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xxx I caught an interesting seminar today called “SEO Through Blogs and Feeds” with Stephen Spencer, Rick Klau, Doug Hay and Greg Jarboe on the panel. The following are my point by point notes that stood out as noteworthy. Some of these tips are mirrored in my 3 part tutorial on blogging called Blogs 101 but as always some great new tips popped up.

Key Tips
For those in a rush or who have already read my blogs 101 article the following tips are very worthwhile reading - if just for their importance as reminders:

• It is extremely important that RSS auto-discovery tags be placed in the header of every page within a website that has feeds available. By doing so you will provide users and search engines alike with a simple method of being notified that you have RSS feed(s) and it will allow immediate subscription without fuss. In contrast simply having a RSS logo hyperlinked with a feed provides little or no benefit and does not provide auto-notification that a feed is available.

  Furthermore it is recommended to create a unique auto-discovery tag for each available RSS feed and place them all in the header. If you think you have too many then I would recommend choosing the feeds that are most relevant to the page content.

• A WordPress plugin was noted called the “SEO Title Tag Plugin”. This plugin really impressed me because it allows WordPress users to see and individually customize the title tags of every post within the associated blog; without a doubt a powerful capability since title tags play a significant role in rankings.
• If you use paid Press Release services to disseminate your latest company news then it also works to your advantage to create a separate blog specifically used for your press releases. In this regard you can use the associated RSS feed to get some free publicity by submitting it to blog directories and other blog-syndicating properties.
• If you are finding it difficult to get the word out about a particular piece of news then Greg Jarboe has a great idea for you: track down the key bloggers that appear to be driving the news in your industry and contact them with your story.

  If your story interests even one of the bloggers and gets published then you could get a massive amount of publicity for zero dollars.

  During the presentation of this concept Greg Jarboe utilized a powerful online tool called BuzzLogic to identify which people drove the latest news in key topics. Unfortunately BuzzLogic appears to be priced well out of the capabilities of many small businesses (at $12,000/yr minimum) so I will provide a very basic free alternative to determining the leaders of a particular topic.

  Step 1) Search in your favorite search engine for the particular topic. Within the results separate the blogs from the other content. If you do not find at least 10 bloggers then try search again with different wording for the same topic.

  Step 2) Look at each blog individually and look for indications of readership or popularity. For example perhaps one of the website has a Feedburner subscription counter with the blog’s current readership OR take the URL of the blog and conduct a backlink check on Yahoo using “linkdomain:www. .com” (without the quotes) to see which blogs have the most inbound links. Sort these blogs according to their popularity.

  Step 3) Find contact information on each site and then contact the writer(s) starting with the most trafficked blogs and pitch your news/idea/story.

  Note: I am not saying the steps above have anywhere near the quality of results that a full-fledge program like BuzzLogic has but it is certainly a great place to start.

• Promote your latest blog posting by taking advantage of a popular blogger’s vanity. Compliment them within your key article (somehow) using their full name and perhaps provide a link back to their website. Chances are that the blogger often keeps an eye on blog postings or sites that utilize their name. When they visit your posting there is a good chance they will read it.

General Blog and Feed Optimization Tips:

1. Providing full text feeds was noted regularly throughout the presentation as a far superior method for creating backlinks and getting found online.
2. Your blog feed should have 20 or more items never the minimum 10.
3. Provide a feed for every category your site/blog offers.
4. Ensure that you create keyword rich blog posts and ensure that your brand is well represented within the text.
5. Ensure the most important keyword/phrase is listed in the blog title.

Optimize Your Blog’s Linking Structure For Best Results

1. Provide a listing of the top 10 posts within your site so the stories do not get buried in archives or category pages. If the articles are performing well it is just logical to keep them in plain view to get more mileage from them.
2. Use Tag Clouds and Tag Pages to increase the possible routes to your valuable past content.
3. If you are using WordPress as your blogging tool it is a great idea to install the “Sticky Posts” plugin which allows you to ’stick’ an introduction or key post at the top of each category page.

   Addressing Blog Duplication Concerns
   By opening up categories (a.k.a. ‘labels’ on Blogger) to the search engines you increase the likelihood of having a great deal of duplicated content. Fortunately the search engines have, so far, been quite clear that duplicate content in blogs is not a concern because it is a natural consequence of labeling. That said, there was a WordPress plugin noted that would allow you to create controlled article excerpts (or teasers) within the category pages. It is called “Optional Excerpts” and by using it you can maintain the authority of the core posting since the label pages will only provide a teaser versus the full text of the article.

Author:   Ross Dunn is the founder and CEO of StepForth Web Marketing

When I was little, my parents and I lived next to a mom and pop shop called Wascana Grocery. Run by Kenny and May Mah, this small corner grocery store had nearly everything you might need with a little something extra: that personal service that made all the difference. With butcher skills that he took pride in showing, Kenny knew exactly how my mom wanted her cuts of beef. And Mrs. Mah, smiling Mrs. Mah, she always found a way to slip the children a caramel or bubblegum before we left the store. Those little differences kept us coming back.

This was in the beginning of the 1960’s and supermarkets were just starting to steamroll their way into town. When they finally arrived, it became tough for Kenny and his family to compete and they had to change. They could no longer afford being a butchery and stopped that aspect of the business, trading it for fizzy drinks and potato chips, what the convenience market demanded.

These days, mom and pop shops are alive and kicking once again — thanks to the Internet. They are doing this by with special products for special people, or niche marketing. It isn’t just the product range that makes the difference, it is the personalized service that the supermarket juggernauts of the digital world don’t have the time to respond to. The little things like sending out a sample upon request or answering a simple question.

Quite often, people who love their hobby end up doing it for a business. Look around you: I’m sure you know people like this too. Music freaks who became DJs, football players who started their own sporting goods stores — and those are just examples of people in my neighbourhood! And since there’s such a great demand for online stores and e-commerce content management systems, it’s easier than ever for aficionados to sell online.

So the mom and pop shop does as all mom and pop shops do: they make the deals and bring in the stock, take the pictures, get the hosting arranged, set up the website - the list goes on. But sometimes, putting the icing on the cake is the hardest part. And that icing, in this Web 2.0 world, is SEO.

Many of of our clients have these kinds of online shops. One even has a surprisingly well-developed e-commerce website; they have a unique line. Their products are of high quality. Their website works well and it has valid HTML code. They even take care to comply with the WAI accessibility standards. The only problem they have is in getting found. Their pages are SEO friendly, but not SEO ready. They target the wrong keywords.

SEO needs to become personalized too. It needs to answer to the special needs of small web business owners, to understand their markets and to know how to help them make their mark on the Web. Mom and pop shops need SEO as badly as the sovereigns of the Web. All small sites need to find their niche and get a place in the search engines or they’ll need to invest more than they can afford in paid online marketing tools: AdWords and other pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, banner ads, text link ads, paid reviews and so on.

While SEO is not the only factor in determining a website’s place in this Web 2.0 world, it is still of major importance. And many times small business owners blow their chances of ranking in the search engines by employing SEO techniques that no longer comply with the current SEO standards.

For example, many small website owners, with not enough SEO knowledge, still use search engine submission software to submit their new websites to the search engines. What they don’t know is that this is no longer needed and, if done too often, in could even hurt their presence into the SERPs.

The Web 2.0 is dynamic and semantic and so is the Web 2.0 SEO. So, because SEO is changing at a fast pace, small businesses need the help of a skilled SEO company, one that has the time and the willingness to listen, research and advise. xxx

Author:  Colleen is Account Manager at Red Dog Communications s.a and blogs at The Dog Yard - the place where web design meets SEO and networking.

What is Universal Search?

Universal Search is rapidly becoming the next big step in search engine evolution. Universal Search is the integration of multiple kinds of media into search results. Search engine monster Google was the first to release universal search. Google’s users recently may have noticed images, YouTube videos, and other forms of media showing up in the standard results page. The other major search engines have all either recently rolled out their own versions of Universal Search or have announced plans to do so. Such a significant change in the operation of every major search engine warrants close attention from SEO companies.

This is not the first time Google has introduced multiple kinds of results on the same search page. For instance, Google has long put pay-per-click advertisements, local results, and book search results at the top of the main search page. It is also not the first time the company has offered searches in multiple kinds of media- Google Image Search is an age-old feature of the search engine giant. However, it is the first time a search engine has been able to put multiple content types within the same ranking system. For instance, under the new universal search system the number one result for a query could be a web page, a news article, a video, or even an adobe PDF document.

What are the aims of Universal Search?

Universal Search is a step towards comprehensive search. Google and the other engines realize that there is information available in more than text on the web. Pictures, videos, and virtually any kind of media can be of use to a searcher. Google has had the tools to search many of these kinds of media, but these search tools have been separated into different tabs and sections of their website. Universal Search is an attempt to bring the most relevant information- from any source or medium- to the search engine user. While currently Google’s Universal Search has not added search capabilities for mediums that previously did not exist, it has started to expand its video search past its own properties (Metacafe and other video services are now being indexed in addition to Google Video and YouTube), and it does indicate the industry’s interest in fully comprehensive searches. Universal Search, along with Google’s new personalized search features, is the company’s newest way of bringing the most relevant and effective information to their users.

Drawbacks of Universal Search

There are a few legitimate concerns with Universal Search. For one, Google may be putting itself at legal risk. Google has faced numerous lawsuits from many content distributors- especially newspapers- due to the fact that Google often caches copyrighted material. However, one of the main arguments against Sam Zell (the owner of the Washington Post) and his case against Google was that Google News, the section of Google’s site that serves as a news feed, did not have advertising and therefore made no money. Because of this, the headlines and story excerpts used on the page constituted fair use. However, now that news articles are being introduced to the main search page, where Google makes the majority of its money, Google may be in danger of more lawsuits.

Additionally, some critics of Universal Search have voiced concerns that the new system may be unappealing to users. Some feel that the system makes it harder to sift through results. Universal Search breaks up the uniformity of the page and could conceivably make it more difficult to sift through the information. At this point there is no way to turn off Google’s Universal Search- a point bemoaned by many industry bloggers.Universal Search is still in its early stages, and Google, as well as the other search engines, may eventually decide to pull the system. However, at this point, it would be extremely unwise for SEO companies to bank on a reversion as the industry as a whole seems to be moving towards universal search.

How does this affect SEO?

Many in the SEO field are worried about Universal Search, and the changes it will bring. While it is still uncertain just how expansive Universal Search will be as Google continues to implement its multitude of features, it is certain that SEO companies will need to react to remain current with effective practices. Until now, on-site SEO has dealt almost entirely with text content. Keyword optimization, meta data, linking and page structure are all text. However, with the advent of Universal Search, new viable options are opening up for the acquisition of traffic. As search expands to cover more and more kinds of content, SEO will as a result expand to cover those same areas. Much the same as SEO has had the goal of making all of the textual content of a website easily accessible to a search engine, so will it become necessary to optimize images, videos, and documents associated with the website.

SEO for different industries may start to take different approaches and have different focuses of optimization. For instance, an SEO campaign for an artist’s website may want to focus on promoting images of the artist’s work, whereas an electronics provider could want to get a demonstration video of their product to the top of the results page. Search engine marketers that have been paying attention to vertical search (also known as “specialty” search) will benefit the most from the changes brought by Universal Search.

Vertical searches are specialized search features of broader engines or specialty search engines. These index specific kinds of sites and documents on the internet include books, blogs, and other informational documents. Universal Search incorporates results from Google’s vertical searches, and content optimized for these searches will be more likely to show up in Universal Search. This should also increase the average user’s awareness of other search options in the engines that adopt universal search. Universal Search allows search engine marketers to direct users to the most relevant and enticing information available on their product or service in whatever media it exists.

Author:  David Salinas is the CEO of Digital Surgeons: A Full Service Internet Marketing Agency specializing in scalable result orientated online business solutions. He has had over four years of Search Marketing experience in the online marketing channel and has been a part of over 200 clients online growth both nationally and internationally.

I’m giggling. I don’t know why. It’s probably the combination of lack of food and because someone was crazy enough to put Michael Gray, Matt Cutts, and Greg Boser on the same panel to discuss buying links. This is going to be so totally good that I can’t even take it!

Seriously though, the entire search community is represented in this audience. I’m talking about Shoemoney, Matt McGee, Neil Patel, Bill Slawski, Dave Wallace, Jim Boykin, Rand Fishkin, Barry Schwartz, Andy Beal, Chris Boggs, Rhea Drysdale, everyone! My heart goes out to Matt Cutts. We’re really all just here to watch him squirm. (Hi, Matt!)

Okay, Jeffrey Rohrs is moderating the session with speakers Michael Gray (Atlas Web Service), Matt Cutts (Google), Todd Malicoat (Stuntdubl), Greg Boser (WebGuerrilla), Todd Friesen (Range Online Media) and Andy Baio (Upcoming & Waxy.org). Have I mentioned that this is going to be good?

Okay, up first is Matt. He says it’s kind of funny because he tried to put some jokes in the presentation and his wife veto’d them (hee!), so he’s sorry if it’s boring.

Matt says that asking if paid links are evil or not is the wrong question. He says the right question is, “Do paid links that pass PageRank violate search engines’ quality guidelines?” The answer to that is yes.

He adds that the FTC has said that word of mouth marketing is like any other kind of marketing, and if you’re being paid to say something you should disclose that. Adequate disclosure means it is understood by both people and the machines.

How do you disclose a paid link to the search engines?

• Redirect through URL locked by robots.txt
• Redirect through URL t hat does a 302
• JavaScript
• Nofollow the link

Google says you can buy links within search engine guidelines – meaning they can’t pass PR. Google doesn’t care about those links. However, you cannot buy links that pass PageRank.

Examples of PPP links – fundraisers, donate cars, online, credit, super slots, providers, junk yards, online casino, bypass pill, dating advice, USA online poker, etc.

Matt says paid links are like littering – it makes the Web a dirty place. Heh. (If only you could have seen the look on Greg Boser’s face when Matt said that. It summed my thoughts up pretty well. )

Link buying obstacles:

• It can be difficult to buy PPP links
• Buy for a limited time?
• Buy “run of site” links
• Buying links from slopping sellers
• Checking if a link seller cloaks
• Can a competitor spot your paid links?

Google’s approach: Google uses both algorithmic and human detection. They are more than willing to take strong action against PPP links and this is an area Google is focusing on. He talks about Rand’s recent post about paid links and how if you buy them to help you rank that you’re not a white hat.

Next up is Michael Gray. This should be good.

Michael says Matt paid him 100 dollars to wear his Google shirt.

Matt argues that Google is not the government. They have no authority to dictate policy to you. They are a for-profit company. He compares Matt saying Don’t Buy Links to Ronald McDonald saying Don’t Buy A Whopper. Hee!

Google developed an algorithm that is based on links. Now they expect you to change your business model to compensate for their flaws. Google made 1.12 billion profit last quarter. Did you? Google expects you to sacrifice income and profitability to help them make money.

Nofollow was originally developed to combat blog spam, then, three months after it was widely adopted, Google changed the rules. Now it is used for paid advertising. They took advantage of the rules.

What constitutes a paid link? If you link to Google tomorrow about the Google Dance does that count as a paid link?

With a paid link, unless you’re one of the two people involved, you have absolutely no way to know for certain if that was a paid link or not. Paid links work, that’s why Google doesn’t want people using them. They don’t want to have to change their algorithm.

Google’s campaign is about creating fear and uncertainty and doubt. They’re trying to convince you that by buying or selling paid links you are breaking the law or being unethical. Google is not the government. They can not change your ethics. (About three people just said “yet…” Ha, I love this session.)

Google has overstepped its bounds. Google’s mission statement is not to tell you how to build your Web site. It’s not to tell you how to buy or sell ads. It’s not to tell you how to run your business.

Michael is finished and pretty much gets a standing ovation.

Todd Malicoat is up next to give 7 reasons why he is a link libertarian.

1. Semantics: “Paid” is ambiguous. Every link has a relative value and cost.
2. Incentive – blame the algorithm: Google put PR in the toolbar and get site owners a reason to do it. Top rankings are worth money. The algorithm encourages linking
3. Economics: The indifference principle. Efficient market hypothesis. Eventually people will become sick of paying for links and they’ll stop.
4. Transparency and Relevancy: Advertising has never been fully transparent. As a consumer, he likes it. As a marketer, he loves it. As an SEO, it’s not his responsibility. Paid links help with traffic. That’s all he knows and cares about.
5. Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt Vs. Transparency
6. Competition is Good: It advances the Web.
7. There IS such a thing as search engines. We can’t design our sites like there are no search engines because there are search engines. If there weren’t search engines, we wouldn’t have to use nofollow to begin with.

Risks: The invisible nofollow (you think you’re getting PR that you’re not), may incur manual review, may incur penalty.

Rewards: higher traffic, rankings and sales.

Why Todd won’t report paid links:

• My competitors have taught me a whole lot with paid linking
• I doubt much would get done
• I buy links too and it’s okay.

Todd Friesen is next. He says he thinks there’s much more of a middle ground that what is being presented. Obviously, Google has to say it’s bad. And the examples everyone is showing are really egregious. He shows the gambling and casino sites.

Are you going to buy 10 thousand off-topic links? Or are you going to go out and actually researching it? Todd views it as two separate things. You have to go out there and do what you need to do in order to compete in your vertical. You have to be able to compete and sometimes if you follow the rules you can’t do that.

If you’re going to get into link buying, you have to go into it with your eyes open. In the worst case scenario of link buying, you’re flushing your money down the toilet. Google cannot ever come out in good conscience and ban you from buying paid links because they can’t prove it. Only the buyer and the seller know for sure.

If you’re going to do it, be careful. You have to stay in your space and follow the rules governing your vertical.

Greg Boser is next. He admits to sometimes driving in the carpool lane when he’s late because the value of getting to the meeting on time outweighs the ticket.

Greg says if you want to clean up the Web, stop polluting the Web with stupid videos like the RentVine video we just saw. That’s the stuff polluting the Web, not paying for a link on a relevant site.

Site owners should be held accountable for making good editorial decisions. He talks about the Yahoo Directory and how they take your money to “evaluate” your site to see if it’s worthy enough to add to their directory. Is that not a paid link?

He talks about the rumors that Danny’s old blogroll on SEW didn’t pass PR and how Greg thinks that’s basically crap. We trust Danny to select good sites. Those links should have counted. Google should have nothing to do with your personal business. Stop rewarding anchor text the way that you do and it will go away on its own.

Last but not least is Andy Baio. He’s the lamb to the slaughter. Or something.

He agrees with Greg and the two Todds. If you’re reviewing a site and there is editorial judgment than he doesn’t think those are the links that people are worried about. That’s not polluting the Web.

Andy says he has no commercial interest in this issue and he’s here to speak on the behalf of everyday users. Everyone wants the Web to be valuable and easy to use. The only reason he agreed to the panel was because he felt so strongly about the issues. He says that, in many cases, buying links is not acceptable and it should be looked at with the same disdain as other spammy tactics.

Ask yourself, are you making the Web better or are you making it worse? Andy says he has a background in journalism and in journalism school, they teach you the value of being objective.

By buying paid links, you’re trying to trick search engines and alter the results users get when they search for things.

And then when the links finally are detected, they get purged from the index, and people are really upset. Google is not purging these sites because they hate competition to their own ad products. They’re doing it because the sites that are being advertised are not as good. And in extremely competitive categories, they’re not doing enough to beat out their current competition in the SERPs. If the company was better than its competitors, it wouldn’t need paid links to rank higher.

Andy says that we’re currently at the stage where paid links still work. But over time that will backfire. You don’t want to be on that side. Don’t buy links; it will hurt your reputation.

He talks about popups and how they were a novelty back in the day. And the more they got popular, the more it impacted the quality of life online. That’s where we are right now. Paid links seem innocuous. Until everyone understands how it impacts them online, it will still be seen as legitimate, instead of one step away from Viagra ads.

Matt’s rebuttal: He thinks most people understand Google’s response. He compares it to guestbook links. If you want a long term success in search you have to look at the white hat ways to get those editorial types of links.

Greg: To put buying links in the same category as push button marketing is such a skewing of the argument. The idea that I find a blog that matches my demographic and pay to link there, that is so not comment spam. To frame it in that argument is absurd. The other argument that gets thrown out is that it will hurt your brand. How many people changed their impression of BMW when they got caught for spamming? Are we all driving Mercedes now?

It’s not search marketers’ problem that there are flaws in the engine’s index. The big brands get special treatment and are able to survive because Google can’t not bring up Wordpress.com if someone does a search for it. However, the little guys get blasted from the engine and are never heard from again. That’s not right.

Greg says he’s all about playing by the rules but he’s not about instilling fear. At some point you just have to roll up your sleeves and compete and that’s the reality of it.

And on that note, bid farewell to day two of SES San Jose.

Author:  Lisa Barone is a Sr. Writer with Bruce Clay Inc.

Studies show that online shoppers conduct more than half a dozen searches before making a purchase. That means a shopper may visit your site once, twice, or even six times using various search terms before deciding what (and where) they want to buy. If you’re the type of web site that sells a product stocked on dozens or even thousands of other sites, how can you compete? Well, price is a factor, but customer experience plays an important role as well.

I’ve often observed brand loyalty and its impact on the buying decisions we make. For example, if I’m in the mood for fast food, I’ll take Wendy’s over McDonald’s any day. I like Target better than Wal-Mart. My husband prefers Honda to GM and I’m now in love with Born shoes. These things are commodities. I like the product the company produces. I’m brand loyal.

What I never considered until today was the idea that I’m also customer experience loyal.

Yes, it’s about the brand, but with thousands of places to go to buy a particular brand, how do I decide which location gets my money? The customer experience.

Two to three days a week, I take my children to a drop-off child care center where they play for a few hours and eat lunch while I head around the corner to work. There are two Panera Breads (re: free wifi and tasty cinnamon crunch bagels) that are equidistant from the center. For the past two months, I’ve been going to one of them. Today, I needed to run into Target, so I’m working from the other one.

I won’t be coming back here.

At “my” Panera Bread, they know me by name. On my second visit, Erin was taking my order and observed that I’d been there “for hours” that past Tuesday. I told her I drop my kids off at day care and come over with my laptop to work for a few hours. She got my bagel for me and I went on my way. The next visit, we chatted again as she asked me if I was working on a paper for school. I told her what I did for a living and she commented that it sounded interesting. Over the course of the next two months, Erin and Stacy continued to make conversation with me whenever I was placing an order. They even noticed when I came in on a Friday instead of my usual Tuesday and Thursday and when I ordered something other than my usual.

When I stopped by on Wednesday with a friend to pick up an order to go, they commented on how great it was that I was taking a break and wanted to know about where we were headed to shop. Two workers at a chain store that I thought had secured my loyalty to the Panera Bread brand.

Then I found myself walking into “the other” Panera Bread this morning. My first thought was how much nicer the interior of this restaurant was. There are more lounge chairs, more plugs and more little nooks for settling into with my laptop. “Why haven’t I been coming to this Panera?” I asked myself.

Then I went to place my order. I was the third person in line and a cashier opened up a new register and said “I can take the next person over here.” The first person in my line was getting her order, so I stepped over to the new register figuring the second person in line was only a few seconds away from ordering.

“SHE was the next person,” the cashier said to me, nodding her head at the other woman. I paused for a moment before the cashier realized that “SHE” was already placing her order. “Oh,” she said.

I stepped up and ordered my usual toasted cinnamon crunch bagel. I got my order (no conversation) and headed back to my seat. It was only when I’d taken the time to spread my cream cheese and take my first bite that I realized she hadn’t toasted my bagel.

“I miss MY Panera Bread,” I thought.

That’s when it hit me. Sure, it was about the brand to an extent, but it was REALLY about the customer experience. It wasn’t so much Panera Bread that drew me in twice a week as it was the feeling I got from going there. Stacy and Erin would never forget to toast my bagel, and they’d always at least ask me how my day was.

Same exact product, same exact price, two different locations and one had just guaranteed they would get all of my future business.

Have you ever stopped to think about how the customer experience on your web site might be impacting your business? Does your shopping cart have stumbling blocks that your competitors have removed? Do your sales copy focus more on your customer and less on how wonderful your business is? Do you make it easy to find things like shipping information and your return policy?

You may have a solid search engine optimization plan in place. You may rank in the top three for every phrase you target. But knowing that visitors will conduct a number of searches before making their purchase, are you confident your store will impress them enough that they’ll return?

Author:  Jennifer Laycock is the Editor of Search Engine Guide, an educational web site aimed at translating the search marketing world into something that small business owners can understand. Jennifer specializes in common sense search engine marketing, viral marketing and customer outreach via social media and blogs.

I am at Search Engine Strategies San Jose; the weather is beautiful, the company great and the discussions so far excellent. The following are point form notes from an interesting seminar that discussed how search can be used to aid in branding instead of just as a direct response sales vehicle. Each point, stat or anecdote is in itself intriguing but overall add up to a helpful overview of how to use search to brand. Please brace yourself, however, this discussion went to many edges of the marketing universe so this post will have gems from many disciplines.

• URLs vs Name Brand: the big advertisements are more often recommending prospects search for their name online rather than provide a URL. This is because a high percentage (sorry can’t remember the #) of prospects cannot remember the URL later but have little problem remembering the brand.
• Cover Your Assets: When advertising offline make certain to buy paid placements for the many potential misspellings from your campaign. This recommendation also includes purchasing the applicable misspellings of the campaign URL for those that use it. If you fail to cover these gaps you can lose a substantial number of potential buyers.
• The Special K Campaign: One of the speakers noted a branding campaign that many of us likely witnessed during the 2006 Christmas/New Years season by Kellogs. The concept of the popular TV commercial was that Special K wanted to help you in your bid to become healthier. The crossover to the Internet occurred when anyone typed in “Special K” into Yahoo (who was a participant in this campaign) they were provided with a co-branded customized search result page that provided targeted routes for users. One such route was to a forum area where users could get help and ask questions about their bid to get healthier. The other was a co-branded tips section where there was plenty of advice on snack eating, associated diets, food myths, etc.

  So what does this branding campaign demonstrate? Special K took an approach that is now the spirit of social marketing; they were not directly asking people to buy Special K but they were building credibility for their brand by partnering with their prospects in their bid to get healthier. Brilliant!

• A Funny Bit About Contextual: I have never been a big fan of contextual advertising so when the search agency representatives on the panel were asked how they felt contextual worked into their marketing plans I perked up. What I heard made me grin ear to ear… the panelists seemed a bit perplexed for a moment and then in their own turn essentially said contextual advertising was only considered with any money that was left in a campaign. In other words…. forget about it unless you have some pennies to spare and you want to really blanket the world.
• How will the growth of universal search affect paid search marketing?: I was surprised by the answer to this question. Essentially the agency panelists agreed that universal search could be bad for paid advertising. The reason they cited was the more accurate organic search becomes the less likely it is that searchers will act on paid advertisements. I was surprised more by their candor than anything. In my opinion they are entirely correct which is why I firmly believe that organic search engine optimization is a key component to every online marketing campaign.
• Yahoo Universal Search: Yahoo representative Kelly Graziadei noted that Yahoo is currently testing various forms of universal search within its results. One such example can be seen by searching for “Transformers”. In this instance Yahoo has decided to keep the top 10 organic rankings intact but they have preceded them with a graphic enticing viewers to check out the movie trailer to the popular movie or see reviews and find show times in their zip code.
• Local Better than International: Scott Linzer, Director of Search Marketing at Universal McCann loosely noted that the campaigns which made the more time consuming foray into creating locally targeted campaigns experienced a better bang for their advertising dollar in contrast to the more common national approach.
• PPC and Organic are a Logical Pairing: both of the agency advocates noted that even after achieving a #1 ranking for a specific term there are direct benefits to continuing with a paid campaign for the very same term. To back this up they stressed the benefit of multiple locations for branding but they made an additional point that I thought very logical: the content within paid advertisements are easier to control and to revise to improve clickthroughs than organic rankings currently are.
• What is a Reasonable Conversion Percentage?: I asked Scott Linzer this question and his response was that 2 percent was a reasonable conversion expectation for a paid campaign. Any lower than 2 percent requires serious scrutiny and continued testing. Of course, I expect no one ever stops testing. I should note that the company Scott works for, Universal McCann, handles a great deal of Microsoft’s paid advertising so I was happy to get his opinion on this question.

There you are ladies and gentlemen. I will have more to come on Wednesday. For now I am signing off and preparing for the next day of fun.

Author:  Ross Dunn is the founder and CEO of StepForth Web Marketing.

My favorite Brit, Mike Grehan, is moderating the One Billion Searchers panel with speakers Stephen Noton (Adverted Internet Advertising Agency) and Bill Hunt (Global Strategies International).

Mike starts things off saying that search is in China. It’s an interesting place because it’s one of the few places where Google isn’t the leader. It’s actually, “Google, who?” China has its own search engine and you can’t overtake the country overnight.

Up first is Stephan Noton to talk about understanding users in China.

Searchers in China are very different than users in the States or elsewhere. Twelve of the top 100 China Web sites include numbers. Why? Because there are 13,500 Chinese characters. That means if you were designing a keyboard to have one key per character there would be more than 13,000 keys! Even I don’t want to type on that. Stephan says this is why so many businesses have adopted the number platform. Sounds smart to me,

Stephan shows the audience the (really, really long) Google ad that was issued when Google officially changed its name launched out there. If you want to know what it felt like, stare at the wall for 10 minutes.

The home page for Google China is very different from the one here in the United State in that as soon as you start typing the search box drops down to offer a guided search (search suggestion). Again, this goes back to the fact that there are so many characters. It helps users to find information a lot quicker.

Two products Google is currently testing are:

Popular Searches: Breaks down popular searches by category, allowing users to click to navigate to the search results page. Instead of having to type in [this week’s biggest music performers], Popular Searches would just display “Justin Timberlink”. Yes, Stephan really did call him Justim Timberlink. Heh.

Website Directory: This is a list of Web sites based on categories and services. It’s algorithmic based, which means it isn’t just a static list.

Stephan talks about Tom.com, which is one of the top 10 Web sites in China. It has tons and tons of links on the page without a search box above the fold. They know users are coming here as a destination site, not to search.

Stephan identifies Jianfei Zhu (who is in the audience) as the Matt Cutts of China. He monitors all Chinese./Japanese/Korean algorithms for spam. He has a blog at gooblechinawebmaster.com. It’s in Chinese but you can use Google Translate or another service to translate it. Hmm, might be worth it.

Since they use guided search in China, it makes search engine optimization a little easier because search marketers know off the bat what queries searchers are using Also you can use Google China’s Popular Searches function.

He says that the long tail China doesn’t really exist because users don’t do as many searches as we do. They rely more on the guided search.

Next up is Bill Hunt

China is one of these interesting things, says Bill. It’s definitely a market that’s growing like crazy. He’s a little surprised there aren’t more people in this session (me too, actually. There are only like 25-30 people here!).

China is paying attention to search. If you go to a conference the entire first row is bloggers. Yeah, what’s your point, Bill?

Bill lists a bunch of the issues he’s faced in China

• It is tough and also an advantage to being a foreigner in China. When you come in to speak, if you have any kind of credentials you’re treated like a rock star. Apparently this applies to known bloggers, as well. Sweet! Being a foreigner you can get away with not knowing the customs, but that ends quickly.
• Budgets are small from local companies.
• Can’t make changes to the site due to WW restrictions.
• Some large (international) companies in China are more sophisticated than their (US) corporate HQ.
• Clients are very particular about their contacts in your company.
• Allowing the client and interactive agency to save face. Things are very much relationship based.

Relationships are everything. They are absolutely critical to success. You have to be introduced to the right people at the right places. Many Westerners underestimate this. It’s about who you know and how well you know them. Who do you work with?

Your employees will make or break a deal in the long run. Most of the advertising out there is branding. It’s not about trying to convert. If you do decide to tap into the Chinese marketing, make sure you’re willing to be flexible and do things their way. Don’t go to dinner and ask the host not to bring anything out with a head still on it. Hee!

The search marketing community in China is growing vapidly, as indicated by the doubling of search conference attendees. Bill has seen a 10x increase in requests for China projects.

Sophistication of Adoption: Blending between scams and more advanced than USA. Bigger companies are in many cases more advanced than their US HQs.

Demand for Information: Traffic to search blogs increasingly significantly
Increase in Chinese centric blogs and content. 1000+ companies offering search services. About 10 to 15 agencies really stand out.

Trends:

• Many agencies offer PPC as search engine optimization.
• SEO is simply Meta tags optimization or black hat.
• PPC is 2 to 3 steps from actual buyers.
• Integrating more advanced techniques.
• Social media optimization is being announced.
• Deep and broad partnerships.

Recommendations for marketers:

• Check the credentials for the people you’re meeting.
• Confirm they are doing the work and they’re not outsourcing them.
• Establish goals and document them in contracts.
• Do periodic checks of the quality of the ads and the effectiveness of campaigns.

Agencies should pick their teams effectively. Offer incentives for employees to maintain loyalty. Build your relationships with the engines and organizations like SEMPO. Pick partners well and do a lot of research on their capabilities and ad networks.

Top Online Activities in China include getting news (93 percent), listening to and downloading music (85 percent), playing online games (84 percent), and using email (69 percent).

Most users are still accessing the Internet via desktops (96 percent), though accessing via mobile is becoming trendy at 27 percent. The growth in mobile search is due to interest in Internet and availability of 3G handsets and connectivity.

Key Observations for Baidu:

• It’s the most popular search engine for lifestyle searches, not for business. Google trumps Baidu in business searches.
• Baidu’s results are overwhelmingly influenced by paid advertising campaigns.
• Baidu has its greatest reach with young lifestyle centric searchers.
• CPM advertising is most popular with Baidu.

What does this mean to the world? New travel opportunities for Chinese have resulted in significant to country information sites. There are a lot of opportunities to market to the Chinese if you do it on their terms and comfort level. Access to information about Chinese companies will be easier to locate. Access to information about China and Olympics.

The key to succeeding in China is relationships, patience, diligence and an open mind.

During the question and answer segment, one of the attendees asked what kinds of things are Chinese users buying online. The truth is most people in China still don’t trust the Internet. eCommerce is still very much in infancy. Online marketing is mostly for branding because people still don’t trust the Internet. Something to keep in mind.

Author:  Lisa Barone is a Sr. Writer at Bruce Clay Inc.

It´s true that Danny Sullivan is indirectly responsible for the formation of SEMpdx (Portland´s SEM Organization). At the 2006 SES Seattle Conference, in a conversation with Anvil Media´s Kent Lewis, Danny inadvertently (for he´s too nice a guy to do something like  this deliberately) slighted our Rose City. When Kent relayed Danny´s comments to Scott Orth, the desire to form a local SEM organization that would be the envy of much bigger marketplaces was born. One year later, I can state unequivocally that being one of the founding board members has been an extremely valuable, enriching experience.

The purpose of my writing this article is to attempt to show others the value of what we´ve accomplished and hopefully encourage like-minded SEM´s in other communities to form their own local organizations. I know that SEO Meetups are forming many places and it´s wonderful that folks are getting together to talk shop and drink beers. However, Dallas / Fort Worth, New York, and New England are the only regions that I know about that seem to be doing what we´re doing in Portland (and if I´ve slighted your organization, it´s due only to my ignorance).

So, why are the benefits of such groups?

*  Exchange of ideas. SES Seattle 2006 was the first time I ever had an in-person conversation with another SEO (and I had been doing SEO since 2000). An SEO who doesn´t go to conferences has not likely met many (if any) fellow professionals. It´s really nice to hang out with people with whom you can openly share your work experiences and who understand what the heck you are talking about.

*  Business Referrals. Not everybody is an expert in all facets of SEM. Many SEMpdx members have more clients than bandwidth. It´s nice to be able to refer out potential clients to trusted sources.

*  Competitors Can Be Friends. All the original SEMpdx board members were with difference agencies at the time our organization was formed (though two of us are now corporate). Competing with each other for business is a little less onerous when you have strong relationships with your competition (and when they can also be a referral source for you).

*  Educating Our Community. Each board member knows that once our Portland Business Community sees the value of search engine marketing, they will be more likely to invest in the search process. To further this aim, SEMpdx hosts a series of monthly events along with our annual day-long Searchfest where business people interested in learning more about search can learn from the best minds in our industry.

*  Recruiting New Search Professionals. Our members who run multi-person agencies have to turn business away because they can not find enough qualified people to hire. There is an extraordinary lack of search personnel. We are using our organization as a magnet to attract potential employees (and any Portland people who are looking for search careers really should start hanging out with us).

*  Giving Back To Our Community. Each year, we designate a local non-profit to get a percentage of our revenues, plus we collectively offer our professional services gratis to that charity.

*  Increased Individual Visibility. Because our organization has become highly visible, each Board Member has become much more visible in the Portland business community, as well as in the global search community.

So, it´s great first step to organize and attend a local SEO meetup…however, the benefits of forming a full-fledged local organization can personally and professionally profitable for all involved.
Todd Mintz is the Director of Internet Marketing & Information Systems for S.R. Clarke Inc., a Real Estate Development and Residential / Commercial Construction Executive Search / Recruiting Firm headquartered in Fairfax, VA with offices nationwide. He is also a Director & Founding Member of SEMpdx

Introduction

I must have read hundreds of articles telling me how to get better rankings in Google. Some of this advice was very good and some was not. Here you will find 10 truths about getting better rankings in Google that I personally have found to be true after years of research. So let’s cut through the fat and get to the lean meat of the subject.
1. The Quick fix

First the bad news, unfortunately there are no quick fixes in creating higher rankings in Google. You have to have a lot of patience in the search engine optimisation game. It will take months for your tiresome efforts to come to fruition. That’s why it’s important to get things right from the start and plan out your strategy.
2. Keywords

Keywords are the most important part of search engine optimisation. You must do your keyword research before starting your website if you can, as this will form the basis of all your search engine optimisation.
There is no point going for broad keywords for example “ website design” as there is too much competition for those keywords and you will find vey difficult if not impossible to reach the top spot in Google. You are much better using long tail niche keywords. They will have a smaller search volume, but it will be easier to obtain top position. People are more likely to find what they are looking for with long tail keywords, for example if someone needs a website they may type into Google “ web design” and visit a few websites. They may then discover they also need hosting and a domain name. They will then do another search for “website design hosting and domain name services” for example, and this may be your niche keyword or key phrase.
How do you find keywords that people are searching for? Well a good free tool can be found at SeoBook.com or if you want something more professional you can use Wordtracker an excellent service for finding niche keywords. You should try and get at least 10 keyword phrases.
Once you have found your keywords do a search with them on Google. First of all look at how many results there are. If it’s in its millions them maybe your keywords are not that good and would be too competitive.
If you can find keywords with results at about 50,000 then you could be onto a winner. You should also check out your competition. Click on the top result for your keyword in the SERPS (search engine results pages) and check out their pagerank. This will give you a rough idea of what you need to achieve to get top placement. Also you should check to see how many links they have pointing to their website as this will also give you a rough idea of how many links you will need to get to the top position. To do this in the search box type link: www.thedomain.com and you will get a list of websites that link to that domain but it’s a good idea to do this in the Yahoo search engine as they give a more extensive list of back links. Google will only show you a percentage of their links, usually of pagerank 3 or higher.
Remember these are only rough estimates as every website is different and less, more relevant links will achieve better results.
3. Title Tag

Google sees the title tag as the most important and relevant part of the webpage it retrieves. This is one of the few things you have any control over in Google’s search results. The title tag is the underlined header for your result in the SERPS, it also appears at top of your browser window. Keep this descriptive and readable, but at the same time include your newly found niche keywords. Google will also highlight the keywords in your title that where included in the search query.
4. Description tag

The description tag is the description of the webpage, which resides under the title tag in the results. Again use your keywords in here, maybe some of the lesser ones you discovered. This is the only other part of the results you have any control over. Google will also highlight the keywords in here that match the search query. Again remember to keep it descriptive and readable.
5. Domain names

If you can, try and include your main keywords in your domain name, as Google will highlight them when they match the search query. This can give your ranking a little boost as this will show that your website is relevant to the search query.
6. Content

Content is very important. If you have ever changing fresh unique content on your website relating to your topic Google will love you for it and other websites will link to you. In return this will increase your rankings, but you should really be doing this anyway. A website with no changing content is a dead website. Your content should contain your keywords, but don’t spam your content with your keywords. Use them at the start and end of your webpage and sprinkle them in-between. Also use them in your header text and even bold a few as this shows Google that these words bear more importance.
7. Pagerank

Why are people so obsessed with that little green bar on the Google tool bar? Well I’m here to tell you that you can stop obsessing about it right now.

The thing about the pagerank bar is it can be at least 3 months out of date as Google only updates it in roughly a 3-month cycle. Only Google knows your true pagerank, which changes all the time. Google regularly spiders your website and scans for new content and links to show the most relevant content in its results. Therefore pagerank is pretty inaccurate.
The other thing people get confused about is that it’s called pagerank not siterank. What I have determined is that your website will get assigned a pagerank figure and then it will be distributed through your indexed pages, for example if your website gets a figure of 5 then your home page may get a pagerank of 3 and your other pages get a 2 or maybe a 1 and so on. If these other pages also have links to them this will increase their own individual pagerank.
The only advantage of that green bar that I can see is for exchanging links. You can get a rough idea what a websites ranking is and you can decide whether or not to exchange links.
8. Linking

One-way links are better than 2 way links but one-way links can be harder to obtain. Why should someone put your link on their website, what’s in it for them? You can do this by writing articles like this one, and submitting it to article websites, social media websites or on your own blog, but remember to include an author’s bio including some links to your website.
Reciprocal links are easier to come by but in the early stages when you don’t have a good pagerank will be more difficult. Once your pagerank increases you can be more selective of the pagerank you exchange with.
Don’t forget about the guys starting out when your green bar starts to increase. If they have a website with good quality content then you should consider linking with them. Remember we all need to start somewhere and page rank of 1 is tomorrow’s pagerank 5. Try and keep your link to relevant websites as Google likes this and you will receive quality traffic from these websites for years to come.

Also I have found a great little tool to check if your potential link partners are linking to bad neighbourhoods, which Google may penalise you for linking to. The address is:
http://www.bad-neighborhood.com/text-link-tool.htm
9. The open directory (DMOZ)

You should always submit your website to DMOZ as it can take an age to get listed in here and Google uses these results in its organic results sometimes. I recently wrote an article discussing this topic and some people commented on this and said that they haven’t submitted to DMOZ and their rankings are fine. This may be true but one thing you should remember is that lots of directory websites use DMOZ results, which in turn will get you more one-way links
10. Blogs

Blogs are loved by Google as they have lots of text and are constantly getting updated, so start your own blog on your website. Include articles, stories and any thing that’s related to your website. If you give people something of interest they will come back for more and link to you.

That’s all for now, take care and good luck!

And remember you only get out of something what you put in to it.

Author:  Kevin Gallagher is the managing director of Umbrella a custom website design company in the Scottish Borders providing small business website design , website builder software and affordable company SEO services

Raise your hand if you have a website for your small business. Now keep it raised if it is generating a significant volume of prospects or sales. Not holding your hand up anymore? You are not alone.

Just a few years ago, small companies flocked to the web in droves, rushing to post their first website, anxious at the prospect of low-cost instant exposure. The web was going to be the great equalizer, putting small business on par with the big brand names, dangling the promise of visitors flocking to a company’s site to purchase its wares or partake in its services. Sound familiar? Unfortunately, for most small businesses and organizations, the promise fell short and company sales did not skyrocket from an unending march of site visitors.

So, what happened? For one, the web quickly became ultra competitive. Millions of sites sprang up in every busi