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I know the millions of folks who visit my site consider me their personal interactive marketing guru, quit laughing… really.  Who is your interactive/internet marketing guru? What sites do you visit to keep up with the ever evolving internet and interactive world?  I’m going to add a category to the blog roll called Guru and Marketing Sites so send some good stuff to add!

I can’t keep up with them all… so share your Guru in the comments section!

• David Meerman Scott — Author of “The New Rules Of Marketing & PR” (my internet marketing bible)
• The Long Tail — Site of ideas based on the book.
• Black Rim Glasses — VP of Technology at Warner Records
• Wired Magazine — If you don’t subscribe.  You should. Really.
• PR Squared — Social Media and Marketing
• iMedia Connection –  A great site with a great daily email about marketing online.
• Engadget — Site dedicated to gadgets, computers, future stuff
• Mashable! – Site for news and happenings with social networks.

That’s my short list-  I have plenty more in the link list to the right.

Tell me who your guru is…

Today Renee and I were blessed with our second child… his name is Emerson.  He’s only 20 months younger than his sister Emma.  We are super stoked and just thankful that we were chosen to raise these two.

Thanks for the incredible amount of emails, twitters, facebook comments and notes-  Who say’s the internet community isn’t a place for real people to connect.  Thanks!

I’ve gotten this question a few times and while there are posts all over the Internet, this subject continues to evolve. Here’s my experience with both studying and implementing SEO and ways to use it to increase your site’s traffic.

First off SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. This is the process (ongoing process) of managing and adapting your site so that search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, ASK and others can find you. The reason SEO is important is because you want to go beyond being found, you want to be found first on that search engine list. The first three/four links on the first page of any search engine is gloryland. This excludes the paid advertising that is found above or on the sidebar of the actual search findings. I’m discussing natural SEO only this round…

Getting started you should know that there are two sides to SEO. On-page and off-page and both are exactly what they say they are. On-page SEO relates to content that is put on and managed in your site. While on-page SEO isn’t weighted as much as off-page SEO you should always start with your on-page SEO. Off-page SEO relates to the incoming links and how the links are ranked from an incoming referral. I’m going to break this down into two sections to cover both on-page and off-page SEO. I’m going to talk a lot about Google specifically because of the massive amount of search traffic they provide. Google currently weighs the off-page SEO around 70-75% in relation to your search engine ranking, a very important piece of the puzzle for sure. The on-page then accounts for the other 25-30%

On-page SEO

The on-page SEO consists of the following (depending on the search engine some are more important than others):

• An optimized page title. The page title should be consistent with the content on that specific page
• An optimized URL. Use keywords that are specific to the page when possible in your url.
• Optimized section/page headings. This one gets skipped a lot! Use the header tag when you title sections of your page, Google looks for a code that is specific to your headings (this is the <h1> tag).
• Optimized meta data. This content is “behind the scenes” on your website,
  • Keywords: Keywords are not calculated by Google anymore, however they are still important with Yahoo and others. Again, optimize based on content of specific page
  • Description: This is the description of the page. A good description isn’t longer that 2 lines and is specific to its page. The description is read by search engines and will be displayed in search results.
• Optimized images. When building your site or uploading pics make sure you name the image according to the context that it will be used. Use the “ALT” tag, this is the text that will be displayed if the image doesn’t load correctly, use descriptive words of the image.
• Optimized content. When writing copy for your pages use keywords you have already defined for that page.
• Optimize internal links. Use text based links internally. Use these links sparingly to point to important content on your site.
• Traffic and Analytics. Don’t forget to include tracking scripts or codes to your site. These analytics will help you keep up with what works and what doesn’t. Google analytics is free and very detailed.

You can begin to see the consistency from the start to the end for your on-page SEO. You are making sure the search engine knows everything it can about this page. It let’s the search engine know that this content is legit from the page title to the description to the actual content. KaBam! On your way to high rankings for your pages.

Off-Page SEO

The off-page SEO is more important when it comes to ranking your page, but it cannot exist with out the on-page SEO and this includes content! Off-page SEO is basically incoming links, who is linking to you and how? Search engines use these incoming links to see who is linking to you and why. This validates your content, it basically says you have something worth looking at and Google says “let me see!”.

A quick overview on how links are ranked by Google and other search engines. Search engines give every site a PR Score. This score is based on the incoming links that the site has. The search engine then uses this score to rank the links as they pertain to the sites they are linking to (ranking the outbound link according to the content being linked to). Knowing this, here are some specifics that will affect the ranking of the linked site.

• The PR score of the referring site and page. If the site linking to your site is CNN then you can bet that Google will increase your off-page SEO based on the quality of that link. If it’s your mom’s cats blog then the incoming page rank won’t count as much.
• How many links are coming from the referring site? Less links from a specific page (not overall incoming links) means that your site is important to that page thus helping your individual incoming link ranking.
• Keywords in the link. If the link says “click here” rather than “click here for info on your mom’s cat” then Google won’t understand as well, it just sees “click here”. The second has keywords that are relative about your mom’s cat. If the link takes you to a page about your mom’s cat then guess what? The link has a better ranking because it has the keywords that are specific to the link.
• Age of links. The longer the link has been around the better.
• Are the links reciprocal? If the reciprocal links are actually links to quality pages and content that relate to your site and their site then it’s good stuff. However, search engines look down on links that they believe are just link exchanges in an effort to increase SEO. Yes, Google bots are that smart!

Those are some of the basics regarding incoming links and how they are graded.

How to manage or pro actively increase your inbound links.

• List your site in directories. Some sites to list in: Yahoo.com, DMOZ.org, zoominfo.com or aboutus.org (not comprehensive, there are 1000s of directory sites)
• Social Media sites are places to also build incoming links. These links are less likely to give SEO credit unless updated and actively maintained with relative content. I would test a few to see if they are giving off the quality of links that you are looking for.
• Press Releases. Press releases can be a great tool to create inbound links and often times from quality sites. Many PR services have a high PR score resulting in better inbound links.

It’s very important to avoid link farms, paid link engines, link exchanges and the such. This may seem perfectly legit to the average user because you are linking to another site to help them out or so they can help you out. That’s exactly why Google doesn’t like them. Google looks at this as ways to beat the system. Doing this is the quickest way to lower your PR score and fall far into search engine oblivion.

Wow. That’s a lot of writing!!! I’m sure there are things that I over looked or that have changed even since I wrote this but I hope this gives a basic overview of Search Engine Optimization and how it works. Like anything please contact me with questions or leave a comment below.

Too much to read right now? Download this post in PDF format to read later or share!

This post is all drinking from Watercooler Wednesday today @ Ethos!

There seems to be a guru or internet marketing expert everywhere these days.  Some are legit and others have gotten that self proclaimed title just because they have been using Myspace since the first week or two it began.  The differences between legit and non-legit online marketers are those that are talking about it and those that are implementing and creating quality traffic and leads.

When I launched an indie record label back in 2004 I knew the only way to survive in the music business was to think outside of the box.  The goal was to compete and market completely online.  This paid off for both myself and the artists.  The royalties and profits were much higher than what they would have been if we had to print/duplicate/store physical product.  Creating online opportunities was the only thing I had.

Recently I’ve taken that experience and translated it successfully for a real estate developer in SC.  I haven’t left the music business but I needed a different challenge mentally!  Since jumping into this world we have already went through 3 different interactive agencies.  I figured I could help spread the love on how to pick your partner or partners and how to make these partnerships last.  Here are some tips to consider when looking for your next interactive partner.

• Look for a partner not a vendor.  If you find a vendor, then it will be just that.  A partner is someone who will come on and dream with you, never say no to your ideas and will help guide your initiatives.
• Do research, real digging type of research. Not just on the company but the team members or individual you are hoping to partner with.  Some companies have great portfolios but portfolios don’t always give the whole story.  The creative genius that launched your favorite masterpiece may have moved on already!
• Spend time with the person or team before you commit. Dinner, golf, drinks, xbox-  basically get to know the person or team, personalities are very important when matching creative minds… this is in all creative scenarios- artists, musicians, thinkers, dreamers and others.
• If you need more than one person or use multiple agencies, involve all parties.  We have a group that is really pushing the limits with our creative, but I ‘m using a different programmer/software genius to implement.  All parties must communicate and all need to get past that whole competitive push and talk.  One of our former vendors hinted all the time about getting the “rest” of our business.  It got aggravating and most vendors can become long term partners by just sticking to the plans and going beyond the call of duty.  Pushy vendors come off as salesmen who’ll say anything to get your business.
• Outline duties and expectations up front. If the partner says they can do this and that- have them show you how they plan on accomplishing it.  Make them give examples and most importantly outline milestones and goals to review progress.
• Make sure they understand the “current” internet and internet marketing. I say current internet because it continues to evolve.  Just because someone can build a website does not mean they know jack about SEO or marketing, two keys in driving quality traffic to your sites.  SEO marketing is huge when it comes to your budget.  I recently cut our Google and Yahoo ad spending by 75% because of proper SEO implementation.  Even with that cut we have continued to increase visitors and traffic with a huge cut in costs.  Natural SEO is the goal, not spending $1000s monthly on paid advertising.
• Stay up to date with technology. Some figure they aren’t technology minded enough to guide or tell a developer how to work.  However, anyone can keep up with current trends and technologies just by reading a few blogs and source sites.  Make sure your potential partner does the same.  I’ve ran into developers who had no clue what Wordpress was or how it worked, yet they claimed to be blogging experts.  I don’t expect everyone to know the inner workings of Wordpress, but at least know what it is and why people are using it.
• Use Project Management Software. I use Basecamp for keeping up with projects.  Basecamp is an online project management and collaboration hub.  It’s easy to create projects and assign multiple partners or agencies specific tasks and milestones.  Request an ongoing site like this from your partner so that both parties can stay up to date on progress and needs.

Those are some talking and thought points when searching for an interactive or internet marketing partner/agency.  When you find a few potential partners, here are some questions to keep in mind when discussing the possibilities of work.

1. How do you or your agency keep up with technology and current trends?
2. How do you plan multiple projects and how are they prioritized?
3. What analytic tools do you use and why?  How are those reports translated and delivered to me?
4. How do you stay ahead of the competition and how can you help my company stay ahead?
5. In the last year how many times have your over shot your budget?  Came in under budget?  How was it handled and why did it happen?
6. Can you give me a list of your current projects/clients and permission to contact regarding your work?
7. How am I supported after a project is done?
8. Do you blog or twitter?  How do you communicate your expertise to the rest of the internet?
9. Do you test on the most popular operating systems and web browsers?
10. Can you develop and support non standard versions of my site or brand? This can be other outlets like mobile apps, GPS based marketing, social marketing placement, mobile versions of a website and anything else you can dream up.

Seems like a lot to think about but there are many companies that are just now getting in touch with their interactive and internet marketing souls and all seem to have the same questions.

I hope this helps!  If your company is looking for an interactive partner or agency and are still uneasy about the process feel free to drop me a line or ask some questions below.

—–UPDATE—–  I just received this via email:  If You Want To Hire A Crappy SEO Firm - Awesome read!