Shout-out to Network Solutions SEM/SEO Training Team

So, yesterday I went undercover into the SEM/SEO training seminar being presented by Network Solutions here in Los Angeles. "Undercover" means that I did actually pay for entry, they just didn't know why I was there and what my background is with them and with SEM and SEO.

To let you in on a little more of that background... about 3 years ago I was working with Network Solutions specifically on the topic of SEO. I knew they were beginning these nice, quick seminars on SEO so I went "undercover" then too. But, Harry, who was the presenter at the time found out I would be there and got a little nervous at first. I promised that I would not say a word, that I would only take notes to give him later and, if he actually called on me for an answer or suggestion, only then would I say anything during that presentation. It all worked great and I was impressed at the way he presented information and really helped those business owners whose experience on the topic of SEO was new. Yes, I passed on my notes and information to him after the class.

Anyway, 3 years later, Randy was our presenter. I could tell they've reworked a lot from those years past. I could feel Randy's excitement and knowledge of his topic. His goal was to get as much information to this quite large group (I believe we had almost 90 people that morning for this 1/2 day session - wow!) but was limited by time. He did a good job at focusing on as much information as he could fit in without sales-pitch attempts. I am all about getting the information to the online business owners. The more they know the smarter they will be at being able to do good things online and with the right people.

Even if it seems weird that Network Solutions offers competitive services to what we do at Search Visible, Inc, I don't consider it that way. There is so much business out there and so many websites that need help that there is plenty to go around. We need more "good" SEM and SEO providers. My goal in life/business is to help the consumer, these business owners, understand our industry. The more they understand the better we all can weed out the bad guys in our industry, the ones who make promises or rip-off the client and bring concern to the world of SEO and SEM. The educated consumer can make all our lives better and make their own businesses better no matter if they hire an internal online marketing professional, SEO person, or go with a third party consultant type of firm - like Search Visible and Network Solutions.

Anyway, in a nut shell... I wanted to give a shout-out to Network Solutions for continuing with these great, not expensive ($139 - 1/2 price for additional guest) overview seminars on SEM and SEO. You can get more info about their seminars and webinars here: http://marketing.networksolutions.com/seminars/
Any business, small or large wanting to be exposed to the importance behind these online marketing strategies should check them out. I approve! Go Randy!!

Projections for Online Search in 2010:

• Setup on on-site blog. If you have one already then make sure it is effectively being used to support internal website pages.


• Use real-time channels for branding, website updates & keyword support. At least understand how real-time information is being used in Search.


• Some of the better real-time areas to participate in are: Facebook, Twitter, online Press Releases, Blogs and other dated online forms of information.


• Pay attention to local options, internal and external to you website, especially if you can and should be found locally.


• Consider a mobile website: sites sized to show on phone browsers.


• Don't neglect your on-site SEO. Best Practices for Search Engine Optimization are still important and the continuing basis for the major search engines.
  

Twitter - A Passing Fad or Future Tool for Business

It's funny that so many really think that Twitter only started this year. It was actually founded back in 2006 and most professional internet marketers, search enthusiasts and regular bloggers were playing with it from the start.

Business associates and clients know that I have suggested using Twitter for business starting back in 2007 (I like to play and test things before I recommend it to anyone). And, I still get the question "Is Twitter just a Fad?"

My best answer to that is emphatically "NO"! If we take the hypothetical and suggest that Twitter is, in fact, going to go away, I am willing to bet you big money (cash only, please) that there will be something almost exactly like it that would take its place. Think about it...Twitter is currently one of the best forms of online real-time information available right now. We have all seen the impact of this online form of information, good, bad or ugly and, I believe, we will continue to look for it in some form or another, through means of Twitter or other. If Twitter were to suddenly go away, something else would follow suit immediately and without question.

What that means to the online industry is that we all need to know how this sort of information works, how we can make it better, how we can control it, and, basically, how we continue to use it. This real-time form of communication, made celebrity-status by Twitter, is a fundamental way in which we now communicate online.

Twitter, Twitter applications, the Twitter brand ... who knows what will happen with this independent company, maybe Google or Microsoft will be looking to talk to them (http://www.dbtechno.com/internet/2009/10/08/twitter-in-talks-with-microsoft-and-google/), hmmm?! - But, the way we have learned to interact online in this quick, easy, real-time fashion will never go away. It may change slightly and hopefully it will only get better. My job as an Internet Marketing professional will only be enhanced by this. Allowing me yet another avenue to help businesses and clients learn to communicate online in effective, engaging and appropriate ways. It gives me, and everyone online, additional ways to rank, market products or services, branding options... and make money that pays my bills!

We have gotten used to getting our information "now", updated regularly and always current. I don't see the Twitter bird flying off anytime soon - colors or names may change but the function will not. We should look to continually learn more about real-time functions and tools AND keep on the understanding that this type of real-time information is as an added benefit to business, not just a passing fad!


Here's a great video of stats and other info pertaining to various social channels (it supports my thoughts [wink]) from Socialnomics.net on the Social Media Revolution:




So, bottom line...go get started, get used to using and incorporating some of the real-time tools we now have access to. Twitter, for now, is a really cool one to check out.

SEO behind the Blog … or is the Blog behind SEO?

As an Internet Marketing Specialist, some of the things I work with are blogs and blog posts. I get clients to start blogs, suggest topics for blogs and work with the bloggers and/or writers. I am by no means a writer, I love my life as a techy geek, but I have [cough, cough] been known to write for blogs too – but, you won’t find me because I use an alias! I don’t want to take on that responsibility!!

For the most part, bloggers are writers and not normally (emphasis on “normally”) technically inclined. They are not always aware of how search and the search engines work, they just know that it does work. I am technical – a geek…whatever! I know a lot about what makes the search engines tick. I work in the online space every day and for a variety of clients and help with their websites for better rankings, better traffic, and better sales. That gives me an edge when working with content writers, bloggers and other marketing staff.

So, you ask, if you are a technical person and you can actually write, do you write for the blog or do you write for SEO? Is SEO behind the blog or is the blog behind SEO?

Good question, I say! And, the answer is yes to both and yes to all of it. The best content, for a blog or anything else, is content that says something interesting, is easily understood, makes sense, is creative, uses its words well and brings value to the website.

With all my years in internet marketing, the best information for online use is initially written with a topic in mind. That topic generally comes from keyword research done with SEO in mind. Keyword research you say? Yes, I say! Because if no one is asking for the information then how will they know to go looking for it! And, I say, keyword research is done in many ways, not just with the use of a keyword research tool like Google adwords keyword tool or others, things like news, other blogs, or online trends can play a huge part in picking a topic to write about.

The next best step is to have a creative and talented writer available to do what they do best, and that is write, write about the chosen topic, and… to write what comes naturally for them. About the only thing that should be discussed with the writer at this point is any voice, tone or business requirement that might be necessary to know about along with that main topic.

If the writer understands the strengths of a good internet marketer then they will gladly turn over their work for review and editing by them. This is the time when the SEO elements can be put into place, knowing that there is a science behind the semantics - and that’s not just good English and grammar!


Content Keywords:
SEO items for a blog include things like the use of more than one keyword or keyword phrase if it is appropriate. The keywords used should reflect on the actual topic. Keyword density and distribution can play a part here too. Proportionately, the main keyword phrase should occur more than any other word or word phrase in the post. But, the use of all keywords used should flow nicely and be distributed in the post so they make sense.

Linking:
Linking should be looked at in a strategic fashion for SEO and with good anchor text for those links in place. A good SEO will know how and when to include a link in a blog post and when to have internal and/or external links and how the words used to anchor those links should be incorporated. It really is not just about having a link because you think it might be useful or resourceful. Links, internal and external along with the anchor text used can say a lot to the search engine spiders about what is important for the post and the pages the links reference. Certainly, if a link helps the reader, by all means give it to them. But, don’t be surprised if the SEO changes when and where you decide to put that link.

Meta Data
It is at this point that Meta Data for the blog post should also be created by the SEO. It should work hand in hand with the blog header and its content. If for some reason your blog doesn’t give you control over your meta data try to find a way so that you can have that. Meta Data, especially the Title and Meta Description can be another effective and useful part of a blog post if strategically written.

URL – Permalink - Slug
The URL, permalink or slug that some blogs call a page name is an important part of your blog too. Incorporating SEO knowledge in the URL can be very useful in all kinds of ways for your post and for others who might reference it. Some basic standards for a good URL is to have a keyword or keyword-phrase in the name and to keep it as short as possible. No need for dashes between words unless the words can’t be parsed properly or can be parsed incorrectly. My favorite example is this word “mens-exchange”. Take out the dash and put the words together and read it again! Yup…nope, not necessarily what you might want.

Now, it is ready to go live! Wahoo! But, one more thing you might want to make sure about and that is to add it to your XML sitemap file. This makes it easier to alert the spiders to the new post for possibly quicker indexing.

Ok, so if you didn’t quite get it, the best blog has both writers (or bloggers) and SEOs in place, with SEO coming before, during and after to make it the best, most effective blog post your site can have! Don’t forget that you are writing for your readers but if the readers can’t find you then you need the search engines to help! So, let’s get the team together and start writing!

5 NO’s of SEO

The worst part of my job as an Internet Marketing and SEO Consultant is that I am always having to tell my clients “no”. It always feels like I am the one delivering nothing but bad news. I am the one who finds all the problems with your online activity, whether internal or external to the site and its pages, server problems, content issues, social media guffaws, link building craziness, etc, etc. The good news, however, is that I get to help you fix all those problems, issues, guffaws and craziness! Then everyone is happy!

Anyway, here are a few of the “NOs” of SEO that I dealt with this last week with clients:

No! When it was suggested that it was a good idea to add a blog to your site, it did NOT mean that you could copy content from another site!

A blog is most useful if it set up to enhance the current information of your website. It needs to be unique and well written in the same vain that a static website page would be BUT it has the advantage of a more personal touch, time sensitive info can go here too, and/or things that might change later. Blog comes for the words “web log” and is a log of things going on presently. If the information is valid forever, then you might consider a static webpage to add to the site overall. Go back to your old blogs and see if they are still valid and move them to a static page too if you’d like – but be careful how you make the move and consider a 301 redirect if the information goes to a new page.

No! When it was suggested to set up a Twitter account for your business, it did NOT mean say whatever you want, personal, political, or opinionated.

For business, a Twitter account is best for notification and newly updated information about the business. Alerts to sales, specials or new blog post and pages can be done here. This is also a great area for customer control. People can get to you easily in Twitter. You can correct any misconceptions, problems or issues here. You can strike up conversations with like minded or complimentary businesses here too. Don’t forget to “listen” here to see what others are doing and saying. You can learn a lot from other Twitter voices! There are lots of things to do on Twitter without getting personal, political, or opinionated.

No! When it was suggested to set up a custom 404 error page, it did not mean that it should render as a server response of a 200 code.

There are several types of situations that can cause you (and your site) grief if not set up correctly – we could write pages on ways to set this up incorrectly. The main thing is to make sure that if you do generate a pretty custom page to use when a page-not-found occurs is to have these two things working:

1) Make sure a server response error of a 404 is generated to the spiders if they find a bad link and...

2) As an extra safety precaution, add a Meta Robots tag to the custom error page:
meta name="robots" content="noindex"

No! When it was suggested that it was a good idea to have a separate area for test pages to be viewed online, it did not mean that these pages should be shared with the search engine spiders and made index-able too.

If you set up a test area, whether using a sub-domain or separate test directory area of the site or even a totally separated URL, using an IP address or domain name then you really must disallow these areas to be indexed by the spiders until they are ready to go truly live. Having test pages accessible can cause you and your site grief here too depending on the reasons for testing pages – so be careful and protect your self until all is ready.

There are a couple of ways to keep entire websites and individual pages from being crawled and placed in the search engine indexes:

1) At the top level of your website, you can, and should, have a robots.txt file. This is a Disallow file where you can easily disallow every page of a site from being indexed or individual directories and pages. You can get specifics on how to set up a robots.txt file and how to use it at this site: www.robotstxt.org

Note: This file allows for other functionality too – again, maybe another post!

2) At the individual page level, you can add the following Meta Tag in the head area of your pages:
meta name="robots" content="noindex"

Note: This tag also has additional functionality, email me for more info if you need it.

No! When it was suggested that an online Press Release might be a good idea, it did not mean it was a good idea to have links in the press release linking to other websites.

Having a good reason to write a Press Release is great and once released that news and information is out there and can spread like wildfire. These releases are posted using online PR sites, such as www.prweb.com, www.prnewswire.com – this list goes on. But the main take away is that the content is not yours. It is not on your site. It is given to the PR sites to distribute freely. Since it is online, you want it written so that you, your website, is the main draw. You want to budget for the extra expense it can cost to add a link to your PR information and you want that link to be to your site! If it is really important to send the readers to another site for whatever reason, then do your best to have your web page linked to first in the article and then theirs in the next! Do yourself (and your site) that favor!

Also, good anchor text for the links/links can be invaluable here too – oops, another topic for another time – sorry! Enough for today! Gotta go tell some more clients “no”!!

Update To Twitter Abbreviations – What Does _ Stand for in Twitter

Lots of people and businesses are using or incorporating the use of Twitter as part of their online routine. Many of you ask "what does this stand for on Twitter", well, here are a few of the commonly asked for Twitter abbreviations and uses that you all have asked about:

RT – ReTweet

One uses this generally to suggest that another username tweeted the comment and you are re-tweeting for your followers to see too.

You can RT your own stuff too. Example:
RT @lydiafabry Twitter Abreviations Update: http://www.searchvisiblewebsites.com/blog/seoblog.html

An RT suggests that there was already a Tweet about this helpful web page. If the URL you point to is too long for the 140 spaces then there are tools to create shortened URLs, like Bit.ly (http://bit.ly/ ) and others.

OH = OverHeard

One uses this to suggest that they are not responsible for a certain comment they are putting on Twitter but that they simply overheard it from someone else. Generally it is overheard from physically hearing it not seeing it posted somewhere.

DM = Direct Message

The format is to use the letters DM then a space then the username instead of the @username to send a message that only the recipient can see. Example:
DM lydiafabry Don’t tell anyone I sent this!

And no one but I will see your message if you tweet that to me! You can also publically ask people to DM you with information that should stay private and not viewable by others.


Expressions used on Twitter and other “short” social media type areas:

LOL = Laugh Out Loud

LMAO = Laugh My Ass Off

OMG = Oh My God
OMFG = Oh My F%^&ing God

BTW = By The Way

Twitter, Verb or Noun, how is the language spoken?

It is official now, Twitter founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams publicly cleared up the proper way to speak Twitter. They tell us that Twitter is the noun and Tweet is the verb, so…

You can tweet on Twitter but you cannot, or should not, be twittering a tweet!

Need more Twitter tips, see Twitter Helpful Quick Tips from Search Visible Websites.

Recalls and Product Safety for Search Engine Shopping Channels

It’s been interesting setting out to understand how when an item is recalled, like in the case of several Four Paws dog toys, that 3rd party sellers or vendors can’t easily be stopped. Since we spend a lot of time online and after seeing a recent Fox news story update about the sad situation for Chai and Dan regarding the Four Paws pimple ball toy, we decided to see just how many of these toys remained online and through the main search engine shopping channels.

We did find that all three of the top search engines, Google, Yahoo, and MSN (Live Search) had these products still listed in their products databases as of 03/10/2009. We also noticed Amazon had them too. We’ve email friends and connections (we’re lucky because we actually have a few good ones to call) and only one responded. Wait, did I say “good” friends!!! Actually both Yahoo and MSN friends responded back. Yahoo is waiting on the technical team to get back to him so we have to wait. But, MSN made an excellent suggestion. Our friend suggested going to their “webpage removal request” form and see what happens. We gave MSN all the info, links to items listed in their shopping lists and to Four Paws actual dog toys recall page. They wrote us back that help for this was better directed to their shopping FAQ page but we were unable to find anything that would work and no email form or address for this type of request. Nonetheless, all the items we told MSN about miraculously disappeared later that day from their shopping database. Yay!!

Google, well I’m sorry to say that our “friends” seem to respond to other more basic questions but not to ours, not sure why. I don't want to think that they don't care about our dogs?! I know they are currently in travel status so we’ll keep bugging them till we hear. – Actually, we are going to try their “webpage removal request” form too just for the heck of it.

As far as Amazon goes, we did send an email to customer service. Their response back was to go to their "Report a Community Rules Violation" form, which we did but have not heard back yet. We don't have friends there, so maybe that explains it! [tick, tick]

Anyway, we’ll stay on this in hopes of figuring out why there isn’t anything special in place to report official recalled items, dog toys or other! We can easily report malicious or inappropriate web pages, why not dangerous or even deadly recalled products!!

Hey, if you guys know how to request product removals, please shoot us an email or comment! We would love to at least keep our dogs safe here!

SEO/SEM MeetUp Presentation in Los Angeles, CA

Tomorrow will be my first general audience presentation session on the topic of Search Engine Optimization and Marketing - and I only have an hour. For many years now I have performed many training sessions and presentations but all have been to specific individual clients – business groups and one-on-one – but always very specific to their individual websites and their specific needs to addressing SEO and SEM issues. I also generally spend anywhere from 1/2 a day to multiple days on their training. I don't know how well I'll do given only an hour! I hope to cover everything without having to take the motor-mouth approach!

I also thought that I’d find a need to be more generalized and limited in my topic coverage for tomorrow but kept finding that bringing specific examples to the table can explain things far better. So, I will be interested to see how much this general group will “get” on the topics covered on SEO and SEM as compared to my always happy and complimentary clients of the past [I actually love teaching and training]. I have picked one of my old client sites for examples for tomorrow that I was only able to help for a few short months – company changes, new CEO and economic issues kept me from continuing my work with them. I was sad to loose this company and website because it had so much going for them, they just needed to know how to guide their efforts and where to prioritize items.

I will also try to video tape tomorrow’s session and post it later – so you’ll hopefully see if it is successful!

In the meantime, and for the folks that will be at my SEO/SEM session tomorrow asking for this list, I am pre-posting some helpful websites, tools, services and info all around the topic of SEO and SEM. Know that there are so many useful tools that this list is barely a sampling – but hope you find it useful too.

Keyword Research Tools:
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal - Google AdWords
www.keyworddiscovery.com/ - Trellian Keyword Discovery
http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/ - WordTracker

Google Toolbar:
http://toolbar.google.com – IE and Firefox Toolbar with Google Search

Analytics Tools:
www.google.com/webmasters/tools - Google WebMaster Tools
www.google.com/analytics/ - Google Analytics
www.google.com/alerts – Alerts on your queries for Web, News, etc
www.google.com/trends - Search and compare trends for queries
www.compete.com – Compete – track competition
www.linkdiagnosis.com - Link analysis – Firefox add-on
siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com – Yahoo – pages indexed and inbound links
www.archive.org – Check the age and history of a website.

Ranking Monitors:
http://ranking.thumbshots.com/ - Thumbshots Rankings
http://semrush.com/ - SEMRush
www.seotoolset.com – Bruce Clay SEO Tools
www.webposition.com - Web Position 4 (Gold)
www.seobook.com – Rank Checker - Firefox add-on

Social Media & PR:
www.facebook.com – Facebook – social utility
http://twitter.com – Twitter – social messaging
www.linkedin.com – LinkedIn – networking tool
http://checkusernames.com/ - Social Media check domain ownership

General SEO Tools & Info:
www.google.com/webmasters/ - General SEO Website Info
www.seobook.com – Misc Information and Tool
www.seotoolset.com – Bruce Clay SEO Tools
www.seomoz.org/tools - SEOmoz general SEO Tools

Blog/Website Services:
WordPress
Blogger
Blogsome
Movable Type
Textpattern
B2evolution
LiveJournal
MSN Spaces
Squarespace
TypePad
Yahoo 360