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SEO is only part of a digital strategy

Bipper Roberts — 2010-07-27T22:35:00Z

I was recently asked by a client how to increase web sales. This in and of itself is not a strange question for a client to ask. It is after all one of the most fundamental questions and concerns for any e-commerce business. However, I was still shocked by the question as it was born out of a lack of understanding of digital strategy.

When I started working with this client I was focusing primarily on SEO. I made sure that they were submitted to the free directory services, I worked on their keywords, I had fresh and unique content created for their site, validated their code, got their products listed on price comparison sites, posted answers to relevant forums and blogs linking back to their site. In short I did whatever I could for free or little cost to help them with SEO. And it worked, their traffic increased by over 100% their sales increased by 600% and things were looking pretty good for them. So good in fact that they made the decision for me to switch my focus to other areas as they were sure that this trend would continue. When they came to me with this plan I cautioned them that the work was not done and there was a high possibility that these trends would not continue without full time attention and an evolving digital strategy. No amount of data or anecdotal evidence would sway them, their mind was made up. But I had said my piece and prepared them for the back slide that their sales would take. In effect their fate was in their hands.

Flash forward, and two months after they switched my focus they asked the question that sparked me to write this post. Their sales had leveled off and had started taking a nose dive. My answer to them was simple. You have to be prepared to allocate a budget and spend money on a diversified digital strategy if you hope to increase your sales. In short you have to spend money to make money.

Now don’t get me wrong there is an awful lot SEO can do with minimal or no monetary investment as illustrated by the dramatic upswing this client initially saw. However, in the long run you are going to have to do things that cost money. If you want to sell things you have to advertise what you sell. Ask any major e-commerce player and they will tell you the same thing. SEO alone will only take you so far. You have to incorporate paid search advertising, display advertising, email marketing, listings on PPC price comparison sites, content network advertising, affiliate programs, and social media. Advertising will not only help you catch buyers at the right time in the buying process it will help build brand awareness, and help increase your site popularity. These strategies will in turn help your ongoing SEO efforts. The common factor in all these digital strategies is that they are not free to implement.

What I see quite frequently, particularly from small businesses, is that they budget for creating a website and not much else. They are operating on what I like to call the Field of Dreams: If you build it they will come principle. They pay a design firm to develop an “SEO friendly” website, get some server space, and then sit back and expect orders to start rolling in. When that doesn’t happen they take what little money they have and hire an SEO professional to do some cleanup but don’t budget much beyond the SEO professionals fees. Leaving the SEO professional to do what he/she can with little to no budget. This can help them out a bit but it will not get them to where they want to be or assumed they would be when the decided to build a website. The assumption was likely having a website and optimizing it for the various search engines was all they would need to do to start seeing meaningful and profitable traffic. What they failed to account for was that their site is only a handful of pages of the billions that the search engines index and that they need other strategies to differentiate themselves from the pack and raise their level of popularity. I think that much of this thinking has to do with the very unrealistic expectation that someone will stumble on their site and be so impressed that they will tell two friends and they’ll tell two friends and so on and so on. Creating a snow ball effect where their traffic and popularity will increase exponentially, driving more and more sales. This is a very risky proposition. There are very few if any e-commerce sites that are so unique and compelling that they will essentially go viral. And even if this does happen the site will probably be replaced in the public consciousness by the next big site and be forgotten in a matter of weeks or days.

Regardless of the assumptions that many people make about websites and e-commerce they need to be marketed just like any other business or product. Money will need to be spent to promote them and any budget for a website has to include marketing dollars. There needs to be a comprehensive digital strategy to maintain brand awareness, drive qualified profitable traffic and support SEO. Take a global brand like Coke for example. They are one of the most recognizable brands in the world and unless you do not posses any of your 5 senses you are probably aware of them. Despite this level of awareness they still spend billions of dollars a year on advertising. And they are doing it in ways that are directly comparable to digital marketing. They use radio and TV commercials to build and maintain brand awareness much like display adverting on the web. They advertise in magazines which were just content networks before content networks were a real thing. They pay stores to place their products on end caps and in desirable shelf locations so that they are visible when their consumers are making a buying decision, which is nothing more than paid search. Oh yeah and they also do web marketing. Why do they do this if they are so recognizable and popular? They do it because they are not the only game in town and they need to separate themselves from the pack. They also realize that they have to spend money in order to do it.

No matter if you are an SEO professional or a business owner looking for SEO services it is important to know that SEO should always be just one piece of a much broader online marketing strategy. Business owners should be budgeting for additional marketing efforts while SEO professionals should be prepared to explain the importance of including other marketing strategies for the broadest most cost effective reach possible.

Brian "Bipper" Roberts Joins Searchology Blog

Dr. Search — 2010-07-09T15:20:00Z

It is with great pleasure Searchology 101 welcomes Brian "Bipper" Roberts as our new contributor to our blog. Bipper has several years of search engine optimization, pay per click advertising, social media, and data analysis experience. In addition, his insight, commentary, and thought provoking ideas will help change your way of thinking about the Internet and marketing strategies.

Bipper brings more than commentary and mad Internet marketing skills; he is an experienced singe, mathematician [discrete math is his muse], and a trusted Searchology ^TM partner. Bipper has already added valuable content, The Danger of Aggregate Data . Welcome Bip and we look forward to your participation!

Blocked From Facebook - Not So Social

Dr. Search — 2010-06-30T14:27:00Z

Very recently I was blocked from sending messages on Facebook. I am an active participant in the social media craze and it has been a real treat catching up with long lost friends. After all, the purpose of social media and Facebook is to be SOCIAL. You can imagine my surprise when I was suddenly blocked from sending messages on this social media outlet.

As it turns out, I am not the only one who has been banned. For starters, I'm not sure why I was banned and it flies in the face of being social online. One would assume that reaching out to friends, family, and sending several messages in a day or within a 24 hour period would be the norm. Facebook does not see it that way. Apparently, if you send out too many messages in a short period of time the Facebook powers will block your ability to send out messages.

For a split second I felt pretty terrible, as if I was some type of SPAMMING monster hiding under the bridge waiting for the opportunity to hit all my friends with the latest AMWAY product. Better yet, sending out the newest multi-level marketing ploy which only the tops in the program make money and all others pay for conventions and books created by compete idiots.

After running a few searches for "banned from Facebook" and "blocked from Facebook" I found hundreds of threads and posts about the subject. As you may imagine, the vast majority of responders regarded the situation as downright mean, unwarranted, and counter productive. If you can't be social and are limited to HOW SOCIAL YOU CAN be....what is the point?

I certainly understand the need to protect others from SPAM, stalkers, unwanted-long-lost-connections, and repetitive messages. I also understand that there may be only so many messages Facebook can send through their servers. However, the rules are very unclear as to how many messages and message types any person can send out. These are the possible reasons for becoming banned on Facebook, but I would submit another, yet more dubious reason: Facebook may be in the process of testing the waters for some type of social media model which you will have to pay for via subscription.

According to the Facebook Blog, they have 100 million users and growing. This could be a huge cash cow. How many users would drop out if they came out with a subscription based social media service? Is this not the very nexus of a oxymoron? Be social, but not too social. Be found but don't reply too much or too often. Put your social life up for the world but be sure to reign it in. I wonder if Facebook punishes business or fan pages for posting messages...I think not.

Based on all of the posts I have read, I may be banned for 24 hours and on some type of watch list thereafter. Social media was created for individuals to be social and if you can't be social in a legitimate way via online interaction, why be social online at all? It was not my intention to go on a rant, but share the experience on the Searchology blog as a message to all you social media users out there; if you are too social on the biggest social media network, Facebook, they've got your number.

The Danger of Aggregate Data

Bipper Roberts — 2010-06-21T20:24:00Z

The question I hear most often from clients and employers is “What does this data mean?” This is most frequently asked in reference to Google analytics aggregate data. The short answer to this is aggregate data does not mean all that much. Aggregate data summarizes or combines other data for analytical and research purposes. It is the analytical equivalent of cliffs notes. Data is very powerful and can help make informed decisions about content, direction, conversion and a host of other topics. But looked at improperly it is as accurate as if you wrote down answers on scraps of paper and randomly pulled them out of a hat.

The data you collect tells the story of your site. The problem is that for the most part the aggregate data only tells part of the story. Take for example the information you can see in the Google Analytics Dashboard. When you first log into Google Analytics you see a snapshot of your site: Total visitors, unique visitors, traffic sources, etc… This information is a good place to start but basing decisions solely off of this view will do you a disservice.

Say for example you go to your dashboard and see that your bounce rate is 70%. This means that 70% of all visitors came to your site saw the home page and left immediately, deciding that your site was not even worth a second click. You would naturally assume based on this aggregate data that there was something horribly wrong with your landing page. You decide to spend money on a costly redesign to make your home page more inviting. After investing thousands of dollars you re-launch your landing page and sit back confident that you will now see a dramatic decrease in you bounce rate and consequently a just as dramatic an increase in conversions. But nothing changes so you conclude that you must not have gotten the design right. Still believing that your high bounce rate is a function of the landing page design you decide that you will rotate a few different designs and see which one works best and has the lowest bounce rate and highest conversion rate. This time you see a positive change but it is not statistically relevant. You are at a loss, you were sure that one of these designs would surely make the impact you were looking for but all you got for your trouble is a bunch of invoices from a designer.

Now let’s take the same situation and instead of looking at the aggregate data we segment that data. You find that you have 3 top traffic sources: a mystery referral URL, organic search, and paid search. The mystery URL is sending a bulk of your traffic. You have noticed this URL before and though you were unfamiliar with it you figured any traffic is good traffic and you are happy to have it. You start to get curious about this traffic and you drill down to the bounce rates for your top sources. You see that organic search has a bounce rate below 40% and so does paid search but the mystery referral URL has a bounce rate close to 90%. Not only does it have a high bounce rate the average time on site is less than 20 seconds. What in the world is going on? How can this be? WTF? Are all questions that you should immediately ask yourself if you see this situation. Digging deeper you find that this mystery URL is associated with a pyramid scheme paying people to surf to several web sites a day. This is all unqualified garbage traffic and all it is doing is skewing your aggregate data. Since you took the time to segment you data you see that, while you have some more work to do driving good targeted traffic to your site the good traffic you are seeing is sticking around and checking out what you have to offer. Your time will be best spent cleaning up your analytics as best you can and getting the story straight before you spend money or resources on redesigns or other costly fixes for problems that may not exist.

Presidential Internet "Kill Switch"

Dr. Search — 2010-06-17T23:04:00Z

The Huffington Post recently reported that Joe Lieberman is sending in a bill to the Senate to allow the President of the U.S. the ability to shut down portions of the Internet when needed. What would the President need to shut any part of the Internet down for? I could understand the need to kill the Internet for something like cyber crimes or CIA cyber infiltration but nothing else. Lieberman may have offered this up for consideration because of a major leak from Wikileaks (the U.S. is currently seeking the founder of Wikileaks for unknown reasons). No matter the reason, this would be unacceptable for our Internet liberties, freedom of information, and our collective right to seek truths wherever they may be.

Currently we all enjoy the Internet on a regular basis, I for one am online up to 16 hours a day. I could not imagine attempting to log on and see the following notice:

Your Internet is shut down. You will not see Google ads today. You will not see your emails or pay your bills. You will not be able to waste any time at work. In fact, due to the manual shut down, don't bother going into the office today, Don't bother contacting your service provide because your U.S. Government is now in control.

BP Oil spill and the Search Results - Good PR or good for nothing?

Dr. Search — 2010-06-08T00:46:00Z

Try a few searches on Google for "bp oil spill" or even better...try "oil spill response" and you will find some very interesting results. The first of which is British Petroleum buying keywords to "manipulate the search results" as Kieth Olbermann pointed out this evening on MSNBC. ABC may have broken the new first with their take on BP Buys Search Engine Phrases. This would be a good first step in online reputation management and may backfire as the disaster is certainly going to cost BP, America, The Gulf Coast, and our planet more than just a few pennies per click.

While on the surface of things, it may seem like a great way to start changing hearts and minds of America it will not. And it is way to little way to late. The current situation in the BP has created could have been avoided in the first place. While I don't care to go into all of the details of who, how, and why [as I am not an expert in this area]; the BP oil spill should serve as a major warning to those companies who are facing a nasty online reputation management situation.

If you care about your brand and company...act accordingly in the first place. None of us as individuals or companies have the ability or service level to execute and deliver without a flaw. This should be expected as nothing goes without a bump or hiccup. The point is; once you have soiled your reputation, the damage done may be more than you could have imagined. No matter how much money you spend on Google Ad Words or Yahoo! Search Marketing or search engine optimization or FaceBook...it simply will be too late for any type of damage control.

What makes matters worse for BP is the "oil spill response" number one result. It is Oilspillresponse.com. It is a collaborate effort from major oil companies extolling their collective ability to respond to oil spills. Obviously this is complete and utter B.S. I've yet to hear any other oil company coming to the aid of America or British Petroleum. BP and other companies can drill in deep waters very well...but they cannot fix a catastrophe if there is one. In fact, oil response technology has not change very much in the past 30 years. Drill baby drill indeed.

BP stock is down, they may face criminal charges, potential costs of $4,500 per barrel spilled, and have caused the worst environmental disaster ever. Now don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of companies who take ownership of their brands, products, and services. However, BP has proven it only takes on mistake with one client can cause the biggest reputation management problem without a solution.

Let them spend millions on keywords and SEO experts. No matter what they do, BP will be permanently destroyed because of gross negligence and praying to the dollar almighty. The time has returned for being 100% responsible for what you do, say, and produce. It is not okay too ask too much and return too little. It is not okay to act first and ask questions later. It is not okay to risk things that are not yours to risk. It is not okay to jeopardize ANYTHING with out real deep risk assessment. It is not okay to walk away without taking responsibility and fixing what has been broken. Time to pay the piper and time for 100% accountability.

At one time Enron was one of the biggest accounting firms in the world. No they are not and their CEO is in jail along with a few Enron executives. If you think BP is too big to fail...you are wrong. If you think your online reputation can survive any storm...you are wrong. In the end, nothing will save BP and nothing will bring back our coast lines. Buy baby buy...but it won't help you now.

The big take away here is this; things happen, life happens, mistakes happen. Consumers and customers can forgive...and forget. But some mistakes are simply too much, too big, and too costly. My grandfather always said, "Plan your work and work your plan." I suggest doing likewise. One thing is for certain...BP was totally unprepared for something like this. Welcome to day 49 of the BP oil spill disaster.

There Is No Guarantee in SEO

Dr. Search — 2010-05-19T14:43:00Z

I've been asked many times over, "Do you offer a guarantee for your SEO services?" The answer is no. I never have and I never will. My automatic response is my lack of ability to control the Google algorithms. Trying to reign in or directly control Google's magnum opus is like trying to rebuild the pyramids of Egypt in my back yard. It just isn't going to happen. All a professional SEO consultant or SEO firm can do is provide the best practices and do their best to deliver good content, links, and articles, etc.

In a recent post, SEO Guarantees Should Not Exist , by Nick Stamoulis backs me up on this issue. Not only with his own take on the SEO guarantee but with a post directly from the Google Webmaster Blog. I refer you to a Q&A session in which the following was asked [as linked in Nick's post];

Question: Should I believe SEO agencies that promise to make my site rank first in Google in a few months and with a precise number of links?

Google's Answer: No one can make that promise; therefore the short answer is no, you should not...

Now it should be officially settled. No one can guarantee top ranking for any keyword for any website. Google maintains about 70% of the overall search volume in the U.S. and everyone wants to be on top. This is totally understandable. However, not everyone can be on top. Keep this in mind; the number one goal of SEO is to increase your website performance for your visitors. In doing so, you should increase your website ranking for keywords. Your quality of content should be your number one goal and your site will be rewarded for it. Why? Google says so in the Webmaster Guidelines...."Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines."

Did Social Media Just Get Mean Or More Honest?

Dr. Search — 2010-04-06T14:14:00Z

This morning in the Chicago Red Eye, I read a very brief segment about Unvarnished, the new social website which allows users to rate their coworkers, bosses, business partners, and more. Certainly this raises a lot of questions about what is going to happen with social media. What if you have a coworker who constantly shows up drunk? What if your boss monitors a site like this? Could your reviews of your peers act as the new Big Brother? What will be the impact on your future career?

Those of us that are in 'the know' or have figured out that your privacy is no longer really yours...know that what you put online can come back to haunt you. Last night on Fox News Chicago, they ran a spot about a young teenage girl who was coaxed by her then boyfriend to create a video starring her in flagrante delicto. The resulting video was sent around the world and is illegal to own and publish in most countries because it is child pornography. The problem is this video has traveled the world and the poor child's life is in tatters because of the viral nature of the Internet [of which is, in part, propelled by social media].

Consider this your fair warning. Post [online] only what you would share with your future boss or grandmother. All else is fair game and will be used against you in the public court of opinion. I guarantee you, for those who choose to ignore the power of billions online...you will surly parish from the masses willing to hunt down the scandals and trash we post about ourselves.

Tear down your beer photos and college pics...and any comment [left, right, or middle] which may offend the your neighbor. Rest assured our future online holds more transparency than we really want to share. It is the nature of social media to share, rate, discuss, and socialize. Think back to your high school days or college days which for many of us was prior to the social media explosion.

Some rumors and unscrupulous events could be hidden or waved away. Now, once it's online it may take the end of humanity before it comes off billions of prying eyes. The good news, and there is good news, some of us really don't care about our privacy and what we post online. If you don't mind airing your dirty laundry, emotions, drunk photos, and still believe in freedom of expression...I say let it rip and roll.

Freedom Of Information & The Internet ...Not In Texas

Dr. Search — 2010-03-14T03:05:00Z

I have a lot of opinions about the Internet, online advertising, politics, etc. I usually don't discuss or write about the intersection of Internet and politics. It is a little off topic for me to discuss politics and the Internet. It seems as if Barack Obama solidified how important the Internet can be when it comes to politics and, more importantly the real influence it can wield. Most of my material should stay in the realm of searchology. However, this was a little to big of a story for me to pass up.

There is no doubt, the Internet is a powerful tool and may become even more powerful than books. You remember books right? Kind of like vinyl, old school and out of style but still cool. I'm sure your asking yourself, how this could be so? The Internet becoming more important than books. The answer is one word. TEXAS. Well really it's the Texas State Board of Education.

You see, the Texas Sate Board of Education, or as I like to call it Texas State Board of Stupification, is in the process of redefining textbooks which will be widely distributed and read in a classroom near you very soon. Because Texas contains around 7% of the American population and one of the biggest text book buyers. Because of the Texan buying power and the amount of books that will be printed, it is certain that more books will be printed for more than just Texans.

While I would normally say, bulk book buying is a good idea...it's not. It's not a good idea when books (purchased and circulated in bulk) are used to teach history, to our future leaders, side on the conserviative left, don't seperate church and state, and push Christian values. Hey, I'm all about Christian values, and Muslim values, and Hindu values...you get the point. All are create equal.

Future generations of young Texans and school children around the U.S. will need to use the Internet to get the truth about history. Real history, not contrived, and biased history. Sure, history is biased as it is written by the winners. It did seem for a while we were getting closer to a more universal truth including OUR HISTORY as opposed to the winners history.

As long as we can keep the information we find on the Internet free...that should provided the opportunity for young Texas children and kids of the New Texas History of The U.S. 1st Edition, a way to find some truth. Simply put, no one body should be in charge of our text books. It should be a panel or a collective of several cultures, perspectives, and historical facts...not A PANEL FROM TEXAS!

The Internet may provide the type of freedom needed to break free from dis-information, lies, major conservatisim, radical right nut jobs, So, let's all hope the grand ole' party dosen't get a hold of our free-information-internet-freedom...or we may all be in really big trouble.

So, what is your domain name worth?

Dr. Search — 2010-03-11T14:23:00Z

Recently the Huffington Post posted an article on The 11 Most Expensive Domain Names purchased thus far in our very short world wide web history. I do not find it all that out of whack when you consider the search volumes for terms like;

Vodka.com (sold for $3 million) - estimated Google global search volume for "vodka" - 5 million last month
Business.com (sold for $7.9 million in 1999) - estimated Google global search volume for "business" - 151 million
Toys.com (sold for $5.1 million in 2009) - estimated Google global search volume for "toys" - 124 million
Beer.com (sold for $7 million in 2004) - estimated Google global search volume for "beer" - 24.9 million
Casino.com (sold for $5.5 million in 2003) - estimated Google global search volume for "casino" - 24 million

While these number are astounding, it is all about the potential traffic and relavancy of the keywords located within the URL. A good domain name can go a long when when trying to reach potential website visitors. When picking a domain name consider critical keywords which you would like to rank well for and see if those domain names are available. Try different variations of your desired domain name and you may get lucky.

My guess is most domain names that have potentially high traffic potential are gone. Domain buying is, I believe, a pretty cool business but an evil business. Domain name buyers hold out on good domain names to make a profit. Pure and simple. Much like waving the golden carrot in front of a potential business owner. If you are willing to pay, you can get the domain name you want [unless it's not being used].

If you have a domain name you want there are a few tools which can give you an estimation of what it's worth. Check out EstiBot.com or Valuate.com to find your own domain worth. Who knows, you may sell it one day for ONE BILLION DOLLARS.

Real Social Or Real Fake?

Dr. Search — 2010-03-04T14:38:00Z

In a recent post about expressing real opinions on blogs, Are We Opinionated Enough, Debbie points out the need to be more free with here thoughts on blogs and social media. I thinks she is absolutely correct about the need for openness in this form of social media. Sharing facts, commentary, and ideas with the World Wide Web is the essence of social media and blogging. I think that corporate blogs dodge being 100% truthful in sharing opinions and commentary. To some extent they have to be very careful with everything they post.

A bad post can be read by thousands of potential customers and consumers. They don't have the liberty to potentially anger one group or section of their potential market. I believe that stepping around TRUE commentary potentially does more harm that good. If the nature of social media is to be 'social' and share wouldn't the best practice suggest truth in all things? At the very least open the doors into a corporation just a little more than the usual bogus post which extols the newest product or service? Is that really sharing something important or worthy of spending precious minutes reading about? No, not so much.

What if Debbie is right all the way around? What if more bloggers associated with corporations and big companies really offered something of substance in the way of online commentary? I think if these bigger outfits did offer REAL insight and truly helpful commentary, they could change the world for the better just a little. I don't know who said it...but honesty is the best policy.

When you are honest and do not withhold the truth and offer more than superficial thoughts a shift in trust and openness can build into something quite wonderful. As we all know, there is a massive gap of trust from consumers toward big business and even our government. How about a little honesty? It would go a long way.

So, to you Debbie, cheers! Yes, show your opinion and in doing so, right or wrong, you open up a little window of honesty in which we can all share and appreciate. I believe you and others like you will be rewarded for sharing. Kind of like how you inspired me to spend the time and effort writing abut your post. We need more people sharing and increasing the trust and faith we all need to regain, even just a little, a little more of our humanity.

Google Is Brining The Hammer Down on QA

Dr. Search — 2010-03-04T03:06:00Z

I've had some new business join my growing client roster recently. This of course is a good thing...however the one of the primary complaints is ads not showing up in Ad Words for poor quality scores. I have a simple formula I'd like to share...and if you have read the Google Ad Words guidelines you will find that what I recommend is not much different than what Google already recommends.

Here is my formula for higher quality scores with Google Ad Words.

Keywords + ad copy + landing page = higher quality score

Sure its simple and pretty straight forward. However, if you have too many products or services and are trying to push too many paid search keywords through the same page without marketing some type of lading page adjustments your quality score will suffer. Here are some other pointers for higher quality scores.

Build a unique landing page for each major ad group or each major PPC campaign
If possible try and buy a URL which is relevant to the ad group, keywords, and ad copy
Make forms easy to fill out for newsletters, sign ups, etc.
Make sure to use some of your primary keywords in your page copy, H tags, and title tags
Use keyword insertion option in your ad copy

These should be some good steps to get you headed in the right direction. These tips will help you in Yahoo search marketing as well. Until the BIG Yahoo and BING merge. I do hope that Microsoft takes all of the great work Yahoo has done over the years and keeps the people and the kick butt technology. Only time will tell. But in the meantime, these tips will help on Yahoo Search Marketing. Thanks for reading.

SEO Link Building - The new Pet Rock

Dr. Search — 2010-03-01T19:02:00Z

I’ve been working as an online marketing professional for 8 years and have seen the web change many times over. For those of us deeply involved in providing excellent service to clients in the search engine optimization disciplines and search marketing arenas, online marketing is a constantly moving target. Over the past few years (around 2 to be exact) I’ve noticed search engine optimization has become much less about quality content and more of a popularity contest.

I believe most of us in the search engine optimization line of work would agree link building is one of the most difficult things to do. To some extent, it is almost a necessary evil needed to achieve higher search engine ranking and Google PageRank. I have read tomes of material on link building and its impact on website ranking and I’ve come to the realization that something is just not right with that.

Back in the early days, content was king, the better and more relevant the content of your site and its match to keyword queries, the greater the opportunity to rank well for those terms. The issue turned into too many individuals using black hat techniques to fool the search engines, turning the need for good content into a popularity contest.

You can put this into context by thinking of the 1970’s cultural fad toy, the Pet Rock. Pet Rocks, much like link building, can be left alone and if your content is good enough, the links will follow. Or you can try and build links (feed your Pet Rock) and witness a whole lot of frustration because not all links are equal. Thus, feed your Pet Rock all you like and you will find the rock is still a rock. Feed your website tons of links and it is still what you have originally create (good content or bad content).

The major difference in my potentially pathetic analogy to the Pet Rock is if you feed thousands of links to your site you gain popularity, traffic, and love from the search engines you still have a Pet Rock for a website without good content. With so many Pet Rock websites out there…where is the justification in popularity over well written and useful content? How can so many well written websites be passed over by simple link popularity? How is this fair?

I’ve run across countless websites with little search engine optimization and less than 200 words on a page which have been ranked highly for keywords and Google PageRank scores. With light content and little relevancy to keywords…what are the search engines looking at? Link popularity, like the Pet Rock, has stormed the SEO nation.

Truth be told, I like the Pet Rock. It’s cool, funny, creative, and I think it should be revised and put back on the market. However, awarding higher natural rankings to websites with little content and useful information is unjust. I believe the search engines are going to figure this out as well.

Links do not justify killer rankings. Yes, they should be a factor in overall website ranking but should not play the part as a primary singular deciding factor in the SERPs. Killer content still rules and it should. Those that take the time, effort, and countless revisions to get it just right should be at the top not those digging for every last blog to leave a bogus post.

I do hope that we will return to content as king of SEO. It keeps you on your toes and makes you consider your audience, audience profiles, needs of website visitors, and how really good content can offer really good things to those who are searching. Relevancy is what it is all about.

History teaches us a lot if we pay attention to it. Popularity has, historically, put the wrong individuals in charge of nations and had devastating results. Putting links in charge of website rankings is punishing for both proactive searching individuals and website owners. Links are devastating to those websites who really offer something special and unique to those searching.

I am certain there will be blow back from those who are proficient in link building to my article. Yes, I deserve it to some extent…but I produce well written content and I believe content will make a comeback as it should, just like the Pet Rock.

To Thine Own Self Be True in SEO

Dr. Search — 2010-01-20T12:55:00Z

In a recent SEO article by Mark Jackson he discussed the importance of learning the baselines for search engine optimization. I took it to mean be true to yourself by learning before buying SEO services. Search engine optimization is an important aspect to any solid online marketing effort and your basic understanding of how and why SEO is key to your success. I think most business owners know what SEO is but may have a very hard time explaining it.

Search engine optimization is gaining higher rank in the search engines by optimizing your website for keywords. As Mark stated in his article, SEO is not about getting to the top page or number one position for keywords you want to rank well for. SEO is about driving higher quality traffic to your site which converts into sales or new customers. I believe there is a major shift in the way professionals envision SEO. The pendulum has swung from the need for top ten positions to quality traffic.

It is important to understand that keywords you want to rank well for may have significant competition and could range in the millions for search results. This is the real shift I am talking about. Consider the word "pizza" which produces 125,000.000 results on Google. Is it realistic to achieve top ranking for this keyword? No, it is not. The competitive nature of online optimization is just that...extremely competitive. To rank well for just one very popular word is very difficult and it is not realistic to think that high raking can be achieved for such words.

Your education about search engine optimization needs to rooted in one simple reality. Your most important keywords may have too many competitors to rank well for in a short term. The longer your website is living on the web the better chance it will have but it is a long term commitment on your part, as a business owner, and on the part of the individual or firm working to optimize your site.

This does not mean that targeting your primary keywords is out of the question...it simply means extending your keyword search beyond the heavy sought after keywords. Find a middle ground and start from there. You search firm or consultant should be aware of this and set the expectations with you regarding keyword popularity. Which brings me to another point in helping you become educated on SEO...if it sounds too good to be true avoid it.

There are some SEO firms who will promise you the world and charge $10,000 per month or more for SEO. I do not believe [any longer] that SEO is a monthly process. Yes, to some extent SEO is a monthly process for link building, article writing, blogs, etc. These items can be done mostly on the client side and should not be paid for [save the link building]. Many of the aspects of SEO can be done by you [the client] if you are willing to participate in your own success [more on this later].

In closing, SEO can be a very long process which can take several months to attain better quality traffic. Lean as much as you can and there is no such thing as a stupid question. The more you know about natural website ranking the more you will work to help the process and understand why you pay what you pay. The more you know about SEO the more you can base your assumptions in reality and not be taken in by false SEO sales pitches. The closer you will come to the truth about SEO and how it can help change your online business.

Pay Per Click Advertising and the Client Role

Dr. Search — 2010-01-13T23:02:00Z

When you hire on a searchologist or Internet marketing firm to work on your pay per click campaign...you may never know the true importance of your input. Professional search engine marketers [searchologists] bring their knowledge of how to set up, run, create and track pay per click efforts. The knowledge you bring to the table is just as important to the success of the paid search marketing as the information and knowhow professionals offer.

As a professional in your particular market or industry, you will have more insight into what you are looking for and who you are trying to reach out to with pay per click advertising. You will have great insight regarding keywords, demographics, consumer profiles, and prospect profiles. This information you already have about these variables and more will impact the outcome of all paid search marketing.

Be sure to share as much as you can about who you are targeting, what the profile of a "typical" audience member may look like [age, household income, male, female, etc.]. Having detailed discussions with your Internet marketing firm or consultant can save time, money, and trouble in the long run.

Google Personalized Search...just got personal

Dr. Search — 2009-12-15T05:27:00Z

Google has announced the Google personalized search experience. If any of you are keeping tabs out there...universal search, personal search, social search, real time search...this is why search engine optimization can be very difficult. Imagine trying to keep up with Google. I'm still not 100% sold on Google's "do no evil" message.

I've been working on a client project recently and I've notices some VERY lame attempts by Google to lure away searching individuals with rather unsavory methods. The same methods that Google frowns on when advertising under competitive brand terms in Ad Words [to a very liberal extent]. Take a test drive for yourself. Type in "circle" for giggles. Take a look at the paid search results on the left side. Do you or do you not see a sponsored ad by Google asking if you are having trouble understanding the word 'circle'.

So, what does this have to do with search results and all of the up coming iterations of said results? At some point search engine results need to become better at indexing and serving GOOD content. I've seen thousands of times now...very poor results based on excellent search terms. I think it could speak to the measure of fairness when dealing with the world's biggest search engine.

Go on and Google pay per click advertising and tell me you don't see Google's ad right up at the top. They are just playing fair right...? Right?

Hearding The Social Media Cats

Dr. Search — 2009-12-08T02:20:00Z

I a fantastic post by Rebecca Lieb, "Here Come The Social Media Carpetbaggers" from Clicks, she discusses the hoard of social media experts who have come streaming out of the wood work with proposals in had and "expert banners" waving. I've said for some time now that social media should be taken in stride and should not be used to generate sales of any type. Sure, if sales "accedently" or unintentionally arise from social media marketing...that is a wonderful thing. If your objective is to accomplish this task it is going to end up a major epic fail.

I find it as amazing as Rebecca does, how everyone and their distant uncle can now execute, build, track, and offer bright shiney success stories about how well they have done for their clients with social media. Much like Rebecca's comments, I firmly believe that if you are going to pursue social media you should do it in house. The cost in human hours to build out social media outlets, run comments, and interact with your auduience can be a very large task.

Don't believe all you hear about how wonderful and magical social media is. It is what it is...a way for people to communicate online with each other. It is not a new toy or marketing outlet for you to make your next fortune. The majority of individuals on social networks are there to interact with each other, their friends, family, and grow networks. If you REALLY want to interrupt that interaction with ads, or annoying pokes into their "social webworking" I would hazard to say that you will be engaging in demanding your message is heard and it will backfire.

As I've said many times over now...social media, if used as a tool to allow for communication, idea exchanges, developing brand awarness, and credibility can crate a special relationship that will pay you back in the long term. Be wary of the salesperson who suggests a large investment in the social media space. If you are going to take the leap...get your goals, expectations, and self in check.

Social media is still very new [about 2 years old now] and Internet marketing is around 12 years old. We are still dealing with a new digital era. Social media should not be confused with direct advertising...social media is a communication tool and not an advertising tool. Use it wisely and you will prosper...force you message and it will come back to haunt you.

Top Ten Search Engine Marketing Expectations - Busted Part 1

Dr. Search — 2009-12-03T03:24:00Z

Many business owners I have spoken to have had great expectations about search engine optimization, pay per click, and social media. With this in mind...I wanted to address the reality of what search can do for your business and how you should REALLY prepare. Here is a quick list of Top Ten Search Engine Marketing Expectations Busted by Searchology 101.

1. No one can get you to the top of Google for your top keywords overnight. Search engine optimization takes time...and it can take months to gain higher raking on important keywords.

2. Search engine optimization professionals don't know the "Google Code" to get you to the top of the Google search results. The Google algorithms are a mystery to all but Google. Most SEO professionals know a great deal to get you better natural search results but can't promise top listings for high search terms.

3. The social media craze is not the new search. Yes, social media is very cool and it makes it very easy to stay in touch...but it is not a tool to drive sales. It should be used to build your brand, build brand awarness, offer consideration for purchase...if you intend to use it to build sales...think again.

4. Pay per click advertising is not "wizzbangery" - there is no little man behind the green curtain. It takes time to get keywords and ad copy to work together. Time to let the search engines assess the work and for the paid search professional to do their job.

5. Google is not the only search engine out there. Yahoo has over 420 million searches every day...and Bing is close behind. There are many more search engines which deliver good results as well.

6. You should always advertise under your brand name. You competitors will do it if they can and you need to take full ownership of your message, product, service, and good name.

7. Google analytics isn't always right. Looks like there may be a pretty big issue with Java and Google analytics.

8. Know your market and know your audience. If you don't have a good idea about the profiles of people and visitors you would like to attract to your website...how can you write content for them?

9. Google recently had a 10 year anniversery [this year] so when you hear "professionals" say they've been in the Internet marketing industry for 20 years. Yahoo was founded in 1995...Google Ad Words launched in October 2000.

10. Advertising using your competitors brand terms is okay...just be prepared for retaliation.

Competition - How far do you go?

Dr. Search — 2009-11-10T02:19:00Z

I've been asked many times over the years..."So, how can I go after my competition? Can I use their name(s) in my ads? Can I go after their keywords?" These are vary tough questions to answer and very easy questions to ask. To give you the very simple answer. No, do not go after your online competitors online by using or marketing under their own company or brand names. My reason, do you like it when they do the same to you?

I have had a few lawyers in my day contact my peers to have them cease all online marketing under competitive brand terms. I've personally witnessed red faced lawyers screaming through the phone swearing a holy judgment and legal action to the end of days because of using branded terms and company names to display ads and market online.

To most individuals that are online marketers or searchologists...I say don't do it. Your competitors will figure it our sooner or later and return the favor and you are not going to like it one bit. To my clients I say don't do it because you may end up starting a bidding war or a minor legal battle which will not be worth the time.

However, it's gone beyond the pale these days. Yes, now I've seen it all. I know it's been going on for a long time but I've never EVER have believed it until I saw it with mine own eyes. There are companies out there so brasien as to add their competitors keywords and brand names in search engine optimiztion keywords.

Yes, there is an upside when it comes to pay per click advertising under competitive brand names and terms. This is a little more acceptable...especially when the tables have been turned on you or your client in the first place. Then yes, it is a little about revenge and it is a lot about solid ROI at a lower cost per lead or sale. But when you start throwing stones at glass and add these terms into your own website and page copy...you've simply gone way to far. Too far.

Yes, there are companies and individuals willing to support adding in other competitive brand terms and names into their page descriptions and title tags. Yes, it has come to this. It is a wonder why some companies and individuals involved in search engine optimization and search engine marketing have crappy reputations. Sure, it is not just about redicously high prices...the other reason they have MUD for a name is due to ADDING COMPETITIVE TERMS INTO SEO PRATICES!

As I mentioned...to use other compeitive terms and names in pay per click can be acceptable under optimal circumstances...but I do not like the pratice and have only done so under extreme situations. Never, would I nor should you work with...an search engine optimization company or pay per click service provider which recommends doing so first thing out of the gate. Run, and keep going. It is a very bad practice and frankly, rude. As I said...would you want your competition to do it to you? No, then don't start a nasty cycle. Life can be difficult enough. Let's all try to be a little nicer and possibly we can learn how to get along just a little better when we market on the Internet.

Google is Going Social

Dr. Search — 2009-10-23T01:20:00Z

An article recently released on Informationweek.com, Google plans to tackle the social search. Soon Google Labs will allow Google account holders to open new accounts and allow their social information to become integrated into Google search results. My first knee-jerk reaction is; oh, boy, here we go...social media is going way beyond the boundaries of providing information up to the second...that is...information ON YOU.

My second reaction [the other knee], was...I'm going to be the first to sign up for this one. Who knows how much will be served and indexed? Will I [we] be able to choose which social channels are posted? Or will it be all for one and one for all?

Once my initial 'shock' was over...this is not a surprising move. The search is all about search results based on keywords, lightning fast and accurate. Why not include ALL the information about your personal life and social life?

Consider how much fun it will be explaining to a future client or employer how an erotic monkey got on your Facebook page. When you get tagged with a photo or video...it does not exist in a location where you can alter it. It exists on the posters site and shows up on your profile. Will this type of garbage show up in the SERPS?

The issue really comes down to this: if you are socially adept online and in person this can be a very good thing. I may provide credibility, link juice, added content and it would be kind of cool to say, "Google me." However, all things are not created equal. Well, without a question social graces are not learned and executed equally by all people. You can control what you say but you can't control what others say or tag about you on various sites.

Will this lead to some type of consistant need to survey and monitor all of your social profiles? Could be the case. Then again, you don't have to participate. But this is the shot across the bow, social media is going to go just one step too far and invade our social networks and channels. This is going to be a really interesting ride kids. Bring your Scooby Doo lunch box and an extra snack.