SEO

SMX East: Search Engine Expo, First Impressions

September 14, 2011 by basilpuglisi@aol.com Leave a Comment

DBMEi was granted Press Access to the SMX East taking place in NYC this week. While we will follow up with a summary of the event, we wanted to share some first impressions.

If you have not been here yet, make time! With one day left on September 15, 2011 at the Jacob Javits Center we hope this post find you in time to get into the event and see some great vendors and try to access an event.

The event is very well organized and the speakers are prepared to share data and facts! This has been one of the biggest critiquesfacing many conferences, most have speakers that participate seem to be self or company promoting with little if any actionable information to share. One of the other concerns, often expressed by people like us here at DBMEi, “where is your data, your sources” because sometimes we wonder if they are just pulling this stuff from the sky…. “where is the credibility”. The SMX East has had an impressive impact quick and early.

As you can see in the photos I have attached the speakers are sharing their actual trade practices, unlike many others events the SMX seems to have set a standard where the goal is to make sure each presenter has something tangible and actionable. The presentations are supported by a ton of quantitative data that the presenters are using to show, not tell the attendees what they are doing and why.

So far the SMX East has been an event worth attending, I have been very excited to see speakers talking about the process by which they take action and sharing the quantitative data to support their processes and theories.

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Digital Brand Experience: Google shares it’s thoughts on Brand

July 29, 2011 by basilpuglisi@aol.com Leave a Comment

Digital Brand Marketing is about taking traditional concepts and rethinking how those practices can be streamlined and transformed into digital practices. I have repeatedly published on how so many businesses have taken the extreme approach to digital and social marketing. This has resulted in lost opportunities and negative impact on their brand.

If you do not claim your brand, someone else will!

Social Media is but a tool or advancement in what people have done throughout all time, if your product is wonderful people talk, if your product is terrible people talk. The big change is how they talk, and how many people they can reach.

In traditional marketing it was found that November, December, July and August are the big word of mouth months. These are the times of year that people congregated the most for Holidays and/or Vacations. This is when word of mouth could really be capitalized on. Did you see what I bought, where we went, the quality of work the installer did, the product I would never buy again.

As Erik Qualman pointed out, “word of mouth” is now “world of mouth”. Social Media is about having the ability to interact at any given moment and beyond the limitations of physical presence. Social Media thoughts, comments, reviews, posts, blogs, etc are almost all sustainable. The comment does not go away like a traditional conversation, the review, thought or post continues on to reach others, shared and searchable forever!

This has created three major issues in modern marketing.

The Company is not participating or facilitating their “brand”. Others are welcome to lay claim to it and control the information about it.
The Company rushed to execute and participate and did not consider the “brand” experience. How they facilitate and deliver a consistent experience across the different digital medias was lost. The worst continue to rush along making half measures to recover sections or parts of campaigns and services instead of rethinking the “brand” experience.
The Company has not learned how to use free resources to respond to the market. By not participating in Social Media the company cannot address issues and opportunities in real time. Surveys, Customer Complaint numbers are traditional, websites are 1.0, social media is engaging and seeking out the customers in their space. If you don’t seize information for your benefit, perhaps your competitor will!

An Anonymous Case Study for point 2:

A company decides that they wish to use twitter, they know its popular for news and marketing. The company creates accounts for 800 locations. The first mistake is made when they leave a default image in the service. A few months later they start to fill the profile image with the company logo. As a young marketing assistant learns about the personal interaction that twitter thrives from, the company starts to take “brand” accounts @GeoCompany and tie the individual name and a personal photo to the profile image. At this point the @GeoCompany John Doe has a picture of just a head shot with news updating from the company site. The profile area talks about the company and links to the company’s local site.

At each stage the half measure reviews have cost the company brand awareness. Something as simple as taking the time to think out the strategy would have saved the company’s social image as their claim to be social has struggled from day one. To date this company still has personal photos without proper branding on them. If the company takes the time to rethink the brand experience, they might decide to use something like this. @MorichesNews John Doe, with a Picture of John Doe accompanied by the Moriches News Logo in the corner or part of the frame, perhaps the background of the headshot. Provide a profile statement that looked like “John Doe is a reporter for Moriches News, a local source for issues and events. MorichesNews.com. An additional option, they could go one step further and develop a brand background to upload to the twitter accounts so that each twitter account looks consistent.

If you avoid your digital brand, or don’t invest quality time into the digital brand then you’re hindering your success. If you’re not listening to digital media you will not be able to learn about product opportunities in real time.

Here are two important videos from Google that talk about brand.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q71uXKEBXrw&feature=player_embedded]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJuAvrHd3DU]

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Google Throws Down the Gauntlet at Facebook in Social Network Struggle

June 29, 2011 by basilpuglisi@aol.com Leave a Comment

Google’s last two shots at storming the social networks, Google Buzz and Google Wave, met an early, and not entirely unexpected, demise. However, +1 may contain a few vital elements that make it far less likely to go unnoticed.

Custom Filtering

Being able to filter your contacts into groups and determine who can and cannot see your specific +1 preferences provides users with a bit more privacy than a Facebook ‘Like’ since Facebook currently only offers very basic privacy options, Friends or Everyone.

Huddles and Hangouts

Group instant messaging and multi-users video conferencing could make Google quite the competitor in more than just the social network industry. Users who have long bemoaned some of Skype’s capabilities, or lack of, may find themselves fans of Google Hangouts soon. Huddle can also be used on mobile devices via an app for the Android platform.

Google +1 Limited

The current version of the Google +1 system has only been released to a limited number of users but Google reps have stated that it hopes to make the entire scale of social network options available to the millions of consumers who use many of their other features every day.

Google denies that plus is a competitor with Facebook and emphasizes in so many words that they are not ‘out to get’ Zuckerberg’s social network, but rather focusing on what their users need to ease any element of their digital requirements, one of which has definitely become social networking.

The Pros and Cons of Article Base Sites

June 16, 2011 by basilpuglisi@aol.com Leave a Comment

The Pros and Cons of Article Base Sites

Although many small business and subsequently website owners may have their content creation options well in hand, others can struggle when it comes to supplying their websites or blogs with fresh topics and themes. Though the concept of article bases are far from new, they are certainly increasing in popularity as small businesses spring up all over the net daily.

How Can an Article Base Benefit a Small Business?

If you asked most website owners if they would like free content for their sites or blogs, you would be likely to get an odd look, a sly smile, and questioned on what kind of tricks you have up your sleeve. However, article bases really are a cut-and-dried option in many aspects.

Users can sign up to most article base sites for no cost
Small businesses owners can browse topics, read over articles, and choose those they enjoy for their own sites
Most sites have no limit on how many articles or blogs a user can choose to utilize from their available content

Article base sites sound pretty lucrative for a business owner so far, but what are the direct benefits for a company’s bottom line and their web presence or brand awareness?

Article Base Pros

Money that would be used to pay for content can be used in another needy facet of a small businesses marketing campaign
Business owners who create their own content can save their valuable time by using free content from article base sites
Browsing article sites can give a business owner ideas about new aspects or elements of their business that may attract the general public
Business owners may gain more insight as to what they can expect when and if they do pay for their content in the future
Using article base sites may help a small business website owner to find a content creation employee at an affordable price

With all of those pros, exactly why isn’t every business owner on the net clamoring to get the best articles from base sites daily? It may be due to a few of the important cons that can come with the usage of them.

Article Base Cons

Many business owners forego the usage of article bases for a few reasons.

Proper Crediting

Most often articles on article bases will come with either an excerpt at the bottom of the article, or even a patch of HTML code to paste under the content once it is placed on the businesses site. This is part of the give and take element that article bases promote. Web site owners get free content, content creators receive free exposure and even great back links to their own sites in their credited excerpt.

Having citations or credits at the bottom of content fairly eliminates it as a website content option and secludes it fairly well to the realm of blogs.

Conflict of Interests

Many of those who supply free content to article aggregate sites are doing so in effort to promote their own small businesses. So while it may not be immensely harmful to your profitability if a shoe store in California is linked to your Maine-based offline business, a user who runs his marketing business online, will not benefit, and indeed may suffer if they use article base content that leads to another marketing specialists website.

Stale, Outdated, and Copied

It may be in the eye of the beholder (and Google) whether or not an article is worth using if it has been used elsewhere , but commonly it is bad practice to use content that is not 100% original. This rule can be ignored, but only in the case of truly spectacular, highly-viewed content. Case-in-point, if you find an article on an article base that does not make you want to do a little dance, pump your fists in the air, and share with all of your friends, chances are, it will not give Google the warm fuzzies either. No one wants the cold shoulder from the Big G.

So Who Is Using Article Bases, and How?

Many business do use article base content, however, using them under the notion that even copied or stale content is better than no content is the absolute polar opposite of correct. Your site will fare much better with one of those fist pumping, celebratory articles than thirty overused, stale, and wildly credited ones.

Fortunately, there has been one glaringly large benefit for many users. Guest blogging is widely recognized, utilized, and has proven a successful option in content management, so using article base content in this manner may be the perfect option for a few reasons.

High-quality content that isn’t copied to a long list of other sites, but a short list of high-ranking ones, can be beneficial to the blog by adding outgoing links and regular content for your viewers.
Adding them to a running blog, instead of static web content, can help to avoid the no-no’s that can cause the Googlebot to flag your site negatively.
Using the content of the content creator who is intent on promoting themselves, their product or services, or other opportunities will likely cause the content to be shared on the authors website and social medias as well. This can in essence be a form of free social media marketing, although, not without the previously mentioned risk of diverting your customers to someone else’s business if you are not careful about the aspects of the author content you choose.

Article bases do have their pros and cons, but can always be at least minutely beneficial as long as the website owner uses caution and strategic planning when choosing which authors, and their related links, will be of benefit, or at least not detrimental to your own brand awareness.

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Small Business Solutions: Sponsored Reviews

May 5, 2011 by basilpuglisi@aol.com Leave a Comment

Statistic shows that the first page on Google search results brings about 40% click through rate. The sponsored links bring about 50% of the remaining clicks. It is said that most people will change their keyword search rather than go to the second page of the search results.

So, it is very important to try and rank on the first page of Google. One of the methods used to get a higher ranking is the SEO, having articles and posts posted on the internet that contain the keywords you are aiming for, to create more links and rank higher.

Since the Social Media has become a major player in influencing the ranking on Google, many have been searching for a way to increase their presence. One of the ways is to be mentioned on blogs and other social media platforms, but you can’t do it all yourself and sometimes help is available in places you haven’t thought about.

One of the newest trends are companies that will connect you with blog owners so you can pay them to write a review about your product or service, and link back to your site.

One such company is Buyblogreviews.Com which “brings advertisers and bloggers together for reviews on products and services”. They offer to connect the business owner with blog owners that specialize in that niche and get reviewed by professionals, semi-professionals and ordinary bloggers. The connection with the bloggers is done through their site and the bloggers bid for the opportunity to review the product. The site charges 30% of the deal.

Another company is Payperpost.com, which is owned by IZEA Innovation. “Think of it like eBay for sponsored blog posts” they say on their website. Advertisers offer opportunities for blog owners to connect with you, write a review and post it in their blog.

PayU2blog.com is yet another company that offers the same service. Theirs in the only site that says positive reviews are not guaranteed.

Socialspark.com offers an array of services, from connecting the advertiser with the blogger, set link the advertiser wants embedded in the post, choose which blog they want it posted on and measure the effectiveness of the campaign. They work with some Fortune 500 companies as GoDaddy.com, Overstock.com, AmericanGreetings.com and will create a whole campaign for the advertiser around the subject he want to enhance.

A new survey conducted by BlogHer and Ketchum.com found that 20% of women who used social media are motivated to try products bloggers wrote about and 53% of them have bought a product based on blog recommendation. The top three typed of products people look for personal recommendations are consumer electronics, computer hardware and software and movies. Almost half of blog readers read blogs to find new trends or ideas.

Is it legal? Yes. Is it Ethical? Yes, as long as the bloggers posts at the top of the article that this is a sponsored post and the opinions of the blogger are 100% his.

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Demand Studios and the Impact from Google’s Algorithm Change

April 30, 2011 by basilpuglisi@aol.com Leave a Comment

There seems to be some serious back-and-forth about the state of Demand Studios since the Google algorithm alteration. Initial impact indicated that they may have lost ground on the search driven traffic of some of their sites. Citing eHow.com as one of the locations where the change may have triggered a down-turn, Demand Studios initial statement indeed, indicated that even they knew that the new algorithm may have relatively lasting impact on their page views.

Demand Relies on SEO

Demand Media does rely heavily on search engine optimization to boost traffic to their content which is created by over 13,000 freelancers worldwide. So Google’s announcement that its change would impact almost 12 percent of search engine queries, was definitely destined to negatively affect Demands current page views by sheer numbers alone.

With sites like eHow being a large part of their company’s content, often ranking high on search engine queries before the change, and afterwards, there can be little doubt that the effect was in fact, a minor one for them. However, falling stock values are also a cause for concern for Demand. Some searches even provide Demand Studios content ranking higher than before the change.

Google Panda

Continued updates, codenamed Panda, have provided a different viewpoint altogether. Just over a week ago Google enacted the Pandora update worldwide. This time stating that two percent of Google queries in the U.S. would be affected.

Sistrix, a site that had previously released the results of impact on content farms after the first update, also released new information on the Panda change and how it has definitely affected the page views of eHow content. Although in general, the second update was not as search engine query altering as the second, or Panda update, it did land on eHow this time, even though it is rumored that it was actually one of the targets of the first update in February 2011.

Demand Demands Acknowledgement

While admitting a slight decline in search engine traffic on eHow sites due to the recent changed, Demand still insists that the Sistrix numbers are way off. Citing a predicted 2/3rds decline in eHow traffic, Demand reps responded that the numbers were greatly so grossly overstated that they must comment.

Demand CEO Richard Rosenblatt shared with MediaMemo that the relationship it shared with Google was a highly valued and mutually generous one.

They stated their relationship with Google made much sense for many reasons.

That they help to fill gaps in Google’s content when other high quality content is not available.
That they are the largest suppliers of YouTube videos.
That they are a huge Google Adsense partner.

Stating that the current losses are projected to cause them to suffer around 10 million dollars in lost revenue, they are assured that with projected sales this year reaching around $311 million, they do not consider it a substantial, nor a 2/3rds percent loss.

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Did Google Panda Change the Playing Field?

April 29, 2011 by basilpuglisi@aol.com Leave a Comment

From time to time, when Google identifies a ‘gaming’ of their search engine results, its engineers open up the algorithms and tweak them, sending shudders in the world of e commerce and Internet advertising. Speculations run rampart until Google launches it to the world.

One such tweak happened lately; in February 2011, Google launched such a change and named it Panda. They called the tweak “A High Quality Sites Algorithms”. It came in reaction to what they call “Content Farms” and the blogosphere immediately filled in the name of one of the biggest player – Demand Media, who was gaining top listings with copied content.

In order to cut on the clutter of results you get from a query, Google is trying to root out the low quality sites either by checking content, enabling users (through a Chrome extension) to block sites from their searches, or by lowering the ranking of copies material. “The net effect is that searchers are more likely to see the sites that wrote the original content rather than a site that scraped or copied the original site’s content.” Said Google’s Matt Cutts.

This changed impacted US sites only until April 11, 2011, when Google rolled this change to all English language queries and made a few changes. Their statistics show the change has impacted 12% of the queries in the United States. Most impacted were Mahalo.com, Wisegeek.com followed by Ezinearticles.com, Hubpages.com, Suite101.com, Superpages.com and spike.com. The gainers were news sources like Reuters.com, LATimes.com, CBSnews.com and information sites like Techcrunch.com, Blogpost.com, Mashable.com and even YouTube.

The new adjustment was meant to take care of a gap in their program that enables a site like eHow.com not only slide down but gain in ranking. Demand Media, the owner of eHow, was immediately impacted.

Some small businesses might have seen a change in their ranking. Google is said to be open to complaints that will be implemented, if found correct.

Online Publisher Association estimated that $1 Billion will be redistributed across the online publishing industry as a result of this change.

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Google is Still Winning – But For How Long?

April 15, 2011 by basilpuglisi@aol.com Leave a Comment

Although Google may still be the top search engine in the U.S., and by a still impressively immense margin, the last six months have shown that Bing, powered by Microsoft, is leading an impressive race in the competition for top search engine status. If this trend continues to increase at its current rate, Bing may very well be a real competitor for leading search engine status by 2012.

Bing Growth

According to recent statistical data, Google received over 64% of searches conducted from within the United States in March of 2011. Searches powered by Bing, which also include Yahoo and Bing.com, were utilized at a rate of 30%.

Even though Google still leads Bing by more than 2 to 1, the 30% mark for Bing is a rather notable one considering that just six months ago, Bing held a rate of U.S. search engine queries at only 23%. Down 10% since August 2010, the same month when Yahoo searches began to be powered by Bing, should these statistics be compounded in their current directions, it could be possible that Bing would beat out Google as the leading search engine sometime in January 2012. Although it doesn’t seem very likely, at current projections, it could be the result of current search engine trends.

Google Growth

While Google’s growth has obviously flattened out in recent months, Bing has continued to rise. However, Google continues to fill up their handy box of tricks with new features such as +1, Google Instant, and their social search, as well as their ability to block unwanted websites.

Search Ad Profitability

With the above statistics in mind it is easy to understand that at this point Bing is still chasing Google in search ad profits. While Google’s search engine advertising profits still massively outweigh Bings, Bing still seems to be on a winning rise in some of the most imperative categories.

Outside of the U.S.

Google remains a dominant tool for search engine queries with a rate that steady for the U.K. at 91%. This rate is even higher in other European countries like Germany, France and Australia.

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Digital Visibility: The Local Search Snapshot

April 8, 2011 by basilpuglisi@aol.com Leave a Comment

As a business owner, you know you must have a presence on the World Wide Web to be considered a legitimate business. There are thousands of digital touch points out there, and knowing how you or your business appears to the world is almost as important as being there in the first place.

If you are serious about your visibility, leaving it to chance and luck is not good enough anymore. Sure, Google will do some of the work, categorizing it, linking it, but there is so much more to the World Wide Web than just Google, as big as it may be.

The first step is to make sure you appear in the right places and appear with the correct information. Some companies on the web will help you do just that.

GetListed.org

GetListed.org, in existence since January 2009, serves as a resource for small business owners to find out how they are listed. Their goal is “to help small businesses claim and enhance their listings at major search engines”. They provide a clear picture of how effectively you are using the free resources available today. You might be able to compare it to your competitors as well.

The company has created a resource center which includes articles and tips about internet visibility. They accumulated listings of many SEO experts in different areas and will direct you to the right people.

In this one place you can check, for free, how you are visible to the world, learn about other places and other listings you might want to appear on, and participate in seminars held from time to time in different cities around the United States to help business owners learn about SEO and search engine ranking, in a face to face manner.

GetListed.org operated only in the US until Jan. 2010 when the company started beta testing in the UK as well.

AmIvisible.org

AmIvisible.org is another company which offers their services for free. By goin g to their website you can find how visible is your service or company to potential customers and compare that information with that of your competitors in your area.

AmIvisible.org covers millions of pages on search engines, yellow pages directories and local searches, and provides analysis of your business’s online visibility.

The service is fairly new and is in beta testing in several US cities. It will expand to the whole nation soon.

UBL.org

Universal Business Listing (UBL) strives to be a central collection and distribution point for all your business information online. A one-stop location for complete and accurate listing information.

UBL.org offers more than the sites mentioned above; it will list your business, monitor your presence, provide visibility reports and enhance your profile. They are not only aggregating information, they are actively doing things to change it for the better.

They have packages from $75 as an essential payment, which includes checking listings and monitoring your presence, to $599 which includes all the rest. They have an annual renewal fee of $59, regardless of the program.

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Google Search goes social with +1

April 1, 2011 by basilpuglisi@aol.com Leave a Comment

While Google may cover around thirteen percent of US display in online advertising marketing, Facebook may garner around twenty-two percent. Not surprisingly, it seems like Google has decided they actually do like the way Facebook allows users to share their interest, recommendations and ideas. So they have now added their own method of ‘liking’ or upvoting favored websites and other content. This method for helping to endorse chosen content and search results gives Googlers just one more way to endorse the products and services they enjoy.

Along with the recent algorithm change, Google execs say this is just one more way that they are heading off the pass between low-quality and irrelevant search engines results to see that their search engine queries cultivate the most useful and helpful websites that pertain to a users search results, and as quickly as possible.

The Google Experiment

Testing out this new method for yourself is incredibly easy. Just make sure you are logged into your Google account and head to their experimental search page. Select Join this Experiment, and it is on. If you are already participating in a Google experiment you will need to select the leave option on the current one to join the +1 experience. Now head to Google search and type in a search query. Once your search results appear, next to the title of the page will be a small, mostly blue edged box with a faint +1. Once clicked, the box will now display as solid blue and a text display just under the title will now show that you publicly +1’d a site.

Now those in your Google network only will also be able to see the sites that you have shown your +1 interest in. Additionally, if your friends have been there before you, and +1’d the same link, this will show up as well. Your Google account profile will also save a list of any site you +1 to your account details. For those who utilize their Google and Gmail accounts regularly, this could be a quite helpful tool for saving any site they may have a particular affinity for.

Pros and Cons of Up-Voting

Although for now, the results of +1’s will only be displayed publicly to those in your network, as well as a select random few public +1 voters, it may also be likely that if results from the experiment are positive, a global public will probably be next in their sights.

It is yet to be seen if having ‘friends in high places’ or highly reputable +1’s will make any difference, but it seems highly likely that if Google Labs does take this experiment to the global public, that having top-notch and highly reputable +1 friends could certainly make a huge difference in a web sites own popularity.

With the internet commerce of all types having such a large crowd of competitors this could certainly prove helpful on the local fronts rather quickly. Search engine queries for local businesses will, of course, display far fewer results then queries on a statewide, national or global scale. With far fewer competitors, favored local businesses will likely be quickly noticeable.

While up-voting may in fact give smaller businesses a shot at more public recognition, it may also leave another slot open for SEO tricksters and black-hat marketers to once again send to the top of the +1 pile those with enough resources and techniques to gain those +’s in perhaps not so organic manners.

Google Goes Social

Although quite an attempt was made at sending Google openly into the social media world with the inception of their Google Buzz system, it has had seemingly little effect or impact in the social media marketing world.

Google does plan to integrate their +1 system with Twitter as well, which will add another huge aspect of socially marketing and bookmarking to a users basic browser search results.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAyUNI3_V2c]

Immediate Impact

Although Google has used social media interactions for years in its search engine displayed results, they seem to have definitely monitored and watched for important signals and statistics to give their regular users the ability to help promote more product-centric marketing.

By 4:00pm yesterday, even though shares had fallen by 2% this year, Google had risen by 11 cents to $581.84 per share on the Nasdaq.

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