By Charles Mburugu

This is a post from The Web Optimist – SEO in The Desert.

Email Marketing – Getting Started is a post from: SEO in The Desert | More about Palm Springs SEO

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but I’ve been slammed with work and preparing for my presentation at the upcoming Performance Marketing Expo, an affiliate marketing conference and exhibition at Miami Beach which runs September 27-29, 2010.

I will be doing my bit as SEO Manager of FramesDirect.com on Monday, September 27, at 1:30 p.m. in a Search Engine Optimization session. It will be based on my popular SEO Tips Even Mom Would Love post, but, of course, shortened to best practice basics for non-technical types.

Mercifully, I go on before Shari Thurow, who I often credit with my decision to move into SEO full-time and out of web design and part-time SEO a number of years ago after reading her book Search Engine Visibility. I absolutely devoured the book, thinking “Wow, I LOVE this stuff!” and knew SEO was what I was supposed to do.

Anyway, glad she’s following ME and not the other way around! Her presentations are always great!

And, no, I don’t run the affiliate program at FramesDirect.com, but I do work with our affiliate manager and frequently get questions from this blog from affiliates struggling with SEO.

Check out the agenda.

If you need a 20% off discount coupon for the conference, feel free to grab it here.

And keep you fingers crossed for me!

Later,

Richard V. Burckhardt, The Web Optimist

Performance Marketing Expo is a post from: SEO in The Desert | More about Palm Springs SEO

Finding the right customers for your web site requires research.

Part of developing that strategy is research. Search Engine Land had a great article recently by Debra Northart, discussing the importance of research to small businesses (http://searchengineland.com/research-the-key-to-smb-knowledge-37804). We all know that your customers are researching you- that’s often their purpose in doing a search on Google or Yahoo. So it makes sense that you should be doing the same. But what does that research really do for you? It’s all about figuring out what your customers need, and the best way to give them that. Taking the time to research helps you know where to find your customers, and what message you should use to engage them and get more conversions.

As Debra mentioned in her Search Engine Land article, take advantage of surveys, polls or focus groups. Try conducting a survey of your current clients. They will often have great insight for you on what is currently working, and what you could do to give the user a better experience and tailor your message to a local audience. Many retailers these days offer a discount or free item in return for completing a short survey. Take a page from their book- incentivizing this process encourages people to participate and give you the data you need.

In the past, research has seemed overwhelming and too expensive for many small and local businesses to conduct. However, with the power of the Internet and a slew of free tools available, it’s now possible for everyone to do the research they need to. One of the great new tools available is called BT Buckets. This free tool works with Google Analytics and Website Optimizer, to create “buckets” that you segment out and allows you to take real-time action based on those segments. For example, you could have one message or image show for first time visitors to your site, and a different one for those who are returning visitors.

Once you’ve got some results, it’s time to take action. Make sure to use all the weapons in your arsenal. If you discover your customers are avid Twitter users, develop a plan to reach out to them in a meaningful way. Or perhaps your audience is active on a particular forum. Take the time to listen, and provide value! In a world of meaningless marketing and fluff, those who do listen and aim to solve a real problem of their users will come out ahead.

Many experts are predicting 2010 to be the year of local search- the resurgence of the small business. Take advantage of that opportunity. In many industries, while the competition online is growing, the opportunity is massive. Don’t let it pass you by- take advantage of all the avenues you can to increase your visibility, grow your brand and get more business.

*Source: TMP Directional Marketing “LOCAL SEARCH MARKETING: TARGETING CONSUMERS IN A DIVERSE MEDIA LANDSCAPE”, Local Search Study — Media Usage Trends, White Paper, General Findings, 2009

Your Customers are Researching You. Shouldn’t You Do the Same? is a post from: SEO in The Desert | More about Palm Springs SEO

No, it’s not that some folks who are not very Internet savvy think it stands for “senior executive officer.” Nor is it because one not-too-popular geek decided to try to trademark the term.

Search engine optimization, for which it stands, is, well, no longer just about search engines.

In the old days, everyone just wanted to be at the top of whatever search engine was the biggest at the time and we’d all merrily tweak and link and hold our breath whenever updates happened. In recent years, thie focus has been on Google updates, but several things are happening that are taking the “search engine” out of the picture. Among them:

1. Although Google is still the biggest and baddest, ranking at the top is going the way of, well, Yahoo (as I duck and run for cover). Google’s increasing use of personalized search results means that a site can rank #1 for you when you are logged into Google, but #25 for someone else. Heck, you can even customize your own Google search results with their new SearchWiki.

2. Search very often has nothing to do with search engines these days. Frequently, searchers are finding what they want through what are perceived as trusted sources on social media sites like Facebook, StumbleUpon, Digg and so forth or through product reviews on shopping sites like Amazon.com. Rather than take what the search engines dish out, they get their information from friends or peers.

3. Even Google thinks you want to socialize. For instance, Google Reader allows sharing with friends. Then there’s Knol, kind of Google’s version of Wikipedia.

Anyway, my point is that the web is heading away from searching through search engines as the primary way of finding information. Yes, we’ll still be using “Google” as a verb for years to come, but we as Internet marketing professionals will need to adapt. We need to know how to not just optimize for the search engines, but the entire web.

So let’s see. What can we call ourselves? How about web optimists?

I like the sound of that!

Happy holidays!

Maybe We’re All Web Optimists? is a post from: SEO in The Desert | More about Palm Springs SEO

First, let’s take a look at the most recent definition of viral marketing on Wikipedia.

Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet. Viral marketing is a marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily. Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or even text messages. The basic form of viral marketing is not infinitely sustainable.

For our purposes, using pre-existing social networks can be a key in getting started. One thing to keep in mind is that not every viral marketing attempt will take off, so don’t get discouraged if you flop the first time around. For the beginner, a lot of learning has to go into using social media in the first place, so cut yourself some slack and have fun with it.

Here are some ideas to give your viral campaign a shot in the arm.

• Start with your blog. Post about your campaign on your blog to get the word out in your RSS feed and to e-mail subscribers. If you’re lucky, your posts will be picked up by other blogs and subscribers. Use a Twitter plugin like Twitter Tools to pass your post to Twitter at the same time.

• Look for niches. Start out with big social media sites like Facebook and MySpace, but also look for smaller ones serving a niche. For instance, if your viral campaign would be attractive to baby boomers (I happen to fit into that category), look at sites like Eons.com, which is smaller, but like Facebook with a few age lines.

• Make a viral video. Videos are hot and a great way to promote your campaign. Although YouTube is the biggest, also post to other video sites for the widest distribution. Try TubeMogul.com, which allows you to submit to several video sites at once.

• Join in on forum conversation. Seek out forums related to your topic and get involved. Don’t just jump in and push your campaign, but provide feedback and information that is useful to the forum members. These communities can be passionate about their topics and maybe, just maybe some of them will pick up your news and spread the word. You can search for niche forums at http://rankings.big-boards.com/.

• Join in blog conversations. As with the previous suggestion, find related blogs and jump into the conversation, providing good content and information, not sales pitches. Your comments can help you gain trust in the commuity, especially if you listen to and hear what the other community members want to know.

• Bookmark it. Utilize bookmarking sites like Delicious and Digg where people can see what you are interested in and bookmark those links themselves. In addition to these two big sites, there are lots of niche bookmarking sites out there, too. Bloggers grab stuff off of these for content, others see it, bookmark or IM to others and if the stars are aligned right, it snowballs. The more eyes to your content the better.

• Cross promote all of the above across social media sites. For instance, don’t just upload your video to YouTube, plug it at Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, etc.

• Develop relationships. People with influence can get your information in front of more eyes. Create a relationship with these folks. Send them information that will help them. Later, you can send them information that will help you, after you establish trust. For example, you could approach a respected blog and offer to write a good guest article for them to get your foot in the door.

• Contact by name. Nothing worse than trying to cozy up to one of those persons of influence using “To whom it may concern” or whatever. Send them an individual e-mail. Make sure you are pitching something relevant to their blog/site. Read their blog/site first!

• Buy advertising. No this isn’t for SEO ranking purposes. Buying advertising to promote something simply is another way to open a dialogue with the blog/site owner, that person of influence.

• Spread the word. Utilize your customers to get the word out through your web site, customer service e-mails, letters and newsletters.

• Free is good. Give away something as part of your promotion – a white paper, resource, video, widget, etc. Make it great, quality, quirky, fun, whatever you can do to make it a desired, wanted freebie. Other attractions include how-to videos and articles, surveys, lists and tools.

• Make sharing easy. Put up links to aid your visitors and readers in sharing the wealth – a bookmark this page link, forward to a friend link and social media links. See addthis.com for easy to use and build bookmarking chicklets.

• Get recommendations. Getting these from consumers is gold and where better to get them than on the web, which is top heavy with consumers. See my previous post on user content generation for tips on getting reviews and ratings.

Remember, most viral campaigns don’t take off. Learn from your efforts and try, try again.

SEO 101: Beginning Viral Marketing is a post from: SEO in The Desert | More about Palm Springs SEO

Job Title: Director of SEO

Description:

Our client, the world leader in online legal information and interactive marketing services is looking for a Director of SEO to manage a team of 35 SEO professionals and continue to build a world class internal SEO department. This person must have proven experience of being able to influence internal stakeholders throughout the organization on the importance of SEO and it’s effects. They must be independently driven with the ability to lead many people.

About the Role:

The Director of SEO will be responsible for leading the fulfillment of all SEO projects and initiatives across all brands. They will need to strategize with the various teams throughout the company and develop education tools and guidelines for the organization in order to optimize every element of their SEO strategy. In this position you will also be responsible for staying current with the Search Engine community, by attending conferences and analyzing the risk/reward associated with new pursuing trends.

Requirements:

Our client is looking for someone with at least 5 years of experience within the search industry to lead a team of 35 search specialists. You must be a strong leader who can manage multiple priorities across multiple business areas. The ability to influence your peers and act as an agent of change is critical to this position.

Major Areas of Accountability:

• Responsible for the leadership of SEO fulfillment for all products.
• Responsible for leading and setting direction for SEO data analysis and reporting.
• Develop research, analysis and strategy initiatives and strategy, and development of the team to execute on those strategies.
• Collaborate with Product Development, Portal and Engineering teams. Provide leadership to optimize various site elements, site structure, architecture, linking and content, and to ensure that new products and enhancements meet SEO requirements.
• Provide leadership for the creation of educational tools and guidelines across the organization.
• Research current trends within Search Engine community – Attend relevant conferences to gather insights from search engine representatives and professionals. Continually monitor new advancements in SEO and evaluation the risk/reward of integration.
• Communicate specific SEO requirements to business/product stakeholders.
• Research emerging technologies for opportunities to expand.

Responsibility for the Work of Others:

• Team of 35 Search Specialists executing SEO fulfillment and analysis.

Financial Responsibility:
• $3 million

Requirements:

Education, Knowledge and Skills

• Minimum of 5 years experience within the search, SEO/SEM, or web analytics environment
• Demonstrated leadership experience of direct and indirect staff in a Web environment with time sensitive responses to changing market trends.
• Strong leadership skills and proficiency in leading multiple priorities across organizations.
• Strong influence and change skills and demonstrated ability to articulate and gain support with leaders across a business.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.
• Proven leadership to lead and influence a wide variety of constituent groups.

Contact: (800) 829-0072, jobs@onwardsearch.com, http://www.onwardsearch.com/jobs/search_marketing_jobs.aspx

Director of SEO is a post from: SEO in The Desert | More about Palm Springs SEO