The acronym stands for Search Engine Optimization.  In plain English, it is a process used to improve the visibility of your blog in organic (unpaid) returns/responses to a search query by the search engines.  This strategy specifically considers how search engines work, and what people search for on the Internet.

Why is SEO important for your blog?

Simple:  if the search engines cannot understand what your blog is about, if you do not make it clear what kind of information you provide specifically on a subject or subjects, the search engines will not return your site information high enough for a given search term.  Without being found in the first two or three SERPs, you have little chance to attract like-minded readers.

Optimizing your Blog for Search:

Use your own unique URL and host it independently.  This is a major step if you are serious about blogging for your business or for monetary gain.

Hosting on a free platform does not provide a direct way to be found by the search engines and most do not permit you to monetize your blog, except in limited ways (think Google Ad Words vs. your own personalized sponsors with banner ads).

For blogs, it is very important to keep the information fresh!  Create a schedule and post regularly so your readers will know what to expect.  If you find you are not in the ‘creative mood’ to write, post a video or record a podcast!  Just be sure give those multimedia posts their own unique page and title.  Post about 250 words on the subject of the multimedia presentation and you are good to go!

One way to be sure your site is understood by the Search Engines is to optimize your site structure.  This involves editing the HTML and CMS.  Important design elements to SEO include:  menus, content management systems, shopping carts and internal links.  It also involves creating unique URLs, page titles, and XML site maps for submission to the engines, as well as human-designed site maps.

Another way to be sure your site is understood by the Search Engines is to optimize the text content of your posts. A great opportunity in blog formatting is to tag your content!  This allows you to create content that increase relevance to specific keywords you want to target for recognition, which will increase your prominence for those subjects.  Do a keyword search to see what terms or phrases rank highest for the subject you are writing about, and be sure to include a couple of those highly ranked terms or phrases in your text write up!  Just don’t overload your post with them or it will give you a bad reputation with the search engines!

Visual Elements tell the story, too.  Optimize video, photos and other media sources like mp3 and podcasts can also help your site rank high – multimedia sources are currently one of the most sought after types of information on the web!  As stated above, use alt tags and if you are able to describe in more detail, be sure to use about 150 words on the subject matter.  Just like text, be sure to do a keyword search to see what terms or phrases rank highest for the subject and be sure to include a couple of those highly ranked terms or phrases in your text write up!

The Human Factor:

In addition, Social Media optimization is critical to your success!  When you post to your blog, be sure to tweet it out on Twitter, share the post with a personal comment on Facebook and add to your LinkedIn profile.

If you post a video, be sure to optimize it where you place it (ie: YouTube), and then again in each place you distribute it to (posted to your blog, Facebook, etc) for the best results.  That is just the start!

Don’t forget that your blog is also a social venue! Write for humans and create content that is emotional (sad, funny, outrageous, angry)!  Tell a good story – because sharing stories that seem too private to tell online will get your point across and will make readers want to connect.  Give advice on how to do something.  Review a service or product.  Post guest Interviews or invite a guest blogger who resonates with your readers, then allow them to participate or comment.  This will create an interactive venue for you readers to start a conversation with you.

Be sure to have an option for the posts to be delivered via an email subscription or make an RSS feed available for readers who want to subscribe using a reader!  In turn, you will grow your readership and gain trusted inbound links – each of which cast a “vote” for your site with the Search Engines!

Monetization:  My advice is to grow your following before you try to overtly monetize your site.  While you are growing it, you can certainly write posts about related services and products, BUT, you MUST disclose any type of relationship you have with them, in accordance with FCC ethics rules, or risk a $10,000 per incident fine.

For more information on these ideas, visit:

4 Tips for Writing SEO-Friendly Blog Posts

The Blogger’s Guide to SEO

The Professional’s Guide to Blogging

21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic

During a survey period of November 4 – Nov 29th, 2010 (26 days) it became apparent that no one was waiting for “CyberMonday” to advertise OR shop.

Key takeaways for this survey period were:

·     Search advertising budgets up 31% in 2010 over 2009 and online shoppers are more responsive to paid advertising.  Clicks were up 55% and conversions were up 13.5% over 2009 statistics.

·     Online sales transactions up 83% year-over-year (YOY).  Competition for retailers peaks on Cyber Monday!

·     60% overall increase in online sales revenue YOY.  Consumers are buying more often with smaller basket sizes. Overall sales conversions rose 83% in 2010 but the average order value dropped about 8%.

What does this mean for EVERY business?  New Rules….

1.  Plan Ahead

2.  Approach Online Advertising with Confidence!

3.  Focus on relevance – consumers want the perfect deal, from the perfect seller.

Source:  Aaron Goldman, MediaPost 12/01/10

Sharon O'Dell

Sharon O’Dell is Certified in Social Customer Care

Sharon completed a certification course given by SOCAP and WOMMA in August, 2010 and is now certified in Social Customer Care.  Her name is contained in the List of Graduates with an active hyperlink to her Certificate. Sharon intends to use this certification to help clients integrate their Customer Care departments into Social Media.

“I benefitted by  learning directly from well-known Brands such as Coca Cola, Intuit and Omaha Steaks, which was an amazing experience.  I now have the skills necessary to assist my clients in knowing the correct way to implement their own programs.”

Yeah, well you aren’t the only one.  Many of our clients have experienced that and many paid a LOT of money and never really knew what they were paying for.  Sure, it’s a science.  After learning a decent amount of  SEO, I can tell you – very few clients will want to try this on their own – it is definitely a FULL TIME  job that most of then would not care to deal with.  Thus, why is it such a secret?!

Many of my clients simply tell me, “it appears to be working”, but when I ask them for specifics, I get a “deer in headlights” look and nothing further comes from their mouth.  I guess they are treating it like “insurance” against being invisble”,  which is crazy because if they have decent content they will be in pretty good shape – certainly not invisible.

Apparently, this must be very common, because Google just announced they will REQUIRE partner Agencies to be transparent to their customers when using Google services such as AdWords.  When this goes into effect in February 2011, the Agency MUST disclose specific elements to their clients (and the client will receive a report directly), which include:

Clicks

Impressions

Spend

This will give Google the credit for the results, whereas now the Agency does not have to disclose the information and can take full credit for their “wizardry” when things go well, and disclaim everything, or get paid for more “needed” changes when things go bad.  This WILL affect those agencies who are not transparent – probably in a negative way.  However, it will affect Google in a positive way – with hundreds of thousands of accounts under third party management, it will now shine a bright light on, and weed out, bad SEO Agencies so that the negativity does not attach to Google itself.

This has been coming – it was initiated in the API terms of service years ago, then was admended, then conversation began again and a common phrase was being echoed by Google:   “Mythbusting”, I heard it many times in various conversations about transparency.

In conclusion, despite the Agencies who are going to rail against this,  I say:   TRANSPARENCY =  GOOD.  Just as in any other buying scenario, the more educated your buyer is, the better the sale.  This is simply good business and, I still believe, that most of the buyers will not go out and try to do it themselves – but at the same time, they will finally have some input into the process and will feel like they are buying a quality service instead of snake oil!

KUDOS to Google!!

How much did you want to make this year?

Affiliate marketing can be very lucrative.  You absolutely CAN make money while you sleep!  However, some people take that to mean that you don’t have to work for it.  Au Contraire!  Affiliate Marketing is very competitive these days.

The 7 basic tasks to ensure you are making money with affiiliate marketing include:

1. Creating buzz-worthy Content on a regular basis – it keeps you ranked in the search engines and shows you are knowledgeable about what you are selling!
2. SEO – optimizing [ONpage and OFFpage]  for search engines keeps you at the “top of the heap” in to order garner attention for what you are selling – top 10 is gold, top 20 silver and top 30 bronze – if you are not in the top 2 to 3 pages, you have lost to the competition – start again!
3. PPC – Pay Per Click gets you even more attention since your  ”ad” will be featured in the “hot zone” where eyeballs track!  This is the “top of the heap” at it’s finest.  Can’t afford it?  Return to 1 and 2 above. At the end of the day, Content is ALWAYS King!
4. eMail Marketing – sharing your content and affiliate link with your contact list on a regular basis will result in sales.  First, you are becoming the expert on the subject in their eyes by creating content they want to read; second you are providing it directly to people who know you, and third you are giving them a conversion opportunity with the content.  Remember, it generally takes 7 contacts to garner their interest for a buying proposition!  Write to inform, to solve a problem, to fill a need, and write to sell!
5. Display Ads:  by sharing a display ad  (that has a unique identifying link for its source)  with other websites and blogs, or even in social media, you can convey features and benefits of the product/service you are recommending and create conversion.  Best practices:  link to “more information” AND the selling page, whenever  possible.
6. Review your analytics regularly to see which pages are getting “action” and which aren’t –  which are selling and which do not. Test and modify regularly!
7. Don’t forget your WOM! Word of Mouth Marketing is someting you can do ONline and OFFline.  Spread the Word in Social Media and when you are out Networking.  If you believe in the product enough to sell it,  and you tell them how it helped you, and you now sell it – you will make more sales!  People buy from PEOPLE (even online).

Don’t forget the Mobile Market place either!  Make sure you are developing your mobile marketing strategy in the near term so you can include your affiliate opportunities with that distinct audience.

Need help?  Let us know!!

[click image for larger size]

According to the infographic provided by Gigya:

Using Facebook as a Global Login ID:

• Across all sites:  46%
• Entertainment Sites:  52%
• News Sites:  25%
• B2B Sites:  37%

Using Twitter as a Global Login ID:

• Across all sites:  14%
• Entertainment Sites:  15%
• News Sites:  45%
• B2B Sites:  18%

Using YAHOO as a Global Login ID:

• Across all sites:  13%
• Entertainment Sites:  11%
• News Sites: 10%
• B2B Sites:  18%

Using MY SPACE as a Global Login ID:

• Across all sites:  7%
• Entertainment Sites:  14%
• News Sites:  1%
• B2B Sites:  3%

Using Linked In as a Global Login ID:

• Across all sites:  2%
• Entertainment Sites:  0%
• News Sites:  1%
• B2B Sites:  3%

AOL and ther IDs reported at 1% or less.

Source: Gigya. See the full infographic.

This great infographic will help you define where on the spectrum your friendships are, and help you grow them to the next level.

(Click image for a larger -easier to read view)

Thanks to Mike Auaraz:  http://www.mikearauz.com/images/spectrum_friendship.jpg

Do you use Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, or the endless list of Google services for your business?

How many of them are “free”?

Now, define “free” for me.

For YEARS I have been telling my clients, friends, family…even strangers who start up conversations with me about the Internet [while I am wolfing down a Panera Fuji Apple Salad and doing my online College classwork] that there is NOTHING FREE on the Internet.

Immediately, they disagree and come back with an entire list of free services, as I did above.  Sometimes I smile and continue to eat and work…other times I explain what they give up for those “freebies”….and sometimes – if they are REALLY interested – I tell them the true cost of those freebies (data centers, datalines, staff, legal review, coders, testers, etc).

Anything you get for FREE has a price.  The price tag for the services that I listed above is YOU.  You are the price tag.  YOU are their target for behavioral marketing, search, and other services those listed businesses actually sell.

I believe we have all gotten far too used to the “freebies” on the web, we have all become “comfortably numb” (thanks Pink Floyd) to their real cost, and then when someone takes away your “assumed right” to privacy, you scream.

It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee – either pay for a similar service where you have the right to your privacy, or assume YOU are the price for free use of their service.  Those, really, are your choices.

While Google already provides secure (SSL) socket layer to it’s gMail and Google Docs, today they have launched a beta secure search engine.

Why secure search? Lots of reasons…a good example would be:
.
Interlopers can see what you do by the information you send out of your computer. [Interlopers can mean a person or a bot monitoring traffic on any network]. Standard web activity is not encrypted data. So, if you type in “Iron Man 2″ in a search box, if your provider has bots monitoring the traffic on your network, or if you have some 14 year old who thinks it’s cool to monitor your unsecured Wi-Fi network traffic, then they see you are doing a search for “Iron Man 2″.

By using an SSL (https://) for Google Search – just like the banks and other websites do, they now would see **** *** * instead.
It evolves privacy to the search level, making it harder for someone with bad intentions to act on them – which is nice. While t first you just may not see the importance f it, Just think of examples you probably wouldn’t want others to see, then you “get” the reason for this move on Google’s part.

A good example would be a small business owner doing research on a business idea they have. If someone or something is monitoring your search and Internet use, it’s not a long shot to think they could figure out what you are doing – especially if they are monitoring your email as well….yes, email is also NOT FULLY encrypted and is never to be a trusted environment for ANY sensitive information unless you purchase a highly encrypted email service [which usually requires that the end recipient have a digital ID to open it].

I applaud Google for this extension of security – and privacy. It’s a step in the right direction.  In my opinion, it is going to be a great tool for them to go head to head with Facebook – who at this writing, is busy spreading our information all over the Internet without our permission and making it increasingly more difficult for those of us wanting privacy to block their efforts.

As Google brings this live, simply type in:  https://www.google.com to use it.  (https) being the important part to make sure it’s secure.

Really hard.

If you have been to a seminar on Internet Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Facebook Marketing, Blogging, or anything else that is made to look SIMPLE to do…and 48 hours later you still have not done it….

then you just may have

“Magellan Ship Syndrome”.

What is that?

It’s when seeing is not believing.

Magellan explored many islands without opposition.  The theory is that the natives did not attack Magellan as one would have expected them to do upon the arrival of  his big ships with a bunch of strange looking creatures on them.

Why?  The natives did not know what they were looking at – they had absolutely no point of reference.  In fact, they were so taken by what they saw, they laid down their spears and brought their canoes ashore. Watching the big ship with huge billowing sales was so far from any experience they had previously had, that they were in awe, welcoming Magellan and his crew, and treating them like Gods.

Lucky for Magellan he got out of town before the Natives were able to discern what he was really doing, and what would follow!

I’m Just SAYIN! that is why there are College Degrees for this stuff!

Quoted Source:  Stephen Simon, Producer