Okay, I finally HAVE to do it.  I connected my KizmeTech FB page to my Twitter account, and I’m going to start to tweet soon.  To say I’ve been reluctant would be an understatement.  Part of my reluctance is due to the barrenness of the landscape on Twitter to the un-anointed.  Part of it has to do with the silliness of the name, it’s just not dignified to run around talking about tweeting with my clients, which leads to the last reason, my clients are just not ready for it!  They’ve had so much new to get used to lately…

To say that I am converted is perhaps an over-statement, there’s some lingering reluctance.  So what put me over the edge to give it a try?

1.  It works.  I did some competition research recently on a particular keyphrase.  There were these two sites, same services, different domain age, but everything else was very similar including link popularity!  One fed their tweets as news onto their home page giving some really useful tips.  It was the younger of the two domains by several years.  It was WAY ahead of it’s peer.  Showed up ahead of directories in a major city.  No other individual websites came up until page two except for this ONE GUY.

2.  Matt Cutts webmaster videos and other of my SEO resources are now only available by following them on Twitter.  So here goes.  I’ve been a believer in blogging for years now, but I STILL don’t do it enough.  Let’s see how the Twittering goes.  I actually think I’ll have more success, because they are by nature (as a micro-blogging platform) shorter posts. and now that my Facebook status updates feed my Twitter account, I’m in like Flynn!

Come along and share your thoughts!  I’d love to hear some stories…

No design, no search, no category navigation, no subscribe button.  Awesome readership, huge success.

If you haven’t heard of the movie Julie & Julia, it’s about a 30-year-old woman who hasn’t achieved what she’d hoped while her friends are doing multi-million dollar deals and in despair, turns her love of cooking into a really hot blog project.  She decides to cook all of Julia Childs recipes, 500+ recipes, in a year and blog daily about the process.

Her husband put up her blog on blogspot in just a few minutes, there was no thought to navigation or anything we always consider when designing blogs for our clients…

But she had three things that are absolutely VITAL to successful blogging:

1. Focus - it was a project, it was about cooking Julia Childs and very little else.
2. Commitment - she wrote every day, original content
3. Personality - she had fun with it, was a fantastic writer, her quirky personality really came shining through.

These are really good things to remember!
At the close of the project, she had lots of proposed book and movie deals.

We can’t all be educated at Amherst College, and we don’t all have the luxury to start this kind of project.  But we can think about our niche and really stick to content that is related, we can look at our commitment to writing (ouch, I just really gave myself a good slap for even saying that) and we can put a stop to the stilted business-y language and let our personalities shine through a litle more.  I am planning to start this myself!  Maybe when my kids are out of high school… in 15 years…

Blogging is easy. Yes, really. And it’s even easy to get search engines to find you so they can share your thoughts with others.

Stop thinking about this as writing and start realizing blogs are all about having a conversation with the world.

Before I launch into my ideas and research results about how to get the most SEO benefit from your blog, I must share a couple things — one primary purpose of a blog is to establish your expertise in a particular field, second is for search engine benefit (though I acknowledge that’s WHY most do it). But what a blog is not is a place to directly market products or services. All posts should be helpful and/or educational, never “markety”.

OK, that said, now just Start a Conversation. Posts that result in ongoing conversations stay at the top of search results.

Clients come to me amazed by how much traffic they get for some of their blog posts, and how they begin to rise to the top for keywords they’ve been working to achieve visibility. Then these same happy clients are crushed when a month later their article has disappeared from sight, or site as the case may be.

It’s been my observation, and pretty well known that there’s a “news cycle” for posts, news articles, and all things published. That cycle lasts about 28 days. Consider that every comment on a post is “new” content others are adding to your site. You continue extending that news cycle without having to write a word.

So, what makes some posts easier to talk about than others? Having a pulse on your passion. A conversation is started when you are passionately and knowledgeably talking about a topic others want to know about. Staying current about the issues going on in your field is the easiest way to keep that pulse.

To unearth underserved content needs in your profession do regular, brief keyword research. It’s kind of like going on a fishing expedition. Start at www.seobook.com and use their keyword tool.  Brainstorm for 10 minutes or so and then plug in 25 or 30 root keywords and see what phrases people are looking for and use them in your post titles.

Passion + Expertise + Hot Topic = CONVERSATION!

Then, after you write your post, it’s time to leverage your social media networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and others. Enhance your channels of distribution by adding audio, video and images to your post and distribute them via Flickr, YouTube, iTunes and every place else.

If, like me, you have a blog that is underutilized (in other words I haven’t written a blog post in a LONG time because of client priorities), it is all the more necessary to do a little research before you sitting down to write.

But remember, it’s the observations, epiphanies and credible rumors that will generate enthusiasm and curiosity for readers – who in turn will want to start that conversation.

It’s just having a conversation, and hopefully starting more conversations, about the topic you are most expert in, passionate about and building your authority and web presence at the same time.

I am using this to help ease the way for traditional marketers and small business owners into the blogosphere and on-line community participation to give them that edge, but it’s really about all your marketing efforts. Just read this article on my favorite blog, and got inspired.
Relationships and community are being enhanced and built on-line. Funny, in the 90’s, during the dot com frenzy in which I was fully entrenched, we on-line enthusiasts were accused of destroying a sense of community. Now it seems as if we’re re-establishing it in a world where it is sorely lacking. Go us!

On-line where things could be so impersonal, to have a conversation and build relationships and community is the path to success. For years now we’ve been saying product is product now. It’s the value add that makes people decide on one vendor or another. One step further, it’s the trust and familiarity with PEOPLE behind the product and service.

Let’s get involved with each other!

The Design vs. SEO question has come up so often in my career that it really does warrant a blog post.

So many business owners want their home page to be gorgeous, AND think that means little and often NO content. I would like to redefine beautiful design in the web industry. The current misconception is that a beautiful design means three things:

1. The entire home page fits “above the fold”

2. There is lots of movement and color

3. Content is for interior pages and less is more on the home page

The redefinition take into consideration:

1. “Above the Fold” - This concept in itself is not sustainable as the designer and business owner have no idea or control over the size and resolution of the visitor’s monitor. The average monitor size and resolution is growing so are you willing to redesign in a year or so? Also, (and more importantly) search engines use the home page to find out what you deem important on interior pages. People have done studies on this concept. Here’s the article I read this morning that inspired me to write this post.

2. Movement and color - As a user/buyer I think less is more here, for sure! I’ve seen home pages that are entirely built in Flash. Most people have landed on a particular page based on a search. The home page should clearly let them know they’ve found what they are looking for and point them to more information about that topic. These days, with new search friendly animation you can certainly use flash and Ajax and other “Web 2.0″ technologies to do exactly that. I have rarely seen it done well and is usually distracting. Often, because the business owner doesn’t understand what is SEO friendly and what isn’t and the web developer wants the job done quickly and profitably, the appropriate technologies and methodologies to achieve SEO advantage as well as the desired “effect” is not even attempted. Even if the business owner knew about these things, is developing an Ajax solution in the budget? Simplify.

3. Content is for the interior? Just like in modern warfare, the front line has disappeared. Every page is a “landing” page. The official home page, being the top page regarding the directory hierarchy (unless it’s flat) and having the appropriate home page name (index, home, default, etc.) is more of a signpost to the search engines about the most important information on the site than a “welcome” page to searchers.

The bottom line and sustainable concept here is - the home page content should be as long as is needed to emphasize the importance of interior pages, to create an intuitive experience for the visitor and to provide the most useful information possible.

The best idea for the home page as it relates to content is to keep it fresh! If you have a blog, feed the teasers to your site’s home page. Post industry news articles there. Or just go update it on a regular basis. Stagnant home page content will not rank as well as frequently updated content.

Feedblitz’s Online Marketing Blog is one of my favorite “must-read” resources.  I subscribe and read daily.  Here’s an exerpt from a recent post that warrants more discusssion:

 Specifically, David Bailey from Google shared these five tips (some obvious, some maybe not) to take advantage of the specialized results:

1. Publish high quality, well captioned images

Well captioned is key here.  Don’t miss out on the alt attribute opportunity, but make sure they represent what the image shows, don’t keyword stuff image captions.  Also, open a Flikr account and put your images that aren’t on your site up there!

2. Create a Google video sitemap

Or any sitemap.  The key here is to have text links to all of your pages for the search engines to follow.  If you have dynamic pages, this is especially important!  Make sure there’s a link to your sitemap on every page…

3. Update business listings in local business center

Just posted about this.  If you’re not focusing on local search, start now.  It’s free and easy and becoming more and more important to being found on the web by people ready to buy!  Get a gmail account and a Yahoo! account and submit your business.  Also, put the address of your company in the footer or sidebar of your site and put up some real reviews - using the city names of the reviewer of your products or services.

4. Submit your feed to Google product search

Google offers a way to submit your product(s) or service(s) four different ways, individual items, a data feed of many items, a link to your on-line store or an API where you can sell right from Google results.  Again, free and easy!

5. Create a high-quality company blog

Couldn’t agree more.  Blogging can be so powerful and is so misunderstood by the average small business owner.  Do yourself a favor, investigate the power of blogging.   A great resource is the Blogger’s Blogger Rich Brooks of flyte new media to learn more…  He’s my old boss and knows more about how to make your blog a success than anyone I know.

If you’re using Google at all, you’ll notice that when you search for something in a particular town, you get a map and listings that fit your search criteria in that area at the top of your search WITHOUT using the local tab.

So how do you get into the local search index?  Well, sometimes it happens naturally, putting your address in the footer or sidebar of every page of your site is a great way to make sure that happens.  Or you can get a free gmail account, login to google and go to the Local Business Center and add your business!  Simple as that.

 Yahoo has the same thing, can’t hurt to get listed there as well! 

WebProNews reported that SMEX - West covered Search Marketing from a “holistic” standpoint.  Here’s an exerpt.

Universal and/or blended search incorporates data from local maps and results, images, videos, blogs, forums, whatever’s out there. Personalized search whittles all that down based on user behavior. Soon, each person may have a different set of search results from the next person’s.

To succeed in that online environment, businesses are going to have to learn to be everywhere, managing an online presence from a number of angles. That also means businesses will have to know how to manage their online reputation by effectively combating negative information about them, too. Holistic.

What does that mean to your Sustainable Search Marketing Strategy?  It means, take an inventory of your digital assets; image, video, audio files; and find the appropriate channels of distribution for them.  Sit down and discuss which products or services you’d like to promote right now and develop some great footage or podcasts and go for it.  

 It’s not just about your digital content, though.  It’s time to start working on your social media presence.  Get a Facebook account and list your site(s) there.  Get involved in appropriate forums and on-line communities.  Start a blog. A half hour a day could do you a world of good.

I saw this video today…  The concept is intriguing!  A computer with all free, open-source software that only uses 20 watts of electricity.  I love that it has it’s own OS and a bunch of people writing software for it and sharing it in an on-line community.  The same community also reviews the software.  I find this VERY exciting conceptually but I’m reserving judgement until I know more.  If any of you have one of these, I’d love to know your experience.  I might just buy one, at $199 I can’t go wrong.  If I don’t like it, I can give it to my in-laws or use it as a door stop…

I just watched Google’s own Adam Lasnik give an interview at the London SES.  It is gratifying to report that Google, who really founded this notion of sustainable search marketing, is continuing the trend. 

Adam Lasnik is the brains behind Google Webmaster Central and is the liaison between Google and webmasters of all shapes and sizes, keeping us all in the know about what Google would like to see us doing.  Thankfully, it all really makes sense and is sustainable.

1. With regard to use of new Flash and Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) technologies, Adam was asked what Googles guidelines are.   The answer is go ahead and use it - it adds to the usability of the site.  Just make sure that you use <noembed> to indicates what text should be used when an embedded object can’t be viewed, and <noscript> to define an alternate content (text) if a script is NOT executed so that no matter who lands on your page, they can get the appropriate content from your flash and ajax objects.  The other important thing here is that you use the same text in those tags that you use in the object’s content and don’t use the tags to stuff keywords. 
2. Duplicate content is another hot topic covered, and one about which I have given some good advice and a little bit of wrong information as well…  Duplicate content is fine if it is inadvertant or useful to the user and is appropriately attributed to the originator.  So don’t worry about putting no follow on your printer friendly pages etc. 
3. Along with the duplicate content question, the idea of page rank sculpting came up.  Page Rank Sculpting is the act of aranging content so that pages you deem important get the best page rank, and isn’t diluted by content on other “less important” pages.  It is a fundamentally unsustainable idea, in that it will have to be rescultped as often as page priorities and algorithms change.  Achieve rank and position for important pages by linking to them from the home page and by obtaining other quality links to them.  The natural way!

What ties all of these ideas together is sustainability.  Don’t worry about the algorithms, or contriving meta information for specific keywords.  Focus on the needs and experience of the user/customer.  Provide them good and useful information in a natural and intuitive manner and you will do well.