searchengineoptimization

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web...

It’s not just Google closing products these days. Yahoo announced today that it’s shutting down a full 10 of its mobile apps across both the iOS and Android platforms. The list of Yahoo mobile apps being shut down is as follows: Yahoo Meme (iPad and iPhone) Yahoo Mim (iPad) Yahoo... Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web...

According to the Wall Street Journal, next week Facebook will file its “S-1″ and related documents in preparation for an IPO that could raise a whopping $10 billion and would potentially value the company at $100 billion. As the WSJ reports, the mega-offering would vault Facebook into... Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

Bing is reportedly now out of betaphase in Deutschland. According to Microsoft, Bing has 10 million users or 20 percent of active internet users in Germany: Mittlerweile benutzen fast 10 Millionen Nutzer in Deutschland regelmäßig Bing, das sind 20 Prozent der aktiven Internetnutzer hierzulande.... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

Free speech is one of those topics that always sends people in a tizzy. Most would agree that censorship is a bad thing, but at the same time, it’s not right to yell “fire” in a crowded theater. Unless, of course, the theater really is on fire.

This idea is tricky enough when you’re talking about books and speeches and what people say on TV. Social media, makes it even trickier. Take Twitter. It’s a public forum where people can feel free to say whatever they want — to a point. Twitter doesn’t allow excessive spam or threats and they don’t allow you to print the contact information for your ex-girlfriend. Common sense stuff.

But what happens when people want to Tweet about controversial issues? What happens when they come down on the pro side of an issue most people would say no to? Should Twitter step in and delete offending posts?

I can hear you all shouting, “no way.” And that was Twitter’s stance last year. This year, they’re singing a slightly different tune.

Twitter has announced their ability and intention to block selected content by country. As an example, they refer to the ban on pro-Nazi content in France and Germany. Sounds like a big job. Still, they say they can do it and they’ll even notify the Tweeter with information on why they were cut off.

Marketing Pilgrim’s Social Channel is proudly sponsored by Full Sail University, where you can earn your Masters of Science Degree in Internet Marketing in less than 2 years. Visit FullSail.edu for more information.

I’m sure, some people will get upset about this type of censorship, but not me. Even if you bypass the rules of decent human interaction (which many do), it’s Twitter’s playground. They allow us all to come and play on their swings, but in the end, it’s their place and they can do what they want.

For the sake of doing business, Twitter does try to please all of the people all of the time. That’s obviously why they’ve decided to make this wishy-washy statement about how they “might” take down content that offends a whole nation.

I wish Twitter would take an even stronger stance and delete Tweets with inappropriate sexual content, foul language and abusive language. If people want to communicate like that in private, go for it — in an email — but I don’t see why it’s okay to put it on a public forum where everyone can see it.

What do you think? Should Twitter have the right to delete posts as they see fit? Or is this just the first step toward wholesale censorship?

Xander: “Sure he says he’s a high school student, but I can say I’m a high school student.”

Buffy: “You are.”

Xander: “Okay, but I can also say that I’m an elderly Dutch woman. Get me? I mean, who’s to say I’m not if I’m in the elderly Dutch chat room?”

Xander makes a good point. The one cool and also creepy thing about communicating over the internet, is you can be anyone you want to be; a high school student, an elderly Dutch woman or Snow White.

People create alternate personas in order to be better than who they are or to fit in with the crowd on a particular site. People also hide their real identity to prevent embarrassment or for a more nefarious reason. They also do it to stop websites from using their data.

eMarketer reports that 88% of people surveyed have intentionally left website registration information blank or inserted false information. That would lead us to believe that they don’t want their information out there. But maybe filling out all those forms is simply too tiresome.

The easy way around that? The social sign-in. Sign in now using Facebook or Twitter! It’s one button (or close to it) and in Facebook’s case, it means you can’t mask who you are. That’s good for marketers. It also appears to be good for consumers since 77% of online buyers said they think sites should offer social signups.

Marketing Pilgrim’s Social Channel is proudly sponsored by Full Sail University, where you can earn your Masters of Science Degree in Internet Marketing in less than 2 years. Visit FullSail.edu for more information.

Up until recently, I resisted the urge to go with the social signup, knowing that it would give sites the full 411 on me. But I’ve come to find that the social signup is the way to go. No more passwords, no more forms, it’s easy, not just when registering but on every visit after.

The smart companies are the ones who give out a bonus to encourage Facebook sign-ups. I work with one that offers a reward point bonus, another gives Facebook friends a discount at their webstore. It’s not a lot, but it’s enough to wipe out any doubts folks have about giving you their real identity.

How do you feel about social sign-ups?

Here’s our daily recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the web. From Marketing Land: Infographic: Most Popular Conversion Tests Are you testing different things on your web site? Changing up your landing page copy, your... Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

Search Marketing Now will present “Mobile Search: The Agency Opportunity,” on Tuesday, January 31 at 1 PM EST. The free webcast features Steven Schuler and Patrick Peters, both from Yahoo!’s mobile division. They’ll give an overview of the current mobile landscape, then... Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Search In Pics: David Beckham At Google, Google’s Moscow Office & Bing Bar In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

Search Marketing Now will present “Mobile Search: The Agency Opportunity,” on Tuesday, January 31 at 1 PM EST. The free webcast features Steven Schuler and Patrick Peters, both from Yahoo!’s mobile division. They’ll give an overview of the current mobile landscape, then... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

Yesterday Search Engine Land reported confirmation from Google that Panda 3.2 happened about a week ago. After a fairly long break it seemed another change was imminent at some point. But what’s interesting about this report is that Google noted this as a “data refresh”. So what does that mean? Well, some individuals in Webmasterworld reported seeing a rebound in traffic around the time frame of the 3.2 update. Of course others are seeing greater losses or even first time traffic losses. In spite of the fact that some sites which previously passed the Panda filters are now getting caught, is it possible that “data refreshes” could also offer a glimpse of a Panda reprieve?

Everybody Hurts For most people who got slapped during any one of the previous Panda updates, there was generally a good reason for it. If a site has thin content designed to host ad sense, ok, we knew what to point to as the weakness. But for every Pandalized site with these issues, you could almost as easily find a well-ranking one with similar or worse problems. And though the demotion may be slow in coming for some sites (Panda updates have been happening in waves for almost a year now) apparently those that slipped through the early updates, are not impervious. You’d also find the rare site that, though perhaps not exceptional, seemed more like collateral damage than a flagrant offender.

Whether you were hit deservedly or not, these refreshes shouldn’t be a temptation to wait for the karma train to come around and pick you up. They should be more like call to action for a chance at redemption.

Getting out For Good Behavior?

The thing that Panda is ultimately, if imperfectly, looking to do is find and rank the sites which have the most original, valuable content on any subject. A Panda hit is painful, but it’s an opportunity to make improvements that will, in the end, make for a better, stronger site overall. The work may be hard, and can often feel unrewarded. But this latest update could possibly be a beacon of hope.

If Panda updates are coming in the form of data refreshes, perhaps those sites that lost traffic and rankings are getting a second look. If this is the case, then it’s worth fighting the good fight.

If a site can see a rebound as a result of substantial improvements, then taking corrective measures merits the effort. Is it guaranteed? Nope. But at least we have an inkling that in going through “data refreshes” Google is attempting to acknowledge these changes.

So if we’re being optimistic, we can choose to see refreshes as a chance at Panda parole. But it requires the right course of action. Just like real jail, if you aren’t really rehabilitated, you’re probably not going anywhere.

Obviously, this is just my philosophical musing on the potential ramifications of the most recent update. What’s your take?

Think of this scenario: You have a new business, and you want to promote it online. Of course, you’ll need a website and apply search engine optimization strategies for it. But when you approached an online marketing firm, they politely told you that SEO is not the solution. As a result, you’ll ask yourself why. [...]

The following video was done by Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz. He has some fantastic tips on how you can help the boring pages of your site rank better. Follow SEJ on Twitter @sejournal

Follow SEJ on Twitter @sejournal

While it’s important that you gain customer reviews for your business, it can be frustrating to receive a negative feedback. However, it’s best not to let your emotions take over. Breathe and then respond to negative feedback professionally, the same way you’ll approach a positive review. Continue reading to know how you can respond to [...]

Are you testing different things on your web site? Changing up your landing page copy, your navigation and other elements can lead to better conversion. The people at Monetate has assembled an infographic looking at the frequency of testing and types of testing that are conducted. The second part... Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

When you run a corporate blog sometimes it’s difficult to come up with interesting topics on a regular basis. In the past I’ve spoken about a few options like creating a series, how to posts and evergreen content. In this article I’d like to tackle another option, blogging to your existing customers, and turning them into return/repeat customers.

If you are selling products or services, chances are you good you probably have 10 – 20 questions your customers ask about how to use products, correctly, better or more effectively. Typically most companies create an FAQ where they answer all of these questions on one page. While this does work it’s not an optimal solution from an SEO traffic perspective.

Unless your questions and answers are very short, ideally you want to create a single page optimized for each question, this gives you the ability to create narrowly focussed posts around specific keyword phrases that will rank better and drive more traffic. Bear in mind this is something of a balancing act, and you may find these posts don’t get enough traffic on their own and have to be combined (see how to do a content audit) , so there is some experimentation, trial and error involved.

The next thing you need to consider is targeting and writing your posts using the same natural language, phrases,and queries that your consumers use, and not using your own internal company terminology. For example one consulting client I had insisted on using the term “waste receptacles” instead of “garbage pails”. This “wisdom” was firmly entrenched all the way up to the “C” level and they were completely inflexible on the matter, no matter how much keyword data I showed them to the contrary. We ended up doing some custom programming to catch internal searches for “garbage pails” and reroute the traffic to “waste receptacles” but we never ranked for those terms in the search engines.

Once you’ve got the basic questions covered, you can expand showing them how to use your products in new ways they never thought off, how to take advantage of advanced features, and use little known aspects of your products. You can even look for opportunities to tie into social media asking customers to submit pictures of their products in use. Cuisinart holds a recipe swap every few months, home improvement stores look for before and after shots, and fashion companies look for UGC photos of people wearing their clothing, shoes or fashion accessories.

One last option to consider is optimizing for some of your competitions keywords. Bear in mind SEO for your competition is not without consequences and not for the faint of heart, so think about it before you decide to start down that path.

Enough with the theory lets look at some real world examples of this in place. I’m a huge fan of the Sonos in home music system (full disclosure I was sent a review unit in the past see my Sonos Review post for more details). However to be honest I really really love it, in fact I’m a huge brand advocate of the product. Spend 5 minutes talking to me about it at a conference or on twitter and you’ll see me affection for the product is genuine. Sonos regularly blogs about how to use their system and how to get the most out of it with posts like Using line in on Sonos products or how to use AirPlay on Sonos Music systems. In fact they have a whole tips & tricks section.

Another example is the Whole Foods blog. In addition to recipes they have posts about how to cook with styles customers may not be familiar with like learn how to cook broiled fish or how to use new food types like Quiona (it’s a small grain like cous-cous).

The key lesson from these examples is don’t blog just to get new customers, blog to reach and help your existing customers, if you do it correctly they will stay repeat customers and pass along their experiences with their family and friends, and share them on Facebook, twitter, Google+, and Pinterest.

So what are the takeaways from this post:

• Look at your popular customer service questions and inquiries and look for ways to create optimized posts around those topics
• Use natural language and phrases your customers use, avoid internal terminology and marketing language
• Look for opportunities to show advanced or little known features
• Make your customers smarter this turns them into brand advocates
• While there is some danger optimizing for your competitions keywords can sometimes work to your advantage

photo credit: Shutterstock/darren Baker

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This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review. How to Write Blog Posts For Your Existing and Repeat Customers

There is a common misconception about the return on investment (ROI) via social media. For reasons most of us do not understand, Social Media has been classified primarily as a marketing tool by many. Because of this misconception at the foundation of a social media strategy, calculating actual ROI can be a circuitous and inexact [...]

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Turmoil is all around us, old assumptions no longer valid.

Richard Florida deftly lays out the scenario for the current economic and spatial Great Reset. Bob Garfield outlines the Chaos Scenario in traditional media and advertising (upon which I comment favorably here). Friendly, iron-fist in a velvet glove American liberalism-cum-imperialism is laid to waste in Chris Hedges’ Death of the Liberal Class. Seth Godin refers to a “forever recession,” somehow managing to remain optimistic (“and the coming revolution”) on behalf of the self-starters who can connect with markets by becoming extraordinary.

In light of this you’d think it would have percolated through to even the most frozen-in-amber members of the business-as-usual, Boomer-ec0nomic-boom-beneficiaries, that something is permanently different. As in not the same as before.

Yet a big ad agency demographer writing for Ad Age opines that the “millennials just might save our economic bacon” if they would “just begin acting a bit more like boomers.” Supposedly a statistician, he concludes the piece with “optimists such as myself continue to believe that the all-powerful primal human desire to have a home and produce children will prevail over whatever economic and political obstacles stand in the way”.

Let’s review.

In many societies around the world, the “all-powerful priman human desire” has taken a back seat to a declining fertility rate. Some countries have dropped from a fertility rate of 7 or 8 to just over 2 in a quarter of a century. In Europe and Japan, fertility rates are extremely low and the result (unless immigration increases) is an aging population and a smaller workforce, setting up an undeniable future fiscal burden for pensions and healthcare that can’t be outrun or outgrown. Even “Catholic” countries like Costa Rica have gotten into the action, some with fertility rates below 2. Check out the data on Iran, while you’re at it.

It seems nearly everywhere you go, people are having fewer babies. The blame lies where? Economics (affordability of families), more time spent in advanced study, cultural changes (less religion), women’s equality, women’s interest in careers, modernization, and a few other things.

Flip ahead to marriage and home life. Average age of marriage in many societies climbs inexorably towards (and eventually past?) 35. A skyrocketing percentage of adults over 30 (and yes, over 40 and over 50) live as “singletons”. Changing habits, changing tastes. This is permanent.

You can go broke waiting around for yesterday’s demographic trends and yesterday’s assumptions of secular, continuous growth in “this sector or that sector” or “the economy”. You’ll also be mistaken if you think “millennials” will soon become receptive to the same old media messages, broadcast in the same old ways. “Primal urges” don’t appear to trump the need to get more granular with your analysis in this, the most granular of ages ever seen.

Busy week in search this week - with Google confirming a Panda update, which I labeled 3.2. Bing seems to really love regional sites in their regional indexes. Google added a bunch of new features to Webmaster Tools...