. There are also questions stating a problem and asking for the best ways to solve the problem, such as using industry-specific directories and blogs to gain appropriate reputable inbound links.

The Advanced Search Engine Optimization Course differs in structure slightly from the Insider’s Guide in that it is a lot more interactive. The Advanced Keyword Research module explains how to create a segmented keyword glossary, and offers 30-day trial memberships to Keyword Discovery and Wordtracker to aid in the development of the keyword glossaries.

There are also many of valuable resources available in the Advanced SEO Course. At the end of the Advanced Link Building module, the readers are provided a list of popular link building blogs, such Debra Mastaler’s The Link Spiel, to continue the linking education. The link building module was clear in that the linking tactics highlighted were some of the current tried and true methods, but that linking tactics change frequently.

Due to the changing nature of the industry, consumer search behaviors and the search engines themselves, SEO professionals must keep up on industry news and spend time experimenting with new tactics in order to stay current with productive linking tactics.

The Advanced course provides up and coming SEO professionals with the resources to take their work to the next level by demonstrating what tools to keep in one’s SEO toolbox. It also can help seasoned SEO professionals brush up on their knowledge of certain research and strategies.

While online training and formalized instruction on SEO and paid search tactics are certainly helpful, there is no substitute for hands on learning through concepting, implementing, measuring and refining your own search marketing campaigns – which is exactly what we do with new employees at TopRank. Formal training, conferences, reading blogs and hands on learning provide the best mix.

If your interests and responsibilities lie more with online advertising, then SEMPO Institute offers an Advanced Search Advertising course focusing on the creation and maintenance of pay per click campaigns. If you are just beginning your SEO career, the Insider’s Guide to Search Engine Marketing course is a good place to start.

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Learn the Fundamentals of Search Marketing – SEMPO Institute

TopRank Online Marketing — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 23:21:49 +0000

Late in 2007 the SEMPO Institute released several search marketing-focused online training courses. The first course, Fundamentals of Search Marketing, offers 14 different lessons encompassing the basics of SEM and SEO. To get a sense of what was offered, our CEO Lee Odden asked my coworker Jeff Nolan and I to take the Fundamentals course and write up a blog post.

The SEMPO Institute Fundamentals SEM course is designed for people who are new to the search industry and those who have been in traditional marketing and are now opening up to search marketing as a new career.

Composed of 14 lessons that range from â€œHow Search Engines Workâ€ to â€œSEO Web Designâ€, the lessons provide useful tips and real-time examples as well as supporting tools such as those used for keyword research or pay per click.

Each lesson provides study materials and an online course packet. The course materials present basic concepts, ideas and examples that are used daily by search engine marketing professionals. Throughout the lessons, the reading is broken up by short mini-quizzes that keep you on your toes and reinforce what youâ€™ve been reading.

At the end of each lesson a 20 question test is given on the course material just read. Questions on the tests are composed of true or false, multiple choice, matching and fill in the blank. A score of 75% or above is necessary in order to pass, but tests can be retaken as many times as necessary in order to receive the passing score. The Certificate of Completion is not issued until all lessons are passed.

Because this course covered a variety of topics, the test questions ranged from simple to difficult, testing how well the section is read and making sure the reader pays attention. There was a lot of in depth information provided on how to set up a successful PPC campaign, and the amount of test questions on this topic and the difficulty of those questions reflected what was learned. In the SEO Web Design section, tags such as and were described, as well as the appropriate situations in which to use these tags.

Also covered in the fundamentals course is directory submissions and how they can benefit any website, basics of good copy writing and the tracking and reporting of an SEM campaign. One of the last sections in the course was called â€œCurrent Innovationsâ€ where the rise and implementation of universal and personalized search were covered. The course rounds out with an informative section on intellectual rights and which written information available on the web belongs to whom.

While some of the questions seemed unnecessary for performing search marketing consulting services (â€œWhat year did Yahoo! officially become a search engine?â€), the basics were covered to educate a broad audience of users, and offered tips that can benefit even the most seasoned SEM professional. (The answer is â€œ2004â€ in case you didnâ€™t know.)

For anyone interested in beginning a search marketing career or for those who need to brush up on their basic knowledge of search marketing, this course is a good foundation. Even for those working in an offline marketing field, this course will help bridge the gap between traditional advertising and search marketing.

If you already have experience working in the search marketing industry, the SEMPO Institute also offers an Advanced SEO Specialist course for more in depth training on SEM and SEO, as well as an Advanced Search Advertising course, focusing on developing and maintaining successful PPC campaigns.

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Internet Marketing Interview with Jim of WeBuildPages

Lee Odden — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 16:19:23 +0000

The Internet Marketing instructional program including videos and tools conceived by We Build Pages, has officially launched. I think a lot of people in the search marketing industry will be wowed by the sheer volume of quality information that’s available. Currently there are a series of 12 videos from the likes of Aaron Wall, Shoemoney, Neil Patel and Jim himself. Plus, most of the famous We Build Pages SEO and link building tools have been taken offline and included in the program along with many of the private WBP tools.

I was fortunate to be included in the program and Jim was good enough to take some time and answer a few questions about Internet Marketing Ninjas during the launch to cover how/why it was started, how he was able to get some of the smartest search marketers to give up their secrets and what future enhancements are in store.

Anyone who has been in the search marketing biz knows WeBuildPages but for those neophytes to SEO from other industries that read our blog, can you share a bit on your background ith SEO and being a Link Master?

First let me say “Thanks” again for helping this project by providing an excellent training program presentation. Well done Ninja Master Lee!

I started We Build Pages in 1999 with the slogan “Designing and marketing websites”. In 2003 we dropped designing and went with a focus of SEO…especially with link building. We played the link trade game, the Pagerank buying game, the Florida game, the sandbox game, TrustRank Game, Social Media Game, and will continue to see opportunities and monitor boundaries in search of the “perfect link” that will directly increase a site’s rankings…without pissing off a search engine.

We’ve built a team that has grown to about 30, and continues to grow. Most of our employees are “Link Ninjas”, working on getting links that help our clients to get more relevant traffic, and increase their rankings along the way.

We also work on many other sites which we own. Sometimes acquiring old trusted websites and we work to monezite them.

Our latest project is the Internet Marketing Ninjas program. We’ve collected 12 of the most influential Internet Marketing minds and created a training program covering tons of internet marketing related topics.

We’ve also taken most of the public SEO tools at We Build Pages and made them no longer public. I’ve decided to throw these tools, as well as several private tools we use at We Build Pages, and offer them for free to those who join Internet Marketing Ninjas.

You had approached several people on the new Internet Marketing Ninjas program about a year a go or so. I am curious where you got the idea?

I got tired of going to conferences and watching 10 minute powerpoints of a 101 overview of a Internet Marketing related topics. Some people know what they’re talking about, many don’t. Some people are also on the wrong panels.

I often thought if you could just grab the top people, and let them talk beyond 10 minutes, and get a bit in-depth on what that person specializes in, then I’d learn way more than listening to panels of presenters. With the help of some Ninja Master Friends, and a bit of elbow grease, I think we’ve created a product that can be better than the price of an internet marketing conference. You get the “gold”, the in depth thoughts on topics covered by the best minds in the business. With the We Build Pages tools thrown in, I think it’s a steal.

Can you explain what it is and how it works? How will it stay up to date?

You get online Internet Marketing video training by a host of experts in our industry.

We’ve already got plans for additional Ninja Masters and training videos for 2008 to be included. It’ll just grow and grow. I can’t even begin to list the topics covered, often it’s getting the dirt and the gold nuggets of knowledge. I know my Internet Marketing knowledge jumped greatly after watching these videos (I’ve seen them many times now). We’re offering preview videos for each person (about 5 minutes each) as well. There’s even some nuggets in the previews as well. Members can comment on the member video pages.Â You also get access to formerly public We Build Pages Tools (most are no longer public), and some of our private tools as well.

You seem to have captured quite an impressive list of participants for the videos. I was surprised and honored to be asked and even more impressed when I saw the final list. How did you get them to do it?

I’ve been Lucky, I really have. I asked the best people I knew in several internet marketing categories to participate, and most said “Let’s do it!”. The others I’ll get to participate tomorrow

You decided to take the famous WeBuildPages SEO tools down and include them in the Internet Marketing Ninjas program as well as include some of your private tools. The free tools must have been good link magnets for you, why take them down?

Rand actually did a video on SEOmoz that covers the games you have to play with engines when you’re running tools. Basically the more people who use your tools, the more often the tools aren’t going to work, or the results will be skewed. Most of the public tools were being used thousands of times a day. I know that the tools will now be much more accurate, and we’ll have a lot less “hassle” if we limit the use of these tools. I gave these tools for free for years, but the time has come where I have to limit the use of the tools. I thought I’d just toss the use of these tools only to members of Internet Marketing Ninjas, as a “freebee” to them. I also threw in some tools that have never been public, actually some are the best we’ve built.

Can you describe some of the private tools that are now available to subscribers?

Jim: There’s several. Here’s a few I’m quite fond of: (Bullets added by Lee)

The Amazing Interlinker Tool. With this tool you can interlink text in your web pages like Wikipedia does. It’s a pretty powerful on page optimization tool that has other SEO uses as well.
Neighborhood Authority Finder that helps identify sites you should get links from
Common Co-Citation tool
Jim’s Link Value Tool

Some have described the price, just short of $3k, as steep. While I don’t personally agree since I’ve seen the videos, what do you say to people who are shy on price for the program?

These training and tools are not for everyone. There’s something to be said about having a “club” with only members serious enough to invest in this program. And I totally believe that those who invest in Ninjas will not be let down.

Outside of the videos and the tools, what else do you have planned for future enhancements? I suspect that after seeing the success of this program and all the exposure it will get, other search marketing experts will want to participate. Do you plan on rotating video participants, keeping the same group or going with an entirely new group next year?

We’ll just keep adding and updating to IM Ninjas. There’s already a handful of people that I’ve been talking with for 2008. We’ll just keep updating and adding Ninja Masters, as well as we’ll keep throwing in tools that we develop.

Not to give too much away, but what are some of the best tips you heard from the videos?

Oh man, hard to name so many….everyone handed out quality information filled with tips, suggestions, and theories.

Thanks Jim!

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Interview With Terry Plank SEMPO Institute

Lee Odden — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 11:00:09 +0000

The opportunities in the search marketing industry are as good now as they’ve ever been. With a new year many people working for agencies, just getting out of college or the military will be looking for careers and training that fits their need for a technical yet creative job that also doesn’t stagnate.

To help fulfill the growing demand for training and education in the search marketing industry, SEMPO Insitute has been created to provide structured, peer reviewed educational opportunities. The Institute is led by dean, Terry Plank and Online Marketing Blog is pleased to provide readers with this interview about how SEMPO Institute was created as well as the challenges and opportunities facing the search marketing industry.

How did you get involved with search marketing (and the SEMPO Institute) and where does the intersection of search and education come into play for you?

Thinking about beginnings, it was almost a birth of triplets: Web, search engines, search engine marketers.

I launched a website the first year the Web went commercial. Within that first year I had to run to keep up with developments in the search industry to become successful with my sites and the ones I was developing for others.

Usually in an industry there is a time lag from its inception and the development of training and education. But, the Web is one of those unique industries that necessitated an immediate need for training and education.

There was not much training or education initially, you had to jump in the water and learn to swim or you drowned.

As you well know Lee, the need hasnâ€™t lessened, everyone must keep up on changes in the industry to be successful whether you just having one web site, work for a company with one or many, or are employed in an Agency.

In previous careers I was involved as an educator so it was natural for me to team up in 1999 with Robin Nobles to form one of the first online training companies in SEM. After 4 years I returned to focus on my SEM consulting until the SEMPO Board of Directors hired me in August 2006 to oversee the development and launching of SEMPO Institute. Now with Katie Donovan or Business Development Manager taking on everything else Iâ€™m able to just focus on the curriculum and overseeing the professional content authors.

Can you describe how the SEMPO Institute program was built? How did it work with content authors and peer reviews? How will the content stay updated?

Iâ€™m glad you asked that Lee because this is one of the major strengths of our education and training; professionals teaching others from their own experience and expertise. With SEMPO Institute training you arenâ€™t getting just one personâ€™s perspective or expertise, you are getting a complete faculty.

4 prominent SEM professionals in SEMPO developed the first lesson outlines: Dana Todd, Paul Bruemmer, Fionn Downhill, and Anthony Mueller. I enlisted a handful of top SEM professionals to add to those outlines what they thought might be missing.

Then with the SEMPO Management Team we selected over 30 working SEM professionals associated with SEMPO. They wrote first drafts in their specific area of SEM expertise. These drafts were sent to a different group of peer SEMPO professionals to edit, evaluate, and make further recommendations for additional content.

We finished with a professional editor editing every lesson to ensure consistency within the lessons before I passed them on to a development person to create each lesson and publish in our robust online Learning Management System.

A final group of SEM professionals went over the finished online product to edit and make any final recommendations for changes.

As for updating, thatâ€™s been going on from the first students until now. As students, graduates, and some selected evaluators recommend areas that need attention we make updates when appropriate.

Two times a year we will perform a more formal updating of the lessons to ensure that everything is still correct based on changes made in the industry since the last updating.

Once a year we are going to return to each lesson and determine what new areas have arisen that should be added into the lessons. We will go through the same process as I outlined before when we make those changes. You donâ€™t want to do that too often or too quickly because new things that come up in the industry have to get some â€œlegsâ€ before you want to start teaching people about them.

From the web site, it seems the SEMPO Institute course material is targeted towards people that want to become search marketers. Have you seen any trends in distribution of students in terms of being client side, agency side or independents? Who is the ideal candidate for this program?

The original idea for SEMPO Institute was to meet the need of our general and circle SEMPO members who could not find a big enough pool of trained search professionals for the openings they had and continue to have. So the web site is targeted towards individuals who want to get into the industry.

During this first year we have learned much. One lesson is that agencies, eTailers and corporations have a need to purchase courses for their current employees and interns who are entry level as well as the experienced search marketers. With our three courses, we do have a course that fits all these demographics and the ones you mentioned.

Fundamentals of Search Marketing is a perfect start for someone who plans to become a search marketing practitioner but has little or no experience/knowledge. We have full-time students and career changers who have taken or are taking the courses on their own in preparation to enter the job market.

Others who benefit from this course are people who are not the day-to-day practitioners but whose work is associated with search, i.e. agency sales reps, account managers, client services, and marketing managers who outsource search and search advertising.

Advanced SEO, designed for people who have some understanding of search marketing, is the course search optimization practitioners and the people who want to become practitioners would take. Agencies have purchased this course for employees to bring new employees up-to-speed quickly while establishing a consistent level of knowledge for all search optimization practitioners. Agency personnel, in-house personnel, and independents have taken the course with agencies personnel representing a slight majority.

Advanced Search Advertising is comparable to the Advanced SEO course. It is designed for the practitioners or soon-to-be practitioners in paid search. Once again, people employed at agencies, corporations, and independents have taken the course, but agency personnel have taken the vast majority of this course.

What are the goals for SEMPO Institute for 2008 in terms of content offered and students?

First, keep the current three courses, Fundamentals of Search Marketing, Advanced SEO, and Advanced Search Advertising updated and current. As for additional courses, we decided to get the first three offerings firmly established before extending our reach too far. The final decision for new course offerings has not been made as of yet.

There’s a huge demand for search marketers within pure play SEM agencies, other types of agencies expanding their services into search marketing and also companies that are building out their in-house search teams. Is SEMPO Institute designed to address the training needs of all those scenarios or just a segment?

SEMPO Instituteâ€™s courses do not focus on where you work but on the goals of search and search advertising. Our courses cover everything necessary to understand the elements of SEO or search advertising that a professional needs to work individually or within an agency or an in-house corporate team. The specific strategies of SEM agencies and in-house teams are going to be unique to them and our graduates will be equipped to understand the specific strategies and techniques used. So, yes our training allows the search professional to be successful in whichever venue best fits his/her career goals.

What mix of training experience would you say is ideal for someone brand new to search marketing? Conferences, online courses, blogs, books, forums, networking groups, associations, personal experimentation, on the job training, etc?

The first thing someone new to search marketing needs is a base of understanding. Of course the industry has many means to get indoctrinated, conferences, courses, blogs, etc. Yet, there is no one size fits all in any industry for gaining knowledge. If you survey 100 search professionals about how they got started and where they learned the answers will vary slightly.

A combination of formal and informal learning experiences is important for anyone new to search marketing. I recommend beginning with formal (SEMPO Institute specifically) because the industry is established enough that certain basic knowledge is not going to change.

Learning on oneâ€™s own from resources like those I mentioned earlier and just jumping into experimenting with a site does not help with the core knowledge but is a great means to broaden and deepen understanding.

I am a huge fan of networking as well. It helps learning as well as finding out more about the careers options available. How else can someone new to the industry find out about the differences between working at an agency or in-house unless through networking with the people who actually work in these settings? This is why SEMPO Institute established a SEMPO Institute Group on LinkedIn for our students and alumni.

The question Iâ€™m often asked is how to get the hands-on experience that hiring managers prefer. One recommendation I make is to provide search marketing to one or two non-profit organizations that the student supports. It helps a cause you believe in while establishing hands-on experience.

As a $10 billion + industry, you’d think there would be more SEM courses offered at universities. Do you think that will change and if so, how fast and in what way?

It may take another five years for such courses to become commonplace but the changes will occur. I think we will see search marketing taught as a subset of other courses first, then established as a full course, and finally multiple offerings in various aspects of search such as SEO, PPC, and mobile search.

SEMPO Instituteâ€™s Fundamentals of Search Marketing was used as a required resource in one college for a search marketing course this Fall and will be required at another this Spring for an eCommerce course. College and universities have not been the main focus in our business development but we are excited to work with them and welcome working with others.

The fact that one school, Fanshawe College in Canada, actually has a course entitled Search Marketing and used Fundamentals of Search Marketing is very exciting. I believe we will see more and more schools establishing such courses whether part of their marketing curriculum, advertising curriculum, IT curriculum, or other curriculum.

It’s a pretty big accomplishment to put together the program that’s currently offered through SEMPO Institute. So many people were involved, volunteering their time and have helped promote it. Do you have any “shout outs” you’d like to make? (sorry to put you on the spot

You are so right Lee, until this last updating of lessons where we pay authors everyone volunteered their time except for me, a development person and our editor. Iâ€™d encourage everyone to go to www.sempoinstitute.com and see all the people who should be honored but the list is too long to go over here.

To single out just a few I think I have to say that Dana Todd, Fionn Downhill, and Jeff Pruitt should receive golden crowns for following the original vision with hundreds of hours working with me to get SEMPO Institute to the place of prominence we now have as one of the foremost SEM distance learning educational institutions.

I guess the second group to get a big thanks is the 2006 and 2007 SEMPO Board of Directors youâ€™ll find at www.sempo.org. These forward thinking leaders authorized a significant investment of capital to facilitate training the next generation of SEM professionals.

There is one final group to thank. SEMPO has 19 committees who lead our professional organization. One of the committeeâ€™s is the SEMPO Institute Committee co-chaired by Fionn Downhill and Jon Schepke. There are 16 members in this Committee who are active in decision making on the Courses and their promotion. Your readers can see a list of those SEMPO Committees and the Members of our Institute Committee at www.sempo.org.

What are some of the top online resources for search marketing would you recommend?

A Well, letâ€™s start with the search engines themselves. They have excellent and important information, even Microsoft. Our lessons refer directly to them repeatedly because we teach best practices acceptable to search engines. Just as importantly, the way they work must be integrated into our broader training in SEM because the search engines are the foundation of the industry.

Next let me recommend that your readers go to www.sempo.org for some important resources we supply in our lessons that the SEMPO Education Committee added to the SEMPO site.

First, there is an excellent Glossary from our Lessons and links to other Glossaries that are important.

Second, if you follow Resources and Links youâ€™ll find many of the resources we refer to in our SEMPO Institute Lessons; Blogs (like your excellent toprankblog.com blog), Discussion Forums, Newsletters, Tools and Software. This great resource area spins your head around as you realize how much is out there. One would have to read through much more if you didnâ€™t take a set of courses like ours to orient yourself and be prepared for using these resources effectively.

Thanks Terry!Â

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SES Chicago Session: Big Site, Big Search

Jolina Pettice — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 21:57:43 +0000

Search Marketing within large organizations, often presents a unique set of problems back to the search marketer/marketing firm.

Itâ€™s nothing thatâ€™s does on purpose (for the most part), but rather it simply comes along with large, complex organizations.

The panel for this session outlined what they see as the most frustrating components of working for large organizations and how search marketers can adapt to reach the end objectives.

The panelsâ€™ top frustrations include:
1. Uneducated individuals
2. Resistant individuals
3. IT Departments that say NO

If youâ€™re running into any of the above while trying to work with an organization, try the following:

Uneducated Individuals
1. If there are uneducated individuals within the organization, which there will be, then educate them! Explain what SEO/SEM is, how it works and share case studies/results to get them on board.
2. Identify internal champions of Search and give them the tools to help educate others in the organization. This will ensure that positive information about Search is coming both from the agency and within the organization.
3. Host a training session to empower them. This has added benefits as it will help the program grow if all communications are written with SEO in mind.

Resistant Individuals
1. Repeat steps 1-3 above.
2. Traditionally the more work that is involved = more resistance. Outline the program and break it down into manageable chunks.
3. Conduct competitive research and help them understand that search is vital to helping the company grow and staying competitive within the marketplace.
4. If the above doesnâ€™t work, talk to the individual one-on-one to address his/her specific issues, answer questions and present the case for search. Make sure this is one-on-one so others arenâ€™t affected.

IT Departments that say NO
1. Present the business case for the updates being asked of them. i.e. Search Engines canâ€™t crawl the site, keeping the site from ranking and minimize opportunities to increase traffic. Remember â€“ they want to help the company too.
2. Identify low hanging fruit. Again, outline the technical requirements and present a couple easy ones first to build confidence and so the team can celebrate successes. IT departments often feel overworked and underappreciated; a thank you goes a long way.
3. Prioritize the Fixes and the Benefits of each. Donâ€™t start them out with a fix that takes hours and provides little benefit.

My experience, working with large organizations, is that education is the first step. Help them understand what weâ€™re doing, why weâ€™re doing it and how it will benefit them and their part of the organization!

The panel included:
Moderator:
Kevin Ryan, Vice President, Global Content Director, Search Engine Strategies and Search Engine Watch

Speakers:
Bill Hunt, CEO, Global Strategies International
Amanda Evans, Senior Search Consultant, WebMama.com, Inc.
Olivier Lemaignen, Group Manager, Global Search Marketing, Intuit
Randy Peterson, Search Marketing Innovation Manager, Procter and Gamble
Carol Kruse, Vice President, Global Interactive Marketing, The Coca-Cola Company

Find more images from SES Chicago.

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Reader Poll: Best SEO SEM Conferences

Lee Odden — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 16:05:25 +0000

The winds of change are blowing in the search marketing conference scene this year with more offerings than ever. The big conferences persist, while new challengers as well as smaller and more practical seminars emerging.

SEO and Paid Search education is not limited to conferences with the DMA Search Engine Marketing Certification and the SEMPO Institute launching recently. However, conferences and seminars offer the added benefit of networking, prospecting and the kind of after hours education on topics that simply are not publicly available.

Which leads me to this week’s Reader Poll on conferences or seminars that offer search engine optimization and/or paid search marketing content.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

There are many regional and industry specific conferences I may have not listed, so be sure to mention them in the comments.

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SES Chicago SEO Videos – Laura Thieme

Lee Odden — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 18:37:53 +0000

I’ve casually known Laura Thieme of BizResearch for about 2 years but for some reason our paths crossed repeatedly at the recent Chicago Search Engine Strategies conference. First it was the in the speaker ready room, then the most excellent Vintage Tub and Bath SES Dinner (yeah Allan!) where I sat across the table from her team members Traci and Jessica, then again during the conference, then the ClickTracks party and finally on the last day of the conference when I asked her to do a short interview.

Laura has been a speaker at SES for many years and will be teaching a college level course at a University Business School in Ohio next year. In this short video interview, I asked Laura about the need for consistent information and education on search marketing as well as her thoughts on gender distribution in the industry.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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