Social Networking: NOT A Link Building Strategy

Category Link Building | 2 comments »

I constantly hear about how wonderful social networking is for building links. So much so, many SEOs state it has become their main method. Are you serious? Really? I’m not saying these links are useless, but is it really enough to warrant this type of frenzy? I’m not so sure.

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Defining Social Media

Let’s list off the types of social sites before we get too far because I don’t feel all are created equal:

• Social Bookmarking Sites — Sites like Delicious, Blinklist, and Diigo.
• Content Popularity/Voting Sites — These include places like Sphinn, Digg, Mixx, and Tip’d.
• Sharing Sites/Communities — Facebook and MySpace are prime examples here.
• Hot News Sites — Like Digg, but focuses on news items like Newsvine or Yahoo! Buzz
• Microblogging – Plurk and Twitter, Tumblr, etc.
• Music/Video Sharing — Last.fm, Blip.fm, YouTube, Viddler, and so on.
• Blogs — SEOmoz, Mashable, TechCrunch, etc
• Forums — Huomah Dojo, WebMasterWorld, etc

In short, I define social media sites as any online location that allows users to share and interact with each other while sharing or creating content.

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Why You Shouldn’t Be Using Social Networking Sites For Link Building

To be really blunt, with the exception of properly managed blogs, I find them worthless for many reasons. Time and the return on the investment is the biggest thing. You’ll spend more time playing around submitting a link to all these places than you will gain in link worth. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t encourage this or submit your site yourself if it’s an important post, but it shouldn’t be a main linking method.

Why do I say this? One of the biggest determining factors of link value is the number of links on a page. The more outgoing links there are, the less link juice there is to go around and the weaker each of the links will be overall. In my opinion, this makes highly sought after ‘dofollow’ links irrelevant. After all, if there isn’t much juice to go around, it isn’t going to matter much whether it’s transferred or not. I have the same opinion of directories, article marketing, and mass press release distribution, but that’s a post all on its own.

Authority is another element. Are social sites like this considered to trustworthy and authoritative? Well, anyone can submit links to them, so I can’t see them having any sort of authoritative value. How it reflects on your or your client’s site should also be considered. If you’re spamming every available social network daily with tons of links back to your site, eventually people are going to know your site for that and those social links will lose their marketing value. Besides, these types of links show up so rarely in the SERPs, they aren’t that valuable in that regard anyway.

Lastly, consider the decomposition of the link itself. While I have no way to prove it, it makes sense that these would degrade fairly quickly because there is little content or value there to maintain it. You’d be much better using content or some other method to build links to a website.

Where the Value Of Social Networks Is Really At

I truly believe social media has a huge benefit for many businesses, but it isn’t the link building tool many people seem to think it is. It has marketing value. Social networks help:

• make sales
• build brands
• interact with customers
• improve personal connections
• provide customer service
• expand the site’s reach
• and many more benefits not possible with any other medium.

These sites do generate links, however. It’s just not the immediate link most people associate with social networks. As I mentioned, these sites have more marketing value than actual link value. So, as the link gets seen by more and more people it creates a buzz around the content and encourages others to link to you.

This is where the value is: secondary links. And I am willing to bet these links would have more value than those added to various social media sites and not require the time spent submitting links to tons of sites.

Popularity: 1% [?]

I Bet You’re a Spammer! How To Define Today’s Spam

Category Off Site | 10 comments »

I’ve gotten into a number of interesting conversations lately about what exactly is spam, and interestingly, it depends on who you’re talking to. Well, except when we’re talking about Monty Python, but that’s a whole different subject.

According to Wikipedia

Well, I don’t normally use Wikipedia, but considering it’s made by users, I thought it would be a good start. They say:

“Spam is the abuse of electronic messaging systems (including most broadcast media, digital delivery systems) to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately.”

Hmmm…well, that isn’t exactly accurate is it? NetaOnline defines spam (RTF) as:

“Spam is unsolicited e-mail on the Internet. From the sender’s point-of-view, it’s a form of bulk mail, often to a list culled from subscribers to a Usenet discussion group or obtained by companies that specialize in creating e-mail distribution lists”

Well, they’re not much help are they? I mean, spam has grown to become way more than just email, and what do they mean by unsolicited anyway? I mean, if I search for a term and get a bunch of spam in the results, I *technically* am asking for it. And if I sign up for a newsletter, am I *really* asking for all of them or just some of them? What about the company Christmas message? When I signed up, I didn’t say I want X of newsletters and the company Christmas drivel!

Peak10 says unsolicited means:

“Sent to a person who has not specifically requested to receive communications from the sender and with whom the sender does not have a prior business or personal relationship, or to a person who has previously requested not to receive communications from the sender (ie, has opted out).”

Well, we often interact with new people and businesses all the time, and I’d like to think that’s a good thing.

Spammers are EVERYWHERE!

We all complain about it. We all hate it. We all find it a huge pain in the butt. But, there’s a lot more people out there spamming than you think. This doesn’t mean they all spam in the same manner or using the same tactics, but many of them do it in one way or another. It could be spamming Twitter, dropping links everywhere, hitting the SERPs, or blogs.

So, in short, while it annoys the heck out of everyone, we still use it! One person who works online stated they made more spamming than they did fighting it. That’s definitely telling us something!

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Why Spammers Spam

Plain and simple: It works. People still click on the links, they still buy through it, and it still generates links and keeps sites at the top of the SERPs. Sucks doesn’t it? It’s no industry secret either. Heck, even Matt Cutts and the Spam Team know who sees the spam and who puts it there.

So, my question is this: if it’s working, people are buying through it, and Web peeps are still using it to market their sites, is it really spam?

In all honesty, as much as I hate fighting it off, I think too many of us have become overly familiar with the virtual world around us. Spam bothers us more because we’re dealing with it all day long whereas regular users see it no differently than any other advertisement out there.

Does this mean everyone should spam or that I’m recommending it as a marketing method? Absolutely not. Should we stop fighting it? Don’t be absurd. That would cause pure and utter chaos, but the current situation definitely makes me look at the current web a little differently.

I truly believe that, unless Google and the other SEs change their algos to something that’s content based rather than link based, we’ll continue to see the world of spam thrive and website owners continue to fill their pockets with the rewards.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Link Building Master Class

Category Link Building | 24 comments »

Link building might be a necessary step, but very few of us like doing it. It’s boring. It’s monotonous. It gets aggravating, but I figure the best way to get over it and actually enjoy the work is to concentrate on two things: diversification and creativity.

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Diversification is important for more than just maintaining your sanity too. It stops you from making a huge mistake. Consider, for example, if Google outright ignored links from directories. Would your site’s rankings survive? What if Google said they no longer counted links from article marketing and press releases?

I’m not saying they are or aren’t counting them right now or how much weight these types of links carry. That, my friends, is a debate for a different day. My point is to get you to consider what your link profile looks like and whatsort of audience they’re reaching.

There are several different types of links to consider:

• Generic Link Building – These include the straight link generation with very little to no content involved. Directories and social profiles are a good example.
• Content Link Generation – This type of link building involves mass written content and often involves distribution. Article marketing, press releases, advertorials, blogs, and reviews, for example.
• Social Media Link Building – To be perfectly honest, I see these as being more about traffic than actual links, but I’ll included it here regardless. These involve social bookmarking sites, Twitter, Facebook, and other similar formats.
• Alternative Media Link Generation – This is the creation of videos, podcasts, widgets, and apps, all of which link back to your main website.
• Audience Generated Links – Online quizzes, contests, and link bait all fall into this category. These tactics encourage others to share your content and link back to you for various reasons.
• Content and Media Placement – Instead of buying thousands of dollars worth of links, this type of link building involves a much higher investment into the actual content. This content is then placed on authority sites in an effort to gain permanent, high quality links.
• Link Networking and Feeder Sites – Creating networks of different sites that all link back to your main site.

How you choose to use these methods and what ratios you choose are totally up to you and should depend specifically on your audience. After all, if you’re going to build links, you may as well generate some interest and traffic with it, right?

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Here is a collection of some more excellent hints, tips, and guides for quality link building:

Setting Up, Techniques and Tips

How to Set Up a Link Building Campaign for a Web Site or a Blog

Ask Kalena tells Excel fanatics how to track links using a series of worksheets. While this might not be the best for everyone, I think it gives us a great starting point and the system can be easily manipulated to match your particular tastes and needs.

Ask the Link Builder — SMX East 2009

Again, this content is a bit older, but I think the ideas and tips covered here are worth a read, even if you’ve already seen it. BruceClay also covered this topic, but has a slightly different version than Marketing Pilgrim you might find interesting. (I’m pretty sure there was an ‘Ask the Link Builder’ session at SMX 2010, but didn’t happen to see it online. If it is around somewhere, I’d be more than happy to add the link here, and would be interested to see it.)

Link Building Techniques and Tips

Over on David Naylor’s blog, Paul Carpenter left a great post on link building, but I particularly like it’s focus on quality content (surprise, surprise ). These points aren’t deep secrets of professional link builders, but I think they’re vital for good link building and helping to build your site’s authority. Definitely a huge bonus! (David also has 10 Link Building Tips that are worth checking out while you’re there.)

Link Building With Content Ideas

In this post, Link Spiel’s Debra Mastaler gives a really good example of how to come up with content that should do well in terms of encouraging linking. It also gives some good ideas on how to promote and use that content for link generation. A lot can be taken out of this article for those who are willing to apply the lessons covered here.

Link Building — How To Build Quality Links For Free

This time, it’s the Wordstream Team with some interesting thoughts on link generation. And while I could care less about PageRank, it does a really good job of covering the basics as well as some great links on the topic of PageRank that are worth checking out.

A Big Bunch of Link Building Ideas

The link queen, Debra Mastaler, covered a number of Twitter tools and techniques you’ll be able to incorporate into your existing strategy and help you get the most bang for your buck. (Again, if you’re looking for more info on link building, her blog Link Spiel is definitely worth wandering through. Wiep Knol’s Wiep.net is another fantastic link building blog I find myself returning to rather frequently. My favorites are the ‘Link Building This Month’ posts because he usually finds some I’ve missed.)

Link Bait and Getting the Most Linking Power From Your Content

The Anatomy Of Linkbait

Jordan Kasteler takes a look at the finer points of link bait over at Website Magazine. This has some absolute ‘must’ do’s for good content and the social sphere. If you’re planning any sort of major link baiting strategies, you’ll definitely want to have a look.

21 Tips to Earn Links and Tweets to Your Blog Post

Rand composed a post outlining a bit of his link bait strategy in this SEOmoz post. While I don’t necessarily agree with all of it, nor is that all there is to it, I think it’s a great post for beginners and webmasters who aren’t super familiar with the concept.

Determining the Value Of Links

Link Worth — What’s Yours Worth

Tim Nash tackles the complex world of link worth, including a number of factors he feels determine the amount of power each one has. It will definitely get you thinking about your own link strategy and content placement programs.

A Guide To Qualifying Link Prospects For Relevance, Value, and Potentiality

Garrett French also looked at the value of links when he visited Search Engine Land, but in a slightly different manner. He has a link in this article to another link building worksheet you may find helpful.

Link Builder’s Guide to Historical Ranking Factors

While we’re on the topic of link quality, head over to David Harry’s blog and check out his guide to historical ranking factors. It may just inspire you to improve your linking strategy!

10 Factors That Determine the Value of Inbound Links

David Wallace took a stab at defining the value of various links over at SearchRank. Again, I’m not sure if I agree with everything he covered here, but I definitely think the ideas he brings up here are worth some consideration and thought. (David Snyder’s thoughts on link value can be found here at Search Engine Journal.)

Link Value Factors

Wiep spent some time chatting and questioning a number of the industry’s biggest and brightest on their link building beliefs. You’ll find the download link for the results of that research on the bottom of the page.

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Video Link Building and General Link Building Worksheets

12 ‘DoFollow’ Video Sharing Sites to Distribute Videos and Build Links

Ann Smarty put together a great list of video sharing sites over at Search Engine Journal. And while it was written over a year ago, I find it’s a really convenient page, particularly if you don’t normally focus on videos and video SEO. (By the way, if you’re interested in learning more about video SEO, you’ll want to sneak over to Reel SEO. I found them through Joseph Morin, and I’ve yet to be disappointed.)

Ontolo’s Downloads

These guys have a great collection of tools, worksheets, and research that will make you a much better link builder. This includes their Link Building Outreach Worksheets as well as their Link Qualification Worksheet.

SEO Content Inventory Worksheets — One of my favorite patent geeks, Bill Slawski released an excellent Excel sheet and article on content inventory. I loved it, and I think you will too.

Helpful Link Building Tools

Majestic SEO — Let you gather link data, backlink history, and have a bulk backlink checker, but they also have a neighborhood checker that’s pretty cool.

Raven SEO — The dark boys at Raven have put together a great set of tools that make it easy to watch and manage your website as well as identify adjustments your current campaigns may need. Their collection includes a contact and competitor manager, keyword research and manager, design and quality analyzer, link manager, website directory, content management system and a whole heap of other stuff you’re going to love.

Bad Neighborhood Tool — Created by Michael VanDeMar, it…well…scans your site and flags possible issues.

Linkbait Generator — You give it a subject, and it comes up with link bait titles. Not really sure about this one. I’ve never actually used any of the titles it’s created, but I did find it worked well for coming up with ideas. Something to try if you’re stuck.

Backlink Watch — These guys let you get a good quick look at your backlinks. I like the additional information they provide here. Of course, there is the Back Link Analyzer software from SEOBook as well.

Debra Mastaler and Wiep Knol also created some great lists of link building tools you may find helpful.

There ya go! By the time you get through this list, you’ll be a link building master. What about you? Do you have any favorite links for link building?

Popularity: 1% [?]

Revealed: How Businesses and SEOs Screw Up Local SEO

Category Link Building | 3 comments »

So many SEOs complain a set of local rankings reach a plateau. Or, they can bring in the traffic, but just can’t seem to get it converting at a half decent level. That’s because they often make one very big mistake. Oh, it’s nothing to be upset about and it certainly isn’t done on purpose, but it’s something that can really hold local businesses back if they’re not paying attention.

Are you ready for it? Ok, here it is:

We’re no longer normal. We forget how to think like a user! A real customer!

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We’re Barking Up the Wrong Tree

When I first got a computer after a substantial period without one, the online world had changed from the little chat room/Geocities/Yahoo world I had left a few years prior. The ‘me’ of today would have definitely been laughing at myself of yesteryear for sure.

I didn’t really use Google much, and when I did, I essentially knew nothing beyond how to type in the box and click ’search’. Paid ads and organic results didn’t look any different to me, and I didn’t use any of the fancy-pancy search functions like blog or news search. Most of the time, I found cool stuff by jumping from one site to another through links and ads. I didn’t use RSS, I didn’t use email and I definitely wasn’t using social networks.

It sounds odd, but it still happens way more than you think. My dear loving family, for example, doesn’t really use that ‘Google’ thing. This means, if they can’t type the address, it isn’t shared via email, or they don’t fall onto it through another site, they’ll never find it. They aren’t the exception to the rule either. Large portions of society don’t have or use the Internet daily. Shocking, I know!

Granted, this doesn’t hold true in every instance. If you’re working for a business that sells printers, routers, and other computer accessories, chances are your audience is going to be fairly good with computers and the Internet. If you’re working on a site for a local coffee shop, however, likely not. So, if you’re getting links and citations from directories, social networks, and other more technical means, you might want to reconsider your strategy.

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How To Give Local SEO That Extra Bit of Push

First, recognize that it’s easy to forget exactly how different we are from real people (ha!). I often don’t realize just how much I’ve learned and changed since I got sucked into this business, and I’m willing to bet you’re the same.

Find out how people in the real world are finding sites. Go to an Internet cafe or library and nonchalantly watch the less familiar users. Talk to friends and family about how they discover sites. Have the business owner talk to his customers. And for cripe sakes, use your imagination!

Talk to other local websites about posting some content, going together on some type of deal, and see about getting listed on other local business websites. Don’t be afraid to offer a little space and bandwidth to local charities or events as well. You can toss up a page for them quite easily in exchange for some link love and it reflects well on the business to boot. Connecting with the community has numerous benefits for the local business owner outside of just boosting traffic.

Let’s pretend, shall we?

We’re working on a site for a local bakery and lunch room. We’ve done Yelp and all the regular spots, but we’re needing an extra boost. So, here’s where I’d be looking for links and citations:

• Local hospital — they’re having a fundraiser, we spread the news, they offer up a link
• Grocery store — we drop a piece on planning birthday parties for diabetics
• Party planning store — we talk them into a citation/recommendation
• Tourist information booth — they love having tons of information on the local area, so we send them some! Like helping them put together a free ebook interested visitors can download. Of course links and information for the business will be inside.
• Radio station — we talk to the local biz owner and they agree to play the station in the store in exchange for a great link/ad
• Local Facebook pages
• Hotel /restaurant/lounge — They’ve got a little newsletter that’s going fairly decently, so we’ll help them put it together every month.
• Real customers — Make sure the business owner is promoting its website in store and offline as well as sites such as Yelp, Google Local Listings, and FourSquare. Promoting customer reviews is huge and even helps encourage customers to talk about the business elsewhere.
• Make pages and features local businesses would make use of: an interactive map filled with local info and hot spots, a list of upcoming events , interesting local information and odd stories collected from locals, track deals offered by area businesses. These ideas require you to do some work and give out some links, but others will happily link to them and send people directly to the site.

Many times, you don’t have to do more than just ask for a link or citation and you’ll get one. It’s often a matter of showing the other business owner they can benefit from working together. However, don’t be afraid to offer up a little something either. Being cheap isn’t going to get you anywhere.

What sorts of things do you do to get the most from your local SEO campaigns?

Popularity: 1% [?]

When Viral Content & Link Bait Goes Bad: Walmart

Category Social Media | 5 comments »

Last week, I published a piece on dark side of viral content and link bait, and it certainly seemed to get the conversation going on Twitter and beyond. This week, I thought it’d be good to look at a few examples and learn from a few other’s screw ups. Let’s go to the dark side shall we?

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Walmart and Its Introduction to Social Media

Now, I know we’re talking about link bait and viral content, but the story of Walmart’s experience with its virtual audience wouldn’t be complete (?) without getting a bit of background in here.

(Disclosure: I worked at Walmart for a few years. However, this post is not connected to that in any way. All things considered, I liked it there.)

The Story:

Walmart has been taking the heat for a number of years on various issues surrounding its business practices and the way it treats its work force. In fact, it has turned into a bit of a PR nightmare that just doesn’t seem to go away. So, to combat this, Walmart decided to go straight for the working population to fix it. It decided to use the power of the Internet.

It may not be Walmart’s first attempt at Social Media, but their Facebook page was definitely one that should be included in SM textbooks in the future. You see, instead of using it to launch a complementary marketing strategy or share information, someone at the company thought it would be wise to let people share their stories about the company.

Well, I’d love to show you the results of this little experiment, but Walmart got rid of it pretty quickly. However, I can tell you it had attracted a number of people who were less than happy about several questionable business practices. Can you say ‘whoops’?

Not long before that, Walmart got caught creating a number of blogs filled with fake stories and content. Well, to be fair, they hired the PR firm Edelman to do it. Anyway, this wasn’t just any old content and information on how it’s cleaning up its act. Nope.

One of them, for example, (and this is going to sound familiar to Tim Horton’s fans) followed an imaginary couple as they crossed the country in their RV and ventured from Walmart to Walmart. Others were fake stories by imaginary staff members and other ‘family’ members about all of the wonderful things Walmart had been doing.

The Problem:

Um, they lied, and for a retailer and a company who has worked to make its company part of daily life for the working public (or a part of their family, depending on which way you look at it), this was pure suicide.

In the case of their Facebook page, they failed to recognize the true power of the general public and exactly what they would do if left to their own devices. The only real upside to the whole thing at this point was the fact that their reputation was already pretty tarnished, so this wasn’t a big shocker to anyone.

Possible Solutions:

When it was discovered that things when horribly wrong, the evidence simply disappeared. There was little to no conversation about the topic on the official side, and no real statement made by the offenders either. Well, an Edelman senior account manager blamed a junior, so someone lost his job. In vain, I might add. The whole situation smells funny and it’s even worse if you know a little history on Edelman. They may as well have not bothered.

Making up a bunch of BS posts about how wonderful Walmart is and all of the great things it does for everyone should have been the last thing they considered. Why not take the time to talk to some of the people who work and shop there? It wouldn’t have taken that long, and if they’d  have done it right and offered a reward or prize for each person who submitted a feel-good story, they would have been able to repair their image from the inside out. They could certainly afford it!

Once they got busted for fake content, they should have come clean. They should have admitted to the screw up, but they also should have followed it up with a collection of really awesome genuine stories. The more grass roots, the better. Videos or podcasts would have been even better.

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The next step would have been giving back to the public in some way. Giving away something on those fake blogs would have been ideal, particularly if the coupon or post about the giveaway was sent through the RSS feed only.

At the same time, Walmart and Edelman both generated a number of links, and most people forgot about the whole situation. Maybe it wasn’t so bad after all? Maybe they decided to try it anyway? Neither company had much to lose. Remember, their reputations were already pretty dark.

The Facebook page demonstrated nothing but pure stupidity, really. I mean, before soliciting for testimonials and revealing them to the public, you should make sure you want everyone else to know what they say.

Had they moderated the comments published to the page in some way, they would have been fine, but they didn’t. In fact, they could have just forgotten about the fake blogs and just posted some of the real stories on their Facebook page.

You know what would have made some really great viral material for a place like Walmart? Posts like ‘Odd situations/occurrences in your local Walmart’, ‘Weird Shoplifting Incidents’, or even ‘If you could change one thing about your local Walmart that would have you returning several times per week, what would it be’.

We’ll look at a few more examples of negative viral content/link bait, but I’d love to hear your ideas on this first.

Popularity: 1% [?]

The Dark Side of Viral Content and Link Bait

Category Link Building | 5 comments »

Breaking news and free stuff always makes good viral content. Humorous or articles that hit the emotions of your readers in some way work well too. And so long as the piece is well written, any of us who have worked with content programs should recognize it pretty quickly.

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I guess that’s what’s interesting about this type of content. Even though we know why it’s created, we often can’t resist sharing it with someone, discussing it, linking back, and giving the writer exactly what he or she wanted.

Others have a serious dislike for link bait and viral content, and honestly, I can’t see why. The only time I have a problem with link bait or viral content is when it doesn’t fulfill the promise made in the title.

Well, I shouldn’t say that. Some get irritated when they fall for it (also known as the ‘why didn’t I think of that’ syndrome), but it doesn’t generally affect the reader in a negative way. If anything, it should irritate you and make you think about the topic.

That being said, there is a dark side to viral content and link bait.

Viral Content Gone Wrong

Viral content can be priceless when it attracts the right crowd and drives the buzz in the right direction, but what happens when it goes wrong? While this often happens with controversial issues, sometimes even innocent viral content can have unexpected negative effects.

Say, for example, that you create an innocent blog post promoting a contest for a local charity. It goes well at the start and begins to generate a number of donations and a fair bit of excitement around the cause.

Now, imagine for a moment that a member from a particular religion, country, sex, or ethnic group reads the piece and gets offended by a particular angle to the contest, the subject matter, or maybe something to do with the charity itself. The next thing you know, a little bit of viral content becomes a PR nightmare for your company. After all, this type of reputation glitch doesn’t disappear easily or quickly.

While this will certainly increase the buzz surrounding the contest and the charity, it might not work to your advantage. And unless you’re quick thinking and have the resources to fight it, things could get pretty nasty and someone (likely you) is going to get into trouble.

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Viral Misfires

If you’ve created controversial link bait, the backlash from your ‘target’ should be fully expected. But what happens when content attracts the wrong crowd all together? Now, the ‘link is a link’ crowd isn’t going to care. Much. But what happens when it just happens to grab a lot of scraper links when the site really needs a few good authority links? What happens if it just generates some crappy links and barely any traffic at all?

Failed Viral Content or Link Bait

Any SEO who has been pushing to get a client site going understands the pure frustration of this, particularly if they’ve put a fair bit of time into the creation and planning of the content. Clients often don’t understand that audiences are very fickle.

Sometimes, articles you expect to take off and spend a lot of time on start to collect dust almost the instant you click publish. Then, the client is phoning and breathing down your neck because they’re not getting traffic or links and they spent a fair bit of money to create the content.

The next time, you publish something you scraped together in a hurry and it goes crazy. Suddenly, you’re dealing with comments and maintenance on a day when you hadn’t planned on it and really don’t have time. Did I mention the client is calling and freaking out because they’re getting traffic they weren’t expecting? (Believe me, it happens!)

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Pushing All the Right Buttons

Viral content and link bait is very much like a puppet show in text. The writer (the puppet master) knows just how to pull the strings to make the puppets (the targeted readers) to do what he wants. While this is generally harmless and often is nothing negative in the least, someone who is very good at it almost makes the situation eerie. I mean, when you think about it, it’s really no different than some of the greatest speakers in the world. The amount of power they have over others is almost scary.

Now, I’m sure I’m not the only one who has witnessed or experienced content strategies go bad. Have you had viral content or link bait go horribly wrong?

Popularity: 3% [?]

Are You Optimising for Optimization? Google Spells Drive SEOs Crazy

Category Google | 21 comments »

Last week, Google caused quite an uproar in the SEO community when it decided to tweak its engine’s spelling. In fact, several big SEO bloggers made mention about Google’s spelling and the Americanizing of search results.

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Now, as a copywriter, these results were almost as good as sending me a bouquet of flowers. Almost. I love mysteries, I switch between UK, US, Canadian, and Australian spellings frequently, and combining them with search just made the phenomenon that much more fun.

So, after a pretty heavy-duty chat with some smart people and a bit of digging, I’ve come up with some interesting explanations. (It’s my understanding that Google has changed its mind on some of these, but I thought it was worth a look regardless.)

Optimizing for Optimisation

The initial word pair to cause a ruckus was ‘search engine optimisation‘, which brings up ‘search engine optimization‘ results. Hmmm! Knowing full well that Google is moving towards producing more relevant and local results, this was completely puzzling.

I initially thought the switch was due to Adwords revenue. I mean, there’s bound to be more people including ‘optimization’ in their PPC campaigns than ‘optimisation’ right? And more competition means the CPC would be higher right?

Well, after a short discussion with a few SEOs including David Harry, I took off the tin foil and discovered it was pretty easy to see why. Google Trends and Insights both show Britons are searching for ‘optimization’ more frequently and UK SEOs are targeting the ‘z’ when optimizing their sites, so Google is giving people what they want.

Don’t Forget About the User

Malcolm Coles dug up a number of other good examples. He noticed that, when searching for ‘whether’, ‘weather’ results were shown with the definition of ‘whether’ in #1 and BBC weather being second. I don’t know about you, but this looks right to me as a user, an SEO, and as a writer. Here’s why:

If I were searching for ‘whether’ without any additional words in the query, chances are I would be looking for what part of speech it is, what synonyms are available, how it’s used and other word mechanics. Otherwise, what would the intent be?

In Malcolm’s screen cap, you can clearly see the first result (Dictionary.com’s definition) would satisfy this need nicely. If I wasn’t looking for the word’s mechanics and had meant to look for ‘weather’, this need is satisfied with the BBC weather result in second place. I have the same opinion of ’stationary vs stationery’ and ‘license vs. licence’ and think the spelling causes confusion among regular users more than some people think.

Could A Combination of Signals Trigger Different Results?

(Alexbrn)

The results Malcolm got for ‘colouring vs coloring’ were quite fascinating. Google Insights and Google Trends both show UK users search for ‘colouring’ more than ‘coloring’, but they also show the u-less form is gaining slightly in popularity while the ‘u’ form of the word is decreasing.

When I did a search for ‘colouring’ and ‘coloring’ through .co.uk, I noticed only the ‘u’ page was affected, and in fact, 6/10 results were optimized for the ‘u’ form or both. I’m sure this will vary for everyone, but still, we can see the results are mixed.

This leaves me with user data. I know my son is a huge fan of Disney, Pixar, and other popular cartoon-like movies, so I can’t see UK children being much different. I wonder if a higher number of clicks on some of that content have something to do with it? I’d say so.

Lastly, we know Google is starting to recognize relative terms. After all, some pages I’ve optimized for ‘copywriting’ on my site rank better for ‘copywriter’ and vice versa. In the end, if I were searching for ‘coloring’, or ‘colouring’ for that matter, what exactly would I be looking for? And don’t the results satisfy that request? Not saying the big G is perfect, but it doesn’t seem to be as horrible as some would like to think.

What Does This Mean?

After looking at the various SERPs, I can’t help but think we’ll be seeing a lot more of this very soon. And, if SEOs want to compete, they may want to include these ideas in the planning of their future optimization projects. I also think SEOs will need to spend more time considering the user and what they might be doing rather than focusing on numbers alone (this is not to say that some don’t already do so).

As much as I will likely get roasted for this, I have to say that I think these changes are a good thing for the user and will force webmasters and SEOs to put a lot more thought into the sites they work on. That’s never a bad thing.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Are you looking for a Job in SEO?

Category Industry | 30 comments »

After putting together the ‘How to learn SEO’ post, I got to thinking that many folks that learn SEO ultimately want to do it for a living. As such I rounded up a bunch of websites for finding work in the world of Search optimization (and search marketing) – on the flip side, if you’re looking to hire SEO staffers or freelancers, the list will work out as well. This post started life some 6 months back and since then the economy has done little but head earthard bound – the time seemed right to polish and publish… (If you know of any great resources I have left off the list, let me know and I shall add them in. ).

 

Loking for work in Search engine optimization;

 

The usual suspects; To get us rolling some of the better known websites in the search marketing world have their own job boards – so let’s look at those;

SEO Gadget has a great listing of UK centric SEO jobs…. and they keep it up to date! (woo hoo)

SEOmoz Marketplace – they have a few more recent postings than some of the others. Worth checking out

Top SEOs Jobs – a fairly active board with jobs in the UK and USA, defnately worth watching

Marketing Pilgrim Jobs – another active job board with international listings

Search Engine Watch Boards – not a whole lot of active jobs, but considering the location the employers are likely above the average level of knowledge.

SEO Book Jobs – a few jobs here, nothing major but worth having in the list

 

Search Specific Resources

Jobs in search – this site had a smaller offering of positions but seem like a pretty good site, so we’ll include it on the list.

SEO Vacancies – another nice looking and well put together site that is mostly tailored to the European market.

SEO Consultants - has a job board, but it doesn’t seem all that active… a secondary locale at this point, (Dave ducks Edward’s wrath).

SEM Recruitment – this site has a small offering of jobs and is primarily the UK market from what I noticed. A secondary stop fer sure…

 

Full time Gigs

There are far more gigs online for in-house and agency SEO jobs than freelance by a long shot. So we’ll look at some of the more well known sites and some niche ones geared to the search world.

Monster Jobs – I did a quick search from a few locales and there are certainly some leads here for those looking for leads. They have jobs from around the world; probably worth keeping in the loop.

Craig’s List – I searched a few major Canadian, US and European countries and found a reasonable supply of jobs to look at. When trying some less popular locales though, it gets spotty as you might imagine.

Career builder – a good selection of jobs, mostly from the US though. If your looking for a job state-side, a good place to look.

It Jobs Online – has leads for jobs in the UK market. Looks like mostly full time gigs.

 

Freelance Projects

All in all, there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of work out there for the freelancers out there (don’t wait for your ship to come in, swim out and get it). And what I did find seemed to have some less than palatable budgets and client knowledge levels. Now, this may not be as big a problem for SEOs that are just breaking into the business as a low paying gig is better than pro-bono, when establishing a client portfolio. And if your company has a competitive price point, U might find something… tread lightly.

Elance – does seem to have a fresh slew of projects for the freelancer and the knowledge level and (starting?) budgets seem more reasonable than some other freelance sites.

oDesk – there are a steady stream of potential projects, but once again the budgets seem a little low. An interesting element is tests they have for providers which buyers can use to qualify peeps (took it and I’m top 10% he he) – I like that part ;0)

iFreelance – not a lot of jobs, but a nice site that you could keep and eye on. With so few good ones out there, might as well make the list.

Digital Point – while the services area of DP is active, it might be a tad dicey as far as quality leads. Seems like a bit of a friggen free-for-all in there… enter at yer own risk ;0)

Get a Freelancer – from the looks of things the jobs are 3rd world priced and buyers don’t seem all that knowledgeable with choice snippets such as; “I need long term seo solutions to bring up my page rank in google”. – for a guy with a $250 budget.
If suppose if yer starting out it’s better than pro-bono (maybe), but it does seems dicey around here.

Guru – look like a reasonable selection of projects with mid range budgets. Probably good for those starting out in SEO… (and you can search full time gigs as well)

Also check out the Site Point marketplace and All Freelance if yer still on the hunt.

 

Using Social Spaces

Track down as many SEO and search marketing types as you can and add them to your network. Some of the most known locales are;

Sphinn – one of the few internet marketing centric social media websites, get in there and mine the profiles for Twitter, FaceBook and other connection points. A great place to start

Twitter – I have seen a few people use Twitter as a tool for finding work. Don’t jump in and start spamming, but do try and leverage what contacts you have made. You can check my profile for peeps to add (almost exclusively marketing types in mine); SEO Jobs – Canada SEO Jobs – UK SEO Jobs

Mixx – while not as popular a stomping ground as Sphinn, there are a few groups you can join to start networking more, namely the Learning SEO and SEO 2.0 groups; SEO 2.0 – Learning SEO Basics

LinkedIn – is another great locale for networking and watching for jobs that come up (quite often actually). First off I’d be sure to get hooked up with the Marketing Jobs group
Also join some of the other search related groups on LinkedIn; Internet Marketing – Marketing and communications network – Pro Marketers – Search Marketing Salon – Digital Marketing

There are likely more, I shall consult with some social media mystics and report back with more here… (it’s bloody 2am my friend)

 

More reading to help find a job in SEO;

Jobs in SEO; seekers retrain now – Search Engine People

The 5 Web Resources You Need to Find a Job in Search - Search Engine Watch

Where the SEO jobs are – Eposure Online

Search expert forced to live under house - SEM Portland

ToddMintz talks resumes – SEO Factor

Searching for Jobs in search – Bruce Cay Blog

This week in search marketing staffing - Onward Search

SEO salaries; in-house survey – Reality SEO

SEO Job Search – Reality SEO

Jill Whalen Q&A on Whether Companies Should Take SEO In-House – Reality SEO

Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz PayScale.com Video on SEO Salaries – Reality SEO

 

There we have… shall add some more as I get the time… best of luck to all!!

Popularity: 64% [?]

2 New sites for your SEO bookmarks

Category General, Tools/Resources, news | 12 comments »

YouTube for web marketers

First up is a new multimedia site for internet marketers called – IM Broadcast

This site was created by Loren Baker of Search Engine Journal and a few of my pals, Dave Snyder and Jordan Kasteler from the firm Search and Social. For the launch last Friday they live streamed their conference – Scary SEO.

Follow me ;

User; theGypsy (of course)
MyVid Favs; Gypsy’s videos
My Group; SEO Geeks

I was lucky enough to be an early beta-tester and have signed on to be a moderator for the next while. If you want to give reading a rest and watch SEO goodiness, be sure to join up.

 

The SEO Search Engine

Another new treasure I wanted to pass along is a vertical search engine for the SEO community named; Search SEO Pros.

This website is simply a collection of Google Custom Search Engines that were put together by yours truly. We thought a dedicated search engine for search optimizers and enthusiasts was needed and set about loading some up.

Jam packed with some of the best resources on the web today; Search SEO Pros is your first stop when researching your search needs. It is actually 4 search engines in one covering expert blogs, video and even the search engines themselves (Google Blog, Yahoo and more).

So be sure to bookmark Search SEO Pros – you’ll be glad you did ;0)

 

Popularity: 67% [?]

the Best in SEO

Category Tools/Resources | 3 comments »

I had always wanted to be ble to search just the best SEO blogs and websites from the web so I could cut through all the garbage that is out there. What’s a guy to do though? Well, thanks to Google I can create my own Custom Search Engine and pick and choose which sites I want in my search engine as well as assigning refinements and even weighting of the sites. How friggen cool is that huh?

It is loaded with the top SEO blogs/websites and is great for research and learning. If you are looking for SEO information and want to get right to the best stuff from the pros… check it out

 If this works out I am going to put up some others I have that search Social Media Marketing, Buzz Monitoring set up and more… let me know what you think

At the moment, it searches the following sites;

the LinkSpiel, Sebastians Pamphlets, Hamlet Batista, TopRank, Search Engine Journal, Sphinn, HuoMah (duh), SEO Book Blog, SEO by the Sea, SEO-Theory, the MadHat, Search Engine Land, VanGogh, Search Engine People, Cornwall SEO, Search Engine Watch, Marketing Pilgrim, Bruce Clay Blog, SEOmoz Blog, SEO Scoop, 10e20, Jennifer Slegg, John Andrews, Wolf Howl, Small Business SEM, Hobo SEO, Joost DeValk, SEO Scientist

the SEO Search Engine

Popularity: 12% [?]