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Better SEO through better reference management

Gone is the ability to game the system with fake blog entries, back links from link farms… today it is all about Google. And it is all about content. Real reviews made by real people. Recently Google switched over from using YELP, Angie’s List or Service Magic to using only their reviews…. Because it was said these reviews were being gamed by the system.

True enough but that is not the whole story.

Certainly Google reviews (google+) can be gammed as well.

But lets not go there. Instead what I want to do is talk about how to meet or beat this system with a reliable, effective and honest approach that plays within the rules.

So the new game for many categories of business is to get positive reviews in an ethical manner.

Recently, I met Jim Richarson CEO of Mpact Maximizer where they say they, “Dramatically increases the number of positive reviews for your business.”

Here is an interview I recently conducted with Jim for him to explain his program:

So, Jim tell us what http://mpactmax.com does and why this is the future for so many areas of businesses trying to get their sites and their products or services found by the searching public?

People expect good experiences from the businesses they visit. As such, a good experience typically doesn't warrant them going out of their way to leave a positive review. But, if they have a bad experience, you can bet that they’ll tell the world. They are, in fact, 41% more likely to leave negative reviews than positive ones. Mpact Max is a tool that captures customers’reviews right at the business when they are in the midst of having their experience. They don’t have to remember that they need to leave a review for the when they get home or what happened during their visit.

If their experience is poor, the iPad based system asks them to record their complaint during their brief three question survey. That information is forwarded to management along with the customer’s name cell number and email address. Management can, therefore, deal with the problem immediately and hopefully resolve it before the customer goes online to slam the business.

If the experience is good, the system asks for a testimonial and facilitates publishing it on dozens of review sites; all from the customer’s unique IP address. As a result, the business resolves more problems and records more positive reviews.

So businesses can track customer satisfaction and use the metrics to train staff and monitor customer experience over any time period.

What does this cost?

Mpact Max has three pricing levels: Max Basic: $97 per month. Max Max: $197 per month and Max Plus: $297 per month. Programs are based on a metered use by the client.

What about Mobile?

Mobile is here! It’s the perfect solution for fast food restaurants and hotels. Customers scan a QR code or text a keyword and the survey link to a mobile optimized questionnaire process is sent to their smartphone. They’re in our system so the experience and results are similar to the full-featured process.

What does a person need to do start with this program?

This is a powerful tool supported by a dedicated team of people. We handle all of the set-up details in a turn-key solution. Go to our website. www.mpactmax.com and click on contact us. We’ll be happy to answer questions and manage the process. Our 60 day money back guarantee reflects our confidence in Mpact Max’s ability to dramatically change our clients’ businesses.

Thanks to Jim Richardson for that insightful information. I wanted to show some real life example of this issue so our readers can get what is going on here.

For example, if you were looking for a new dentist in the local market here in San Luis Obispo and you were doing a search in Google it might look like this below. Organic search results sit below the paid on top and on the right. Notice that all of the top listings (supposedly organic?) are from a Google+ reviews.... get it! Now, go get it! http://mpactmax.com

Paid is on top and right squares organic in center of screen

YouTube Tower of Babble... Auto Translate in Captions

Translate Your Closed Captions into 300+ Languages with YouTube's New Translation Tool - increase your SEO

If you make videos that are universal, that is, not confined to English-speaking countries, it will do your videos a world of good to be able to provide a number of languages so that almost anyone in the world can enjoy them.  We've covered in-depth how closed captions can help with YouTube SEO as they assist in telling the search engine what your video is about....
Read more at: Translate Your Closed Captions into 300+ Languages with YouTube's New Translation Tool http://www.reelseo.com/youtube-closed-captions-translation-tool/#ixzz27ao4jsmC 
©2012 ReelSEO 

How do you do it?

Review all here how to do it...

http://youtubecreator.blogspot.com/2012/09/build-global-audience-on-youtube-by.html

1. Visit your Video Manager page, find a captioned video, click the drop-down menu by the Edit button, and select “Captions”.
2. Click the “Request translation” button.
3. You can select one or more languages you’d like help with translating. Click “Next” to continue.
4. On the next page, select a language and then click “Share”. You can now send this translation request via email to your friends. Once you’ve entered in a friend’s email address, click “Send Invitations”.
5. Your friend will receive an email inviting them to help out. A link in the email will direct them to your content. Now your friend will be able to review and edit to improve upon the initial automatically translated draft of your captions. When they’re finished, they’ll click “Publish to YouTube”.
6. An email will be sent to you to let you know that your friend is finished. Click the link within the email to view the updated translations. You can click the newly updated language track to view your friend’s edits. Once you’re finished reviewing, click “Done”. 

Reference here:

http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2780526

Translate over 300 languages

http://goo.gl/9Ghd7

So, there two ways to make this work.  Upload a file and it will translate that file or have it auto-translate your spoken text you may have uploaded when you created the file or video... yes the system can actually attempt to translate your video upload.  We tried that and it was pretty awful but watch as this feature grows. 

And, the language could be changed by the user...

SEO What is the question?

YouTube Testing Interactive, Video Q&A Feature

We have shown over the years that the use of video can get you on the front page of Google.  Our clients are quite happy to see their metrics about viewers who are clearly in their demographic and that large numbers of them are finding their videos easily 

The real problem for me and our clients has been some form of actual engagement.

The latest in video is that you can now have questions and answers in your video with the new Video Questions Editor

You can find this feature HERE
http://www.youtube.com/testtube
along with a number of other great features you can try on your YouTube videos
Log into your YouTube Account
Then go to this link on Testtube
http://www.youtube.com/video_questions_beta
Then in your YouTube account go to edit a video
see along the top of the tool bar - QUESTIONS

You can then start creating questions and a place to get an answer and where in the video you want it to go:

Here is an overview article
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2410039,00.asp

This is a great leap ahead and a change to start engaging your viewers on content

Techcrunch has posted an overview here
http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/20/youtube-video-questions-editor/

Google says this
http://www.youtube.com/video_questions_beta

Hey, it is beta but get ready to do this with your API feeds... being able to go back and forth to viewer and engage them.

How to follow smart people around

How to stay on top of it... my father use to say to me, "When I was young, we didn't have schools, we followed smart people around."

Well that is actually quite true.

Here is a great email I get every day that just started coming from one of my "rock stars" of the new world of tech  Jason Calicanis.

Sign up is at

http://lnch.is/tckrsignup

2012-13 Trends in Search Change SEO Strategy

Over the last year their have been tremendous changes in the way people search. On a secondary level there have been monumental changes in the way that search engines rank and rate web content. Regarding the way people search, I think the new Siri voice search on the iPhone is one of the major new trends. I use an Android phone and find the voice search working very well. When I am on the road or in the car I can just speak what I want to find and boom there are the choices... neat, easy, simple - effective but a bit rough. With Google's releasing GoogleNOW, a new voice command feature in Jelly Bean, they are about to change everything. Want your socks rocked? Watch this quick video: There are a myriad of other issues affecting your web content rankings through the ever changing way we conduct searches. These trends are going to totally affect the way a business will try and attract customers using SEO techniques. Here is a quick infographic from 7-boats.

Social Search is vying for first place in our new paradigm model so how do you get more people talking about what you are doing? Look at these trends with Bing and now the way rankings of pages are done by Google+ users. These trends will not go away. "search engines are starting to rely on social media to help filter and validate relative content to deliver to consumers," Elliottle Menager (how social marketing and search engine optimization work together) Content is going to be judged on quality, not quantity. If you are abusing the seo tags and titles with stuffing them with key words.... you will be penalized. Focus on useful content that engages your audience and gets them interested in sharing your content (with your links or tags). Create a feedback loop to create content based on the dialog your customers are talking about. Where do you fit in? Mobile. I am sure you are realizing that your phone is starting to replace some or most of your interactions you used to do on a PC. So is everybody else. Mobile search will surpass desktop search sometime next year in shear volume. More importantly, Google and other sites use different metrics to determine what content to present on mobile devices versus your desktop. Are you focused on optimizing your content to be available to be indexed by Mobile Search Bots that Google and others are releasing? Click on the Infographic to view all of the coming challenges companies trying to attract clients will be faced with over the coming year. If you have been following this blog for very long you will already know the single answer I will propose to solve all of these problems... video. Sure it sounds complicated but in reality the new standards are based on more of a home feel to the video. Over produced videos actually don't get viewed as much. Think about ways you can get "user" created videos... they are a hit. Have you asked your customer / channel partner / or supply chain suppliers about aggregating their videos on your channel? Have you created every kind of How-To video that people wanting to buy your product or service should know and are searching for on the net? Doesn't need to be fancy - just useful (or funny). Useful is easier than funny.

View Full Size Infographic

Creating A Plan - GEMatrix And Strategic Planning

This is a little different post.  I wanted to review the backdrop from which you need to start before you optimize your web site or your business plans.  Yes this actually does relate to developing an SEO plan too.

After working with literally thousands of clients over the last 35 years I have often pondered how my client's current process and plans will ever get them from point A to point B.  Often these are start-ups and seem to follow the old rue; "Ready - Fire - Aim".  Sure, when budgets are tight this is an easy method to fall into.

Limited funding is no excuse for not doing a little testing of your hypothesis as well as doing a little testing with real life data.  Recently a great book came out called the "Lean Startup", by Eric Ries where he talks about the basic principal of A/B testing (which is different than trying to get from  point A to point B).   Here is Eric talking at Stanford University (start the video at about 28 minutes if you want to skip ahead).

This is exactly the process that Google has employed when you sign up for their Goolge WebMaster program.   This all revolves around strategic tools you can use to create a plan, then evaluate the plan, then "Pivot" to the more attractive solution (did A or B do better?).  Then the next concept is the "continious path to scale".  Quote: "Today’s software tools are able to both prototype and scale. I call it a 'continuous path to scale' because you don’t have to make these tradeoffs. This is true not just in tech but in marketing, sales, and bizdev too", Eric Ries Entrepreneur, founder of the Lean Startup methodology. http://sprouter.com/ericries?page=5 ).

This process used to be called the "The Strategic Planning Process"  Where you create a Strategic Target and then develop Plans, Policies and Procedures to reach those Objectives (capitalize on opportunities).  


Each SBU (strategic business unit) is made of a myriad of opportunities really.  Now you need to evaluate and prioritize them so that you can create a plan, targeting the mostly likely desired outcome with the available resources.  With everything going to the web these days you can add a few more steps to create a testing (validation) platform and real time feedback loop before you spend any money actually building anything.

So, before you create an elaborate business plan and spend a lot of money, figure out what is the scalability, what is the relevant market size (interest)  for your plans. 

Where I see most people get stopped is not this idea of creating "testing" or landing pages on their web site for different messages it is way back at the beginning...  What business are you in?  What is the size of that opportunity.  What real resources do you (your channel, the market) have to implement and exploit that plan.

This FIRST STEP is often overlooked, hence the Ready, Fire, Aim problem.  The original premise being tested made no sense in the first place.  They started with some idea that came from on high (the boss) and never vetted that idea first.  Eric Riese talks about this here regarding "Test Before You Build"


I use what I call an "Attractiveness" model to develop a value proposition for each SBU.  Historically these models are the result of consulting firms and large corporate MBA teams who have honed these ideas down to just a one page graphic.  Here is what is known as the GE Matrix or sometimes called the McKinsey Matrix

By taking your elements of an individual SBU or as entire universe of all SBUs and placing them into a competitive grid you can develop an attractiveness model for your objective. You can also apply this to competitors and make a competitiveness model or what is sometimes called an "Indifference Model".    Using your "Attractiveness" model simply add values to each cell and find that SBU or element with the highest score which will appear in the "most valuable cell" which on the GEMatrix is the upper left hand corner of the grid.  Comparing resources, talent, market size, competitive landscape and more will give you a more complete model.

Another way to look at this is using the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunity,Threats model - SWOT. 


Using an attractiveness model, then applying an A/B testing methodology may give you some surprises.  OK that means it is time to PIVOT.  Change or modify the original goals and start over... the key here is keep iterating.  Keep testing.

None of this is new except when I talk to clients about generating traffic to their websites using SEO techniques.  Often they are focused on the wrong elements to optimize. Our attractiveness model should be dictating where we want buyers to come from and what we are going to sell them and when (in the cycle).  


Optimizing elements that are too early in the selling process and you only end up with attracting not buyers but "tire kickers".  Most companies don't realize that for the attractiveness model process to work it requires several interactions to bring the prospect back to the desired content site before they will become a customer.  So, not only do prospective customers need to find your organization but they need to want what you offer and you need to be in front of them at the time they are ready to buy.


I have a number of other blog entries (here) that talk about developing the sales funnel and sales process but key to all of this is delivering content that your client wants to consume when they are ready to consume it.  I think a former business partner of mine said it best; "Be Read, Be Remembered, Be the one they call".  Jim Cecil http://www.nurturemarketing.com/.

Basics of SEO Post-Penguin

Every so often it is great to revisit the issues with creating "findable content" on your web site (by SEOing it). I am constantly reviewing newsletters and articles on the subject and found this one that covers all the fundamental issues with this new world of constant readjustment for generating SEO.  What is most important about all of this is that the basic 101 ideas that generate the best SEO still revolve around content, engagement and voice.

Read this:
Website Optimization Basics
by Kristine Schachinger, June 14, 2012
http://tinyurl.com/7dh2xmh


Some of it is pretty obvious, while I don't care for the intro story - the second part about quality of content is very relevant.  She outlines some of the most important basic ideas in this new world where we are all now skating on thin ice (ref: penguin).


Some areas she missed were techniques to increase the engagement and relationship factors (a huge component of SEO rankings that is often overlooked).


Here are some additions to her great starter article:

• Add video (make it YouTube video) increases the average time on the page (engagement) which increases the SEO of the search phrase, and devlops correct backlinks for the video too. 

1. Note to self, YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine behind Google.  
2. Second note to self, over 35% of all searches are now occurring on a smartphone, video is the perfect format for these hand held devices.  And that; " 1 in 3 mobile searches are local. After looking up a local business on their smartphone, 61 percent of users called the business and 59 percent visited." ( read link )
3. Third note to self, Goolge uses an entirely different system to optimize mobile sites . Do you have a mobile site?
   
   Recently it was revealed that video is the MOST important site regarding auto purchase as outlined in a recent Google/Polk/Compete Auto Purchase Study 2011 (and yes this is also true for real estate, books or any other "thing" people are searching for).

              click image to enlarge graphic
                    click to view study

• Create a call to action on the landing page. 

Get your visitor to send you their email in exchange for something of value they really want. If you are selling cars - "10 simple things to look for when buying a used car".  Make it from a reputable vendor like Kelly Blue Book or the NADA (National Association of Car Dealers).  For Real Estate this could be something that NAR (National Association of Realtors) publishes.

• Get your customer to return to your site often.  Don't miss the opportunity to create a life long relationship with asking them to join your blog or group. Engagement is one of the most important signs to the search engines that you have a site of value.  Bruce Clay has talked about this for years with his "Engagement Objects".
• Get industry experts to participate in creating content that you host and have it embedded with relevant video.
• Get your visitors to answer a few questions... add a simple questionnaire.

In General, create ways to validate, get approval, and communicate with someone on an ongoing basis.  

• Make sure that you don't try to sell on every occasion... make that communication effort something that they want to open when it hits their in box.
• Send a video as a link (embedded) to everyone that signs up for the call to action on the page... This will naturally build traffic back and forth between your IP and their email and or other places they may use it.
• Have a social media sign-in for all the different apps and sites and build corporate pages on all the various social media sites. For example on Facebook.  It is simply amazing what information you can gleam from a Facebook log in and subsequent "like"  A recent report indicates that when someone becomes a fan of a corporate page, 60 of their Facebook's friends will see it.
• Lastly, use separate domains or sub-domains to separate subjects or areas of interest.  I recently helped an auto licensing testing service where they wanted to optimize their site for 50 states... guess what their structure looks like today;  california.site.com instead of site.com/california and so forth.

Don't miss this opportunity to revisit your SEO practices something you should be doing regularly, at least every 90 days.  You will never fall through the ice if your are always thinking of increasing engagement, becoming the voice of your industry and providing quality information that people want to find.

Are you tempting spam engines with the wrong words?

Often we write emails to our clients or prospects and use a variety of words that will land you in Spam Jail if you aren't careful
I have looked around the web for the most comprehensive collection of these and think that Hub Spot offers the best list

The Ultimate List of Email SPAM Trigger Words

While many in the industry would say something like: "ISPs have been using an IP based reputation method for quite some time and have more recently been adding in domain reputation, too, so it's a combination of many things; not just a list of words to avoid."  Believe me the use of words matters.

Mailchimp a respected email company has a nice article that provides an overview of how to keep your stuff out of the dustbin
http://kb.mailchimp.com/article/how-spam-filters-think


Other issues to consider are
Number of links.  Are your links hidden or not.  What domain and email address are you coming from or are you using someone like MailChimp... all of this matters but it first starts with email copy and the words you choose both in the header (subject) and the body.

For those of you interested in more depth the open source Spam Assassins list is here with descriptions on each of the particular issues any email might have.

http://spamassassin.apache.org/tests_3_3_x.html

SpamAssassin uses a wide variety of local and network tests to identify spam signatures and is an open source program that many if not most of the ISPs in the world use.

Trip words that will land you in spam heaven

So you are now convinced from all that you read that video is the ultimate tool to get in front of your audience and to do that as quickly as possible - great.

But maybe it is not working so well for you?

Are you falling into the trap - all selling, all the time isn't helpful to a consumer.  What is in it for them?  Why are they watching your video.  Why should they care?

Here is the real issue, are you falling into a trap of using words that the search engines consider spam... are they thinking you are trying to game the system.

Those same words that will land you in a spam or junk folder when you use email can do the same for you in any web page or video you create

Here is a great list of words you should work to avoid from Hub Spot

The-Ultimate-List-of-Email-SPAM-Trigger-Words
http://goo.gl/zC6gK

Also here is an overivew from MailChimp that offers a number of important techniques and tactics that can save you from the dust bin.
http://kb.mailchimp.com/article/how-spam-filters-think

Think like you are sending them an email when they open your video... same concept really, only difference with video is you didn't have their email and somehow they came looking for you... but the rules of engagement are the same.

Stop spamming your potential clients and they will allow you to grow them into a customer (see Gary Vaynerchuk's article "The Thank You Economy" at http://goo.gl/8m0kz

Simple parlor tricks to create SEO for your books

Ever think how your book could rise to the top of search engines... for those of you have been reading this blog over the years already know the answer Yes Video Simple video created on the fly by a computer, with a computer voice with simple search terms competes with Amazone, Wiki and every other big site... you can do this too with your book Example

Are you over optimizing your SEO?

A while back we discussed the problems with the introduction of a series of changes Google made to the way they rank your web site material called Panda

We noted that video, specifically YouTube video offers one of the best ways to follow all the rules of Panda as well as provide mobile computing search engines with properly formatted pages - you get a double win with video.
Now, Google introduces a new series of rules commonly called Penguin (...set of more than 50 changes, named Penguin, released April 24 changed the Google search algorithm to target over-optimized websites that were stuffed with keywords in an attempt to improve their search rankings. http://www.cnbc.com/id/47413065 )



Here is a list of the 52 changes of April (http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/2012/05/search-quality-highlights-53-changes.html )

So what is the net effect of this all... Don't over optimize your web site.  As we have talked about in prior postings this is a major failing of a lot of webmasters who think that by loading up more stuff they will be able to game the system.

There are many ways to do this and we have always advocated video... yes simple as it may sound video, specifically YouTube video provides all of the ability to create high ranking SEO without the penalties found in web pages.

I found the CNBC link above and this article

Life After Google Penguin – Going Beyond the Name
David Harry, May 16, 2012

One of the most helpful on the subject
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2174997/Life-After-Google-Penguin-Going-Beyond-the-Name

Social Video Advertising a new Phenom

Social video advertising is soaring... do you know how? ReelSEO does a nice job of explaining this new phenom. http://tinyurl.com/socialvideoad

SEO tips by a pro Mark Robertson of REELSEO

I am following REELSEO
I love their quirky video style... real hypster
Also reelly good (yes REELLY) on SEO for videos
Look through this slide deck for some great simple tricks you should be using
http://www.slideshare.net/ReelSEO/dfw-semyoutubeonlyfinal
by: Mark Robertson REELSEO

Embed YouTube Video Now Being Indexed by Google Search Engines for SEO

So you figured out that video is a great way to get on the front page of Google... 

YouTube videos can appear within hours in most cities in the US and Canada (don't know about elsewhere?).

But did you know that NOW Google is indexing pages that you embed the video on in your blog, web site or other places on the web.

Here is  great article discussing this point for point

http://www.reelseo.com/embedded-youtube-indexed-google/

What is your Long Tail term to chase

Chasing SEO on various media platforms has been known as Chasing the Long Tail...

How do you use this powerful concept... longer search terms = more likely to convert.

OK what does that mean?

Read this short paragraph by Ian Lurie
http://www.portent.com/blog/seo/long-tail-seo-101-defined.htm

Get it... the longer and more specific the search term the more likely the consumer is actually closing in a decision to purchase (convert)

Long Tail terms comprise as much as 70% of all searches!
The demand curve for Head (short) vs Long Tail graph shows just how important focusing on these 2+ phrase searches really is

Read More on Long Tail conversion at
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/illustrating-the-long-tail

Using Long Tail terms that are 4 words optimizes (converts) the best

Look at this treasure trove of SEO data
SEO Graphs and Charts regarding from SEOMOZ

Fat Free Guide to SEO

There are so many sites that try and provide you with a definitive guide to all the issues and ideas relating to developing a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) program for your Internet sites.
I think this one "The Fat Free Guide" is one of the best
http://fatfreeguide.com/

Google Final Answer - Symantic Search

There are a number of articles that are talking about the Google Refresh of the search engine and how they are planning on moving you as fast as possible from Thought to Answer...

One of the problems of course is that a user's time on Google's site is mere seconds compared to hours people are spending on Facebook or other media.

Here-in lies the rub.  How do you get people to spend more time looking at answers on Google instead of clicking those little blue links that take you away from their site... and how does this effect your SERPs work to gain high SEO on a search result.

Symantic Search is Google's answer.  From a blog post by Amit Singhal https://plus.google.com/115744399689614835150/posts/3vLRVL7C4QS

"Let me just say that every day, we're improving our ability to give you the best answers to your questions as quickly as possible"


But the true answer is... "how do we keep them down on the farm after they've seen Paris"


Slowly over time, you will see where Google will start providing complete answers for example hotels or for air fares or in other cases "shopping".  This approach keeps people exploring data on the Google site and keeps them from clicking away on those little blue links... at least until they can charge someone for it.


Other articles that may be important here are ones regarding how your PPC Adwords program may be affected and realizing that Universal Search is triggered only when Google feels there is a good reason to present other media types which can totally change the search results order you were expecting from your keyword analysis.  


Read this short article Kevin Lee  |  March 30, 2012  
http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2164410/goodbye-keywords-google-semantic

Bottom line is that your keyword search engine tools are now less effective in telling you exactly what will be presented in various parts of the world and on what devices will the search be conducted ( we are seeing 30% of our searches coming from mobile devices right now).

Using YouTube to generate SEO for Auto Dealers

Auto Dealers, here is a short video that offers the research behind how and why you can use YouTube video to gain high search engine results (SEO) for your dealership.  Using video is the lowest cost and most effective way to get your vehicle inventory in front of consumers who are looking for those individual vehicles.  This is not about your dealership brand but about the actual method that consumers use to find a particular vehicle they are interested in buying.  This program details where the consumer is between the process of "I don't know what I want" to "I am going to buy this vehicle".  Research show that long tail search terms vs head terms convert at a much higher rate.  Using video, in particular YouTube video, to get your advertising message in front of a consumer is simply the fastest method to do so.

YouTube Tags - Less is more for better SEO

When it comes to how many tags or how varied the tags should be to gain better SEO of the video watch this short video from the experts




Kevin H. Nalty can teach all of us a lot about using video and getting better SEO results.  See more at his site
http://willvideoforfood.com/

What Google Knows - Who Are You?

We often wonder what Google knows about us and there is a simple tool you can use now that will tell you exactly who they think you are... 


Go to 
www.google.com/ads/preferences


Here you can see and edit your profile with Google.
Who cares... advertisers care.  Google keeps trying to get you to slice out your "special" friends on your email list, Google keeps trying to test what it is you want... now you can see all


Here is another great article on the subject that was recently in Bloomberg Business Week.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/who-does-google-think-you-are-02022012.html


This all dovetails into Google's new centralized privacy policy... translation: we will watch you on every device on all sites... YouTube, your smartphone, your gmail and form a collective picture of you.  Who said "don't be evil" didn't include selling every inch of you to advertisers?

Everyone Envies Local - should you?

Local looks like the obvious panacea to everyone.
The more local you get the more likely you are near something or someone that is about to make a purchase right?

Well according to Chris Devore, co-founder of Judy's Book that couldn't be farther from the truth...

His three take away's are:

1. There's no money in it

2. It doesn't scale

3. It's too obvious

While I applaud Chris' sentiment  (read article link below),  I do believe that there are plenty of opportunities to make local work.  One of course is to pick an industry and go across the US (world?) to make it work.  Lending Tree is an example of this and so are Dentist and Doctor referral sites.  Offers Network has chosen Real Estate and Automobile Dealers...across the US with only one or two players in a market.

Our tools dominate for them over all their competitors.

But trying to turn an entire local market into a money maker I think is a loser...calling on a house painter one day, a hair salon another doesn't scale.  Each sale is small and their understanding of how to price and deal with promotions is very limited ... so scaling a new promotional service across an entire "town" is tough.

Remember this, Groupon has 10,000 sales reps calling local businesses every day and there are some 200 other "deal-type" sites out there... so good luck trying to get local businesses attention. 

Devore’s Advice to Entrepreneurs: Be Wary of Local: http://www.crashdev.com/2012/01/top-three-reasons-not-to-do-local.html

Quality Time with our Social Media

As we are spending all this time deciding how to crank up our markets I wanted to start to set the stage about what we should and should not be doing in Social Media.  Sometimes people I work with misunderstand the difference between Push Media, which is like TV, Radio and email vs Social Media which is about engagement.

I often talk to companies about their social media play and often get this kind of sickly sweet response that actually turns into PUSH advertising… Of course my major markets have been real estate brokers and automobile dealers… so what was I expecting?

I thought that this article was a good “do’s and don’t” overview

http://searchengineland.com/google-growing-your-social-network-quantity-vs-quality-109210

REF: Google+ Growing Your Social Network: Quantity vs. Quality Jan 31, 2012 by Aaron Friedman Search Engine Land. http://tinyurl.com/6vqrrg7

I wrote an overview of this in my blog outlining a guy who I think really says it all by Gary Vaynerchuck on  who just wrote a great book,  "The Thank You Economy"

http://torreyrussell.blogspot.com/2011/03/thank-you-economy-are-you-part-of-it.html

To Post on Zillow or Not to Post - That is the question

In a recent article by John Cook on Geekwire (January 31, 2012 at 9:23 am by John Cook ) he talks about Jim Abbott, president of the Abbott Realty Group in San Diego, who recently announced plans to pull listings from Trulia, Realtor.com, Zillow, 


The best quote here is:
“All listing syndicators have one thing in common: They act as middlemen and post our valuable listing data alongside the contact information of other agents and brokers who rent ad space on their sites,” Abbott said in the video. “Usually, they do this with our permission, while claiming that exposure of our listings in any way on the Internet is a good thing. Time and results prove that it is absolutely not.”


So if this isn't working for him... why are you still doing it?
Giving away your front page position to a 3rd party is not becoming the wrong thing to do.  For them to use your listing to pump up their site... how does this make sense for you.  If instead you put your efforts into creating your own SEO (Search Engine Optimization) program your benefits far outweigh the negatives.  


Every study shows that consumers start at a search engine and then find these 3rd party sites.... they don't start at these sites.  The question is, are you, and everyone else in your office, going to band together to fight this?


Read more about this:

http://www.geekwire.com/2012/hear-real-estate-vet-pulled-listings-biggest-real-estate-sites-internet-zillow-ceo-spencer-rascoff

Tablets are Mobile Devices! Now owned by 20% of Americans

The share of adults in the United States who own tablet computers nearly doubled from 10% to 19% between mid-December and early January and the same surge in growth also applied to e-book readers, which also jumped from 10% to 19% over the same time period. The number of Americans owning at least one of these digital reading devices jumped from 18% in December to 29% in January. http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/E-readers-and-tablets.aspx

Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, tells msnbc.com’s Technolog they’ve “never seen growth quite like this” in the history of  conducting surveys on digital technology.

http://www.geekwire.com/2012/gadgets-galore-quarter-americans-ereader-tablet

Mobile search results are different than desktop

“Mobile search results not only produce different rankings from desktop search but can also vary based on the mobile device type that the query was performed on” http://searchengineland.com/how-to-achieve-mobile-search-ranking-clarity-108635

“Search Plus Your World” Google Socializes Search

“Search Plus Your World” This is a fundamental change in the way that google returns search results When you conduct a search now, currently just in the US and only in English, you will see this new header...

This new idea is where you are now looking at the search results of your Google+ network.

There are good and bad issues around this ... for one it will change SEO rules at its core.

SEO and Search Plus Your World means that your network of friends and family will drive what you see in a search result instead of  the world.  Google can now rank and rate YOU against the interests of your network of co-workers, friends and family to profile what you are interested in viewing... think Panda [define] rules tied to social graph.  

Genius, maybe, intrusive, absolutely.  Should you care... yes, your world just got smaller.  And while it may be great to share restaurant ideas or movie reviews... do you really want your boss or your brother in law commenting on every search you do?

Read this for more: 

http://searchengineland.com/googles-results-get-more-personal-with-search-plus-your-world-107285

AutoShopper Embed

YouTube Video Dominate in Google's Results? [Study]

Google launched universal search in 2007 and changed the world forever. How? Well, basically they started mixing in non-link content from a variety of sites. This content included videos, images, maps, shopping products, and beyond.

"It makes sense for marketers to increase the volume of video and image content they’re creating and to optimize it both on their own sites and on third party sites such as YouTube and Flickr." Dr. Horst Joepen, CEO of Searchmetrics.

Read more here:
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2099640/Universal-Search-Which-Formats-Dominate-in-Googles-Results-Study

Search is about Local

When you are creating a program to gain SEO for your company make sure you are also listed in all the local directories. These are natural ways to build back links to your site or business name... these are often called "Citations". As search engines start to concentrate on delivering local search results this approach provides a legal (white hat) SEO way to have your business appear high on search results on Google. So while our blog often focuses on getting what you sell listed on the front page of Google like a car or a home, this is about getting to the top of the list for your brand or your category heading on local search. Of course you need to be registered with Google Local Listing service called Google Places first. www.google.com/places You also need to think about how to get your listing in the top 5 or 10 of your Places search result.

Then you need to get some people on Google+ to rate your business as the old YELP and Angie's List are not visible any more... however, don't be fooled. These sites and the list below are considered valid and trusted sites for listing data so Google uses them as a basis to determine if a business address is really where you say it is and is involved in what you are saying you do... Here’s a list of the biggest general ones that you need to be listed in: Yelp Superpages City Search Urban Spoon and OpenTable (for restaurants) Yellow Pages Angie’s List Express Update USA (formally infoUSA) Yahoo Local Trip Advisor Merchant Circle Dex Knows Insider Pages Localeze Shop City Judy’s Book Yellow Bot Kudzo Do a test and search for your company. Usually you can get a basic listing for free.