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The Map Is Not the Territory, But It Sure Helps…

April 14th, 2010 by Janet Salsman

map of Oakland, CA

Which would you rather use, a map or a GPS? It might depend on how badly lost you are and what kind of location you find yourself in. Then again, having both might be best. Then you’d be prepared for both streets and rough terrain, able to cross-reference.

“Both” is the right answer when it comes to site maps as well, as mentioned in today’s webinar, Organizing Your Website Content for Optimal SEO. An on-page site map is like a road map, something on which you can trace your route with your finger. A glance at the map will let you know how many blocks it is to the library, or the post office in real life, or how many clicks to the contacts page, the products page, or the specifications page in the virtual world. The on-page site map is there to help users navigate easily.

By contrast, the off-page site map is more like the GPS version. The xml format considers different data, geared more toward search engine spiders. Spiders want, figuratively, latitude and longitude: priority codes, frequency codes, and last modification dates. It’s harder to see which streets intersect this way, but the most important landmarks stand out and changes are highlighted.

Like any maps, both kinds of site maps are only as useful as they are up-to-date. Finding your way through any major city with a map from the 1960’s might well turn into an unexpected adventure; similarly, an outdated GPS could strand you at new dead ends, or attempt to lead you along roads that don’t exist. Every time you change your site, you need to update your maps or risk losing your visitors.

GPS device

Tags: Blogs, Highlights, SEO, Webinar, Webmarketing123
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SEO on the Couch

April 8th, 2010 by Janet Salsman

“Tell me about your SEO marketing…”

The topic is probably not angst-producing enough to require a couch to lie on, but does require some analysis, as mentioned in our webinar, Top Ten Tips for SEO in 2010, part of our Introduction to SEO webinar series.

No matter how many of the SEO principles you put in place, you will have no objective sense of their effects without analysis. Were more people finding you because of your new keywords? Were more visitors converting into customers? Sure, you can get a ballpark sense of whether things are getting better or worse, but you want to get a handle on the details. Approximation might get you somewhere, but if you really want to get to the moon, you had better aim carefully and track your trajectory obsessively.

Analysis does take time and commitment. It’s totally worthwhile to invest those resources to excel.

Tags: Blogs, Highlights, SEO, Webinar, Webmarketing123
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Spiders on Caffeine!

April 7th, 2010 by Janet Salsman

Remember health class, or drug prevention week? That was the first time I saw the webs of spiders on various mood-altering substances, distorted and holey compared to the classic orb design. In today’s webinar, New SEO Fundamentals in a Google Caffeine World, I learned, much as I suspected, that Google spiders were not included in the experimental data.

Google spiders thrive on Caffeine, much like the rest of us. The new Caffeine algorithm they use to index webpages works faster and more thoroughly. Imagine a denser web that attracts more flies and catches a greater percentage of them.

The caffeinated spiders want fresh content, and lots of it. They want to have the content grouped together with a logical flow, like a morning paper separated into sections for news, sports, and entertainment to go with their morning coffee. Of course, they’re checking their favorite blogs at the same time, not to mention keeping up with Twitter and Facebook. You can give them what they want by optimizing your pages to appeal to them with keyword-rich content and organized silos of information. You can catch their attention with new posts and tweets. They’ll reward you with higher placement in the rankings.

But, much like many folks after too many double espressos, the spiders can be a little jittery. If your pages take a long time to load, they don’t have the patience to wait. They’ll skip to something that they can see right now.

What to do? Pay attention to content and architecture on your site. Get involved with social media to get yourself placed in the real time listings on results pages and to engage others talking about your services or products. And, perhaps, pick up a cup of coffee.

Tags: Blogs, Google, Google Caffeine, Google spiders, Social Media, Webinar
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Optimize Your Site by Using Long Tail Keywords – Indiana Jones Did!

March 31st, 2010 by Janet Salsman

Today’s webinar, Long Tail Versus Short Tail Keywords, made me think of Indiana Jones. (No, not because of the spiders crawling all over the webpages!) In the opening credits with the sepia map in the background, the little plane traces its red line from exotic location to remote landing to middle of nowhere to the exact right spot to find the lost ark.

If Indy had used Google, he might have started by typing in “ark.” It’s a short-tail keyword, a mere three letters. After paging through a zillion pages of Noah’s ark replicas, complete with zebras and chimpanzees, he’d get a little frustrated, but instead of lashing out at his trusty laptop with his whip, he’d get more specific. He’d try typing “ark of the covenant.” His little airplane is getting closer. He still has to stop to rebut the scurrilous claims of Dr. Rene Belloq on Wikipedia, but that takes mere moments. Then he tries the long tail search for “ark of the covenant Cairo” and Google gives him a handy amulet with an address. His plane arrives and now all he has to do is beat the Nazis, survive the snakes, and rescue the girl.

Indy, like most searchers, is getting savvier in his techniques. He’ll be quicker to find the temple of doom and the holy grail. He’ll breeze right by the film versions of Doom and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. By the time he gets to looking for the crystal skull, it’s a wonder the search takes long enough to film.

Similarly, the purveyors of lost arks and the like can make themselves easier to find by optimizing for exactly the kind of long tail keywords Dr. Jones used in his research. While there are relatively few archaeologists and evil empires searching for precious relics, those who search for “ark of the covenant Cairo” are ready to buy.

Tags: Blogs, E-Commerce, eCommerce, Google, keywords, SEO, Webinar, Webmarketing123
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Go Outside and Play

March 24th, 2010 by Janet Salsman

That first recess at a new school can be awkward. Do the kids play the same games here? What are the unwritten rules for the swings? Do the big kids meet on the blacktop or under the trees by the fence? And, most importantly, will anyone want to play with me?

Social media marketing, for many companies, feels about as comfortable as that new playground. Some companies suddenly feel the urge to hide in the library until recess is over and the understandable, bell-regulated classroom time begins again. But hiding won’t make it go away.

The good news, as Barbara mentioned in the webinar, Social Media Marketing and ROI, is that you don’t have to jump into the middle of the playground right away. It’s a good idea, in fact, to linger at the edge of the tanbark and watch what the other kids are doing, listen to what they’re saying, and begin to play once you know where the hot lava monster lives. From a social media perspective, this means checking out what other companies are doing, soaking up the culture, and only then joining the conversations and starting your own.

It can be a challenge to companies who are used to dealing in websites, which are, as Barbara says, like resumes, clean and professional, to switch to the casual style of social media. You don’t want to play tag in your suit, so to speak, and if you try, you may not get the results you want (although the embarrassment it would cause might make an engaging blog post…). Social media requires a new level of integration between the professional and the casual, the business person and the everyday person.

School would be unbearable for even the most dedicated student without some time to play four-square. Similarly, company marketing strategies need to add social media to their mix along with their other approaches to ensure a happy, healthy outcome.

Tags: Highlights, SMM, Social Media, Webinar, Webmarketing123
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Dear Santa…

March 10th, 2010 by Janet Salsman

Dear Santa—

This is what I want for Christmas…

What comes next in your letter to Santa is what you want most, right? You’re not going to put the shiny red bike or the Wii with the best games or the Radio Flyer low on the list if it is what you’ve been dreaming about for months. To get exactly what you want, you have to make sure Santa knows.

Today’s webinar, Top 10 Tips in SEO for 2010, emphasized how important it is to choose the right keywords. Think of them as the keys to those perfect packages under the tree. With the right keywords, you get the red bike, not the dopey blue one and with the right keywords, you get the customers who really want your products or services.

To do this, you need to select specific keywords and put them in the right spots on your webpages. Santa won’t know to bring you what you don’t ask for, and the search engine spiders won’t rank you for keywords you don’t use.

Tags: keywords, Search, SEO
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It’s So Hard, to Say Goodbye…

February 9th, 2010 by Webmarketing123

Luckily, it’s not forever. Friday was Devon’s last day at the office, but we sure did celebrate. Zachary’s pizza for lunch, and homemade apple crisp (along with ice cream) for dessert—Yumm….

Just wanted to thank Devon for all his hard work, and we’re glad you could still be on board with the WebMarketing123 team—just down in sunny ol’ San Diego with your beautiful fiancée–wait, can we move with you?!

Anyway, here are some other highlights from Friday:

1. Q1 Brainstorming Session – Awesome job, Nicole, on organizing! In groups of 3, we came up with great ideas for the office and our company—from little things like Outlook reminders to move our cars on street cleaning days (Darn you, parking enforcers!), to plans on becoming the “big fish.”

2. Photo Shoot – I think we all felt a little celebrity in us. Paul had a good friend/professional photographer come in to take “family” portraits. He got great action shots too, so we’re very excited to see how those came out!

3. WebMarketing123 Signage – minus the little dent, our new sign looks great! Thanks for all your hard work, Janet.

Hope you all enjoyed your Super Bowl Sunday…I think we all can agree that the Saints deserved the win, yeah? Hope we don’t get any negative comments from that statement…

Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday!

Tags: Birthday, Devon, Highlights, Super Bowl, Webmarketing123
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Education Friday! …On a Tuesday

January 11th, 2010 by Webmarketing123

Thanks to our smart SEO Team (Antonio Espinoza & Mike Turner), we gathered on Tuesday to talk about the latest Google updates and how they will affect SEO early this year. Here are some great answers to the questions we had during the presentation and some basic information on each topic–enjoy!

Topics discussed:

Google Caffeine Update
Google’s Real Time Search
Google Personalized Search Results

Google Caffeine

- Google is slowly rolling out this new algorithm and is currently using in one datacenter with wider usage this year.

- This particular algorithm indexes significantly more pages than the previous algorithm. This is important because the more pages Google indexes, the more competition you are going up against, meaning the more important to optimize your site to ensure that Google can crawl as many pages of your site as possible.

Real Time Search

- For certain searches that have enough social media content (It’s not yet known how many conversations trigger this) Google has started to show real time conversations about your business/keywords, often times above the organic listings. This is key because if you are not monitoring the conversations about your business/keywords you are missing a major opportunity to engage your prospects.

For example:

Google personalized Search Results

- Google has been customizing search results for some time now for those who are logged into with their Gmail accounts. Now, regardless of if you are logged in or not, Google will be serving up customized search results.

Here are some Frequently asked questions and answers that you may get from your prospects/clients:

Question: You say I’m ranked #3, but my computer says I’m ranked #7. What’s going on?

Answer: Are you logged in to your Google account? If so, Google is remembering the links you click on and personalizing to what they think your preferences are. If you are logged in, log out and try your search again. Here is a screenshot that shows what it looks like when you are logged in:

Question: I’m logged out, and it still is showing a different ranking than what you told me.

Answer: Depending on what data center Google returns your results on, then there will be variations in search results. Our server is based in Arizona, so we get results based around that. If you’re in New York, your rankings are likely to be slightly different than ours.

Question: What if I’m logged out, and in the same data center as you, but still seeing different rankings?

Answer: Google has recently rolled out personalized results whether you are logged in or not. Based on your search history, Google wants to provide more of what you are looking for naturally.

Google says that it does not always personalize searches, and you’ll know when they do, because there will be a button to the bottom-right of the search button that says, “View Customizations.” As shown in the below screen shot:

To get the same results do the following: You can always choose to disable the customization by either clicking “Web History” or “View Customizations”, and choosing the “disable” option. After that, Google should not personalize your search results. Here is a screenshot of where the “Web History” button is located:

Final Question: I’m still worried about this Personalized Search. What is this going to do to my site?

Answer: Google is constantly tweaking their algorithms, and we have the unique perspective of monitoring hundreds of SEO campaigns so that we can test what works and what doesn’t. Before the release of the Personalized Search feature on December 4^th, Google was already personalizing searches, as long as you were logged in to your Google account.

From our experience, we’ve seen that when searchers are competitively shopping, they will most likely not convert on the first site they see. They will do research, and as long as you’re within the top ranks, you will be found, making it more of a necessity to optimize your site to show up as high as possible for keywords that mean leads and sales to your business!

-Webmarketing123’s SEO Team

Hope you all had a safe and happy new year! Welcome, 2010!

Tags: Google, Google Caffeine, Google Personalized Search Results, Google Real Time Search, Google Updates, Q&A, SEO
Posted in Google Updates, Search Engine Optimization, Webmarketing123.com | 13 Comments »

The Map Is Not the Territory, But It Sure Helps…

SEO on the Couch

Optimize Your Site by Using Long Tail Keywords – Indiana Jones Did!

Dear Santa…

It’s So Hard, to Say Goodbye…

Education Friday! …On a Tuesday

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