WebMama's Look at the Web

Website Link Architecture - Google Guidance

2008-10-10T08:07:00.000-07:00

Google has posted some insight into internal link architecture that matches the WebMama methodology closely. It is always rewarding to have recommended and implemented a website development and usability method that is useful to humans and useful to bots; it provides relevant information to both. More importantly, once again, it is shown that no tricks are required to have an optimized site that achieves high visibility in search results.

Here are some snippets:

"Keep important pages within several clicks from the homepage"

"Although you may believe that users prefer a search box on your site rather than category navigation, it's uncommon for search engine crawlers to type into search boxes or navigate via pulldown menus. So make sure your important pages are clickable from the homepage and for easy for Googlebot to find throughout your site. It's best to create a link architecture that's intuitive for users and crawlable for search engines."

"Use descriptive anchor text"

"Writing descriptive anchor text, the clickable words in a link, is a useful signal to help search engines and users alike to better understand your content. The more Google knows about your site—through your content, page titles, anchor text, etc.—the more relevant results we can return for users (and your potential search visitors)."

"Verify that Googlebot finds your internal links"

Complete Posting of Google WebMaster Blog - Internal Link Architecture.

Social Media Successes? Stats and Case Studies

2008-10-06T14:02:00.001-07:00

Dabbling with social media has been successful for some companies and disastrous failures for others. Customers and consumers, though, are calling for interaction with the companies they are purchasing from. I am skeptical of experimenting with 'social media' when the economy is putting at question the size of the marketing dollars and instead 'put your advertising dollars where they make you the most profit'. Of course that would be in search marketing which isn't sexy or trendy and therefore ignored by those that like fancy graphics and feel the need to try something new. Same old, same old.

I certainly feel that blogs, forums and rating/comment interactions with customers/clients/prospects/distributors/affiliates, etc is critical and I hope that some companies can turn this new engagement opportunity into bottom line profits. If it is thought leadership or brand reputation that are top of your list, then social media is critical.

Cone Finds that Americans Expect Companies to Have a Presence in Social Media
When asked about specific types of interactions, Americans who use social media believe:

Companies should use social networks to solve my problems (43%)
Companies should solicit feedback on their products and services (41%)
Companies should develop new ways for consumers to interact with their brand (37%)
Companies should market to consumers (25%)

Blogger Campaign Case Study: HP's 31 Days of the Dragon

What HP did was give an HDX Dragon laptop to 31 bloggers, letting each one give away the laptop to its readers, in a week-long contest. Each day, a new blog started a new week-long contest. Success:

Sales of the HDX Dragon increasing by 84%
Overall 10% increase in PC sales
14% increase in traffic to HP's hpshopping.com site

Analyst: Half of 'social media campaigns' will flop

Adam Sarner, an analyst with market research firm Gartner, has projected that over 75 percent of Fortune 1000 companies with Web sites will have undertaken some kind of online social-networking initiative for marketing or customer relations purposes. But, he added in an interview with CNET News, 50 percent of those campaigns will be classified as failures.

"(Businesses) will rush to the community and try to connect, but essentially they won't have a mutual purpose, and they'll fail," Sarner said. By a "mutual purpose," he means a way to serve both the company putting out the campaign and the audience interacting with it: finding that balance is not easy. The quirkiest and most addictive campaigns often provide little value for the company and turn out to be fads, whereas marketing efforts on the Web often don't go over as well with the public.

Google Bucket Tests User-Defined Blurb Length In Search Results

2008-09-29T10:22:00.001-07:00

Small, Medium or Large no longer just for T-Shirts but for what your search results look like. Google Bucket Tests User-Defined Blurb Length In Search Results on TechCrunch talks about the variable length, user-chosen descriptions that Google may one day offer. It is based on a user selecting either a short description to show - that would just be the title; a medium description - what you see today; or a long description - what you see today plus a snippet. It would certainly benefit sites that have good title tags (nothing new), appealing meta tags (nothing new), and tons of text-based content (nothing new). Some webmasters voice interesting concerns in the comments of this article.

Image available in the article. It may never come to fruition but worth knowing that they are testing it.

Technorati Releases State of the Blogosphere 2008 Report

2008-09-24T08:01:00.000-07:00

State of the Blogosphere / 2008 - Technorati Report

Introduction: Blogs are Pervasive and Part of Our Daily Lives

There have been a number of studies aimed at understanding the size of the Blogosphere, yielding widely disparate estimates of both the number of blogs and blog readership. All studies agree, however, that blogs are a global phenomenon that has hit the mainstream.

The numbers vary but agree that blogs are here to stay

* comScore MediaMetrix (August 2008)
o Blogs: 77.7 million unique visitors in the US
o Facebook: 41.0 million | MySpace 75.1 million
o Total internet audience 188.9 million
* eMarketer (May 2008)
o 94.1 million US blog readers in 2007 (50% of Internet users)
o 22.6 million US bloggers in 2007 (12%)
* Universal McCann (March 2008)
o 184 million WW have started a blog | 26.4 US
o 346 million WW read blogs | 60.3 US
o 77% of active Internet users read blogs

What is a Blog? The Lines Continue To Blur

Wikipedia defines blogs as:

* A Blog (a contraction of the term "Web log") is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order.
* The Blogosphere is the collective community of all blogs. Since all blogs are on the Internet by definition, they may be seen as interconnected and socially networked. Discussions "in the Blogosphere" have been used by the media as a gauge of public opinion on various issues.

But as the Blogosphere grows in size and influence, the lines between what is a blog and what is a mainstream media site become less clear. Larger blogs are taking on more characteristics of mainstream sites and mainstream sites are incorporating styles and formats from the Blogosphere. In fact, 95% of the top 100 US newspapers have reporter blogs (see The Bivings Group).

Read More..and thanks Technorati..fabulous...

Double Column Video Results on Google Search

2008-09-23T11:21:00.000-07:00

Amanda's keen eye got a look at Google's new double column, double video serving in results. Take a look:

Analysts Lower Ad Projection - oops - but not search

2008-09-15T14:10:00.000-07:00

Carol Krol wrote an excellent article in BtoB Magazine about the tough times ahead for the U.S. ad market. But this comes as no surprise to those of us tallying the ROI at the end of the day that the article goes on to say "internet advertising remains the one bright spot in the otherwise bleak picture".

"Emerging media ad spending - which includes search, social media, online video and mobile - will grow 29.5% this year to $14.9B, and 25.8% next year to $18.8B, according to MAGNA."

Some of this growth, I admit, is companies jumping on the trendy bandwagon and not necessarily paying attention to tracking through to sales, but much of the money is on search - and search is the deal closer.

MAGNA reports also said, "growth projections have been downgraded again for North America (from 3.7% to 3.5%)" and similar for Western Europe. They mention that global numbers have been adjusted upwards - suggesting that all companies who sell globally should be investing advertising dollars in countries like Argentina, Russia, China and Brazil.

ZenithOptimedia said, "it expects Internet Advertising to grow 26.7% this year and break the 10%-share barrier, a year earlier than its forecast 3 months ago". Wow, only 10% still. I would have thought we would see higher amounts than that. I expect for online businesses the numbers are much, much higher.

"U.S. advertisers have found that online reaches a very wide scale of customers for a relative bargain compared to TV and print", said Emily Riley, senior analyst at JupiterResearch. "We're not seeing TV money being taken away. That's still the dominant medium. As budgets grow, though, a larger percentage of new budgets will be dedicated to the Web."

David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer, agreed. "It's where the audience is found," he said. "It's underdeveloped as a branding tool, and it's very strong and effective with direct response through search. The effectiveness of paid search is a large factor contributing to the growth".

Thank you Carol for putting some great statistics and forecasts in one article for us search marketers who are still trying to get clients to pay attention.

More information: Magna's Coen report July 8th, 2008

Paid Search: Teaching Affiliates to Play Nice

2008-09-03T07:51:00.000-07:00

Affiliates can be invaluable for a paid search program, specifically when used to control the search results page real estate; the caveat, of course, is that you must manage them very closely.

As the WebMama team is very active in managing SEM and affiliates, I’ve decided to turn to our Director of Client Services, Wes Blemker, and our VP of Search Strategy, Amanda Evans, with a few questions about the advantages and disadvantages of affiliates; we’ll end the post with their five top tips for working with affiliates.

Advantages of Affiliates in a Paid Search Program

Affiliates can block competitors effectively, or push them lower on the SERPs, thereby giving more visibility to your brand message, according to Amanda. “They’re a useful tool in controlling search results page real estate – or the ‘virtual shelf life’ - for your brand.”

Wes agrees, adding that it gives your company far more control over the bid marketplace: “Otherwise, competitors will find it cheaper and easier to bid up your top keywords (especially branded) and steal traffic and targeted exposure. With the official site appearing on top and then affiliates dominating the rest of the page one results, it becomes more expensive, and less effective for competitors to enter the fray.”

Disadvantages of Affiliates in a Paid Search Program

“Affiliates make most of their commission off branded keyword conversions, so they will be extremely aggressive in bidding on these terms without guidelines,” Wes explains, “and this will no doubt drive up your company CPC to unacceptable levels on branded terms. Problems can and always do arise with affiliates, especially when they are given free reign to use the trademarked brand term in ads.”

Whether affiliates rank higher, drive up CPC, block your ads, or misrepresent your carefully crafted brand strategy, Amanda points out that you need to remain focused on the end result; especially when “good affiliates go bad.”

5 Tips to keep Affiliates Playing Nicely

1. Create Guidelines for Trademark Usage - Amanda

Communicate clear guidelines for trademark usage and the consequences for violating the guidelines. Typically, this works best with a select group of top affiliates (about five).

Consider crafting guidelines surrounding the use of trademarks in display URLs, titles and description copy, as well as which specific affiliates have the rights to trademarks.

2. Monitor Trademark Usage Closely - Amanda

Don't assume that once the guidelines are in place and clearly communicated, that everything will go smoothly; you will need to closely monitor trademark usage across affiliates and take appropriate action.

Aside from simple searching to police affiliates, be aware of significant changes to impression levels and clicks on brand terms. Significant swings in impression and clicks on brand terms are a key indicator of affiliate issues.

3. Measure, Test, and Measure Again - Amanda

Finally, above all, measure, test, and measure again to ensure that you are leveraging the strength of both your search marketing and affiliate channels.

4. Maintain a list of Trusted Affiliates - Wes

Keep a very tight list of top, trusted affiliates - no more than say 5 - that are allowed to use your brand in ads. Additionally, these trusted partners must be held to a maximum bid that can be determined through testing; keeping the official site ad on top is a must with daily monitoring of your CPC for top branded terms.

5. Ask for Reports - Wes

If it comes to it, to be certain affiliates are following the rules, you can have them send automated reports from Google [for example] weekly, showing their actual bid price for the terms you care most about.

At the end of the day, these rules will help you to have some pricing control over an open marketplace while maintaining excellent coverage across page one of the results. Please feel free to add your thoughts in the comments so we can continue learning together.

SearchMe - Old News but Good News

2008-09-02T10:18:00.001-07:00

I have just found out that the founder of the search engine Searchme is the father of one of the boys on my soccer team. (I coach my son's BU14 AYSO team). Randy Adams has quite the history of entrepreneurial work in Silicon Valley.

I did some playing around with the engine and love it. My discovery of Searchme may be old news to some, but when the application beta was announced in March my attention was elsewhere. I don't believe Blog postings need to be about current news but about things that may be of interest to people who are NOT of the search marketing industry. Searchme is blended search with an excellent user interface. Kind of takes the iphone approach to flipping through relative content. It is smart about related searches and categorization. It has a bit of delicious as well with its 'stacks' model. Listings and snippets appear only if you want them. The diagram shows a search on webmama. I liked the results.

The TechCrunch article talks about their funding and the founders. Backed by some big wigs. Randy Adam's professional bio on linkedin.

Just FYI - here are three other applications that have crossed by macbook recently.

Quantcast - for competitive analysis and industry comparisons
Spy FU - for competitive analysis and industry comparisons
Addictomatic - for stalking and reputation management

Coverage of Advanced B2B Session at SES

2008-08-26T12:31:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, last week I attended SES San Jose and spoke on the panel: Advanced B2B Marketing. The session inspired quite a few posts, so if you didn’t get to San Jose, it’s may be worth your time reading these.

From Top Rank Blog: http://www.toprankblog.com

10 Tips For B2B Marketers
1. Reach prospects early in the buying cycle
2. Advertise in ‘the tail’
3. Include non-branded keywords
4. Pre-qualified clickers
5. Focus and align ad copy
6. Create very specific landing pages and microsite
7. Test pages continuously
8. Offer multiple action options
9. Simplify registration forms
10 Turn web inquiries into sales leads

Read the entire post, which goes into greater detail.

Other posts that talk about this session:

B2B Lead Generation Tips and Buying Cycle Notes by Todd Mintz: http://www.aimclearblog.com/2008/08/22/b2b-lead-generation-tips-buying-cycle-notes/

B2B Tactics by Kent Lewis: http://newt-echnology-news.blogspot.com/2008/03/ses-b2b-tactics.html

Advanced B2B Marketing by Daryl Pereira: http://www.cagedether.com/2008/08/25/advanced-b2b-marketing

Advanced B2B Marketing at Seroundtable:
http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/018029.html

And a picture (not close enough to see me almost fainting).

Finally, if you’re interested in more tips from the speakers, take a look at:

Patricia Hursh’s resource page

Adam Goldberg's blog

WebMama’s presentations including slides, video and audio

or consider subscribing to my WebMama blog to stay up to date with all things Search Marketing: http://feeds.feedburner.com/WebmamasLookAtTheWeb

Great Blogs Complement SEO Efforts - Summary of Lee Odden Talk at SES

2008-08-22T13:34:00.000-07:00

Most businesses don't realize the value of blogs when it comes to SEO. But - they want to.

"SEO and blogs equal success" Lee Odden told the packed audience at the Search Engine Strategies Conference in San Jose Wednesday. "Blogs with great content, that are optimized and promoted, create overwhelming competitive advantages."

By way of case studies, Lee made a strong case for why blogs are an indispensable and valuable tool for business and should be treated with great care and much forethought.

Currently, Technorati tracks over 112 million blogs. According to Lee, of those blogs, 100 million have less than 20 inbound links, 400,000 have more than 20 links, and the top 2,600 have over 1,000 inbound links.

"Think about that," he points out, "to sit within the top 1 per cent of blogs, one thing you'll need to do is get 1,000 links."

Assuming the blog contains quality content, this is achievable. While it may take businesses a little longer to do it themselves, this number of links is attainable by proficient search marketers--easily and within a reasonable time frame.

Take a look at the case studies, and let the numbers speak for themselves.

Case Study 1: Senior housing development company

Strategy
- Create an informal communications platform to present issues important to its target market.
Tactics
- Launch optimized blog and promote unique content via blogger relations, article promotions.
SEO Results

Blog top 5 source referring traffic to corporate site
Monthly Web site visitors doubled
Top 30 SERPs increased from 2 to 20
Unique visitors increased 500%.

Case Study 2: Online book/games retailer:

Strategy
- Stimulate online community and book sales by offering brain teasers, puzzles and learning games.
Tactics
- Create SEO'd blog, communities on Facebook, Twitter and promotions on Flickr and StumbleUpon, etc.
SEO Results

Unique keywords referring traffic Jul 07: 9,874 Jul 08: 18,809
Monthly unique visitors Jul 07: 31,820 Jul 08: 159,138
Monthly Page views Jul 07: 77,287 Jul 08: 406,455

Case Study 3: Top Rank Blog

Strategy
- Increase thought leadership, industry visibility, media coverage and lead generation.
Tactics
- Publish a regular schedule of unique content: industry and SEM agency insights, interviews, conference coverage, surveys, blog reviews and blog tools, photos and video.
Results
For 07/01 -07/31 (worst month in 2008):

Search: 26,980 visits via 12,653 keywords 95,668 page views
Ranking: "online marketing"#2
Ranking: "blog optimization"#2, 3
Average 4 advertising inquiries/week
Average 1 media inquiry/week
4-5 business inquiries/week

Summary

Lee ended his presentation with five takeaways:

1. Goals drive content
2. Automate SEO as much as possible
3. Socialize
4. Measure
5. Refine and repeat

Visit Lee's blog for a more detailed post on SEO for blogs.

Other speakers at this session included (Chris Boggs, Daron Babin and Amanda Watlingon).

Written by: Lid Davis web strategy manager at large for WebMama.com Inc.

SES Advanced B2B Session Wrap Up

2008-08-21T07:23:00.000-07:00

Chock full of pain killers and boiling hot I was still able to provide some useful information about working with an Enterprise Sales Force with search marketing leads; convincing or forcing them to look at the leads as highly valuable. [Barbara Coll, WebMama.com, Advanced B2B Presentation, SES San Jose]

I did add something to the discussion that I think could be a talk into itself: How to manage the distribution of search engine marketing funds and keywords between low-end, low-cost products that are available to purchase directly in an online store and the enterprise product sales. There is no doubt in my mind (and in most of my client's) that in the long run the enterprise products make a company more money. The lifetime value of those customers is much higher and the average selling price huge. The difference could be between an open source free product and a $10000 site license. But the low-end product sale is instantly measurable and provides a compelling case backed up with lots of data. Not an easy thing to do with enterprise sales with direct sales reps involved. In my opinion the company needs to do both of these things:

Look at the lifetime value of the customer;
Do a ton of up selling online and in vigourous follow-up.

There is often a battle between low-end and high-end and it needs to be resolved strategically at the business strategy and sales level - not at the marketing programs level. Keep in mind that this applies to paid search activities and search engine optimization. There needs to be a choice as to which pages are truly the ones that 'should' show up when a searcher types in one of the high converting words for the company.

The SES conference was busy and all the great speakers were there. Sorry I couldn't spend more time but healing from foot surgery is a long process. I even missed the Google Dance for the first time since its inception; my 2001 t-shirt wasn't even taken out of the back of the closest. One comment to the organizers - the rooms were far too big. We had approximately 100 people in the Advanced B2B session and it felt like 10 as they were so spread out across the 300 seats.

Barbara Coll - SES San Jose 2008 Speaking Events

2008-08-11T10:38:00.000-07:00

Once again I get to bring my 13+ years of internet marketing experience (wow!) to Search Engine Strategies San Jose 2008. I will be speaking in my favorite session - Advanced B2B Marketing - focusing on how to work with an Enterprise/Direct Sales team. Search Marketing, as most know, is not just about how to generate quality traffic but also about how to convert the traffic.

I will also be moderating a session on Affiliate marketing. Affiliates and Brand owners battle with who gets the top spot and what are the rules. This should be an interesting session.

Hope to see you there.

Google is the Winner by Far in the UK - new comScore Report

2008-08-08T11:51:00.000-07:00

Some new data from ComScore confirms what we all already knew -

More than 3 out of 4 Searches Conducted in the UK are on Google Sites.

ComScore goes on to say:

There were 3.9 billion total searches conducted in the U.K. during the month.
31 million U.K. Internet users conducted at least one search.
U.K. searchers conducted an average of 124 searches per searcher during the month, or 4.1 searches per day.
U.K. searchers made a combined total of 937 billion visits to a search engine in May, with an average of 4.1 searches per visit.

Interesting that Comscore considers Ebay a sources of searches....

SEMPO San Francisco Group - FIRST meeting

2008-08-08T09:20:00.000-07:00

SEMPO has a San Francisco/Bay Area Group. With the growth of the organization many have realized that it would be fun and advantageous to get together small groups to talk about search marketing.

The first meeting is Wednesday August 13th from 6-9 at Medjool in San Francisco. All the details and rsvp page are at http://marketing.meetup.com/305/calendar/8432265/.
There is also a FaceBook group you can join. No need to be a SEMPO member even though that is one of the goals of the group and event; to grow SEMPO membership.

Since 2003 when I was part of a group that founded SEMPO I have watched the organization grow into a social network of like-minded souls. It has exceeded all our dreams for the organization.

Thanks so much to Jessica Bowman in all her work in getting this started. See you there.

Ranking Reports Still A Necessity of the Business?

2008-08-07T10:15:00.000-07:00

Yes, we run ranking reports. Yes, the demise of WebPosition Gold is painful because of that. I posted on a few forums about it and wanted to show the thread. Hope it is helpful.

Initial Comment on WP:

"Has anyone else noticed that after years of threatening it appears that Google has now blocked WP Gold from reporting rankings through their tool? We called the WP support line and they said they are waiting for Google to 'do' something and have NO ETA has to when it will be fixed."

http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/3716136.htm
and taken up by http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/017890.html

My response to comments that people can't believe that we are still doing ranking reports. Bottom Line: Give the client what they want. Multi-billion dollars companies don't change status quo easily.

"I knew that I would get the 'I can't believe they still run ranking reports' comment. You are right, I am not so behind the times and am very, very clear with clients that it is NOT the measurement they should be using for tracking.

That said: in order to track organic, video, or image download or whatever that is not a paid search or online click you need the cooperation of a whole different group in the company. Sophisticated clients have most web marketing run out of marketing organizations with marketing budgets - they don't own IT or the traffic analysis packages. Some are using completely different systems to track marketing campaigns, of which search is a part, like marketfirst or eloqua. The in-house SEO people at these clients are in the marketing divisions now and we work with them. It is the sign of a mature company if SEO and Paid Search are all in marketing - but it creates other problems.

The best way to track organic is to tag the visitor in some way but because it is not tracked say with a dart tag or a Google adwords tag, which can be set up by marketing people at the campaign level, this tracking requires 'help' from a different division.

Executives need something that is highly visible, isn't just about numbers and shows improvement or problems readily - thus rankings.

So, as we mature and move SEO away from the IT/developer crowd into the world of marketing campaigns we lose some of our ability to control the technical side of the business. I would rather it be part of marketing anyway. "

45 Online Resources for CEO's

2008-06-24T04:00:00.000-07:00

Ten years ago, building a website was a no brainer. “Build it and they will come,” was the general consensus. You left the technical details to your IT department; the promotional details were handed off to marketing.

Today, this is no longer an option. If you’re a CEO, you must be involved in your company’s online strategies if you plan to stay ahead of your competition. And by being involved, this means understanding the fundamentals of the Web and keeping up with all of the changes taking place online.

I hope you find this list of resources useful.

Business Blogging - Reading and Writing

1. RSS in plain English
If you don’t know what RSS is, watch this video (3 minutes, 44 seconds) for a simple explanation in plain English.

2. The Best 10 RSS Readers for Windows, Mac, and Linux
Determining which reader to use can be difficult; take a look at these descriptions of ten of the best.

3. RSSFwd
If you’re still uncomfortable reading via a feed reader, why not begin by getting blog posts delivered to you via e-mail. RSSFwd delivers RSS feeds straight to your inbox.

4. EFF: Legal Guide for Bloggers
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has created this guide to give you a basic roadmap to the legal issues you may confront as a blogger.

5. Basic Business Blogging Suggestions
To create an authoritative and trusted blog, consider these 12 recommendations.

6. Blogging Mistakes to Avoid
Not only are there basic guidelines on how to do it right, you also need to understand what to avoid when blogging. Take a look at these 15 mistakes to avoid.

7. The Opportunities and Challenges of Corporate, Team, and Personal Blogs
Forrester’s Jeremiah Owyang describes the pros and cons of the three main types of blogs.

8. Blog Topics for Business to Business
If you’re unsure what to blog about, consider these seven ideas to put get the creative juices going.

Social Media - Learn and Use

9. Your Social Media Strategy Begins With Monitoring
Before you can launch a successful social media strategy, consider monitoring existing conversations about your company.

10. List of Social Media and Social Networking Sites by Industry
A regularly updated list of over 400 sites, listed by categories that include: arts, bookmarking, auto, connecting with friends, consumer reviews, cooking, cultures, dating, education, event planning, family, games, fashion, health, networking, kids, Internet marketing, mobile, music, news, pets, photo sharing, pop culture, professional, real estate, religion, shopping, sport, technology, teen, travel, video sharing.

11. Social Media Press Release Template (free of copyright)
If your marketing department is planning to send out social media releases, give them this template to begin with.

12. Essential Guide to Social Media (Free e-book)
An overview of how to listen and participate in social media and new media marketing.

13. Social Media Networking and ROI
Gain insight into the goals and benefits of social networking, the challenges, and understand into how to best maximize your social networking efficiency.

14. Press Release Grader
HubSpots Press Release Grader evaluates your press release and provides a marketing effectiveness score; helping you create better and smarter press releases.

SEO and SEM - Visibility That's Relevant

15. Factors Affecting Your Search Engine Compatibility
This is a basic and useful resource detailing the common elements that affect your search engine ranking.

16. SEO Jargon Busters – A Comprehensive SEO Dictionary
Commonly refered to SEO terms, explained in English.

17. The Definitive List of Resources for Keyword Analysis
Your site won’t get search engine traffic without using keywords. As the CEO, make sure you are involved in this critical step.

18. Linkbuilding: 22 Dofollow Social Media sites
If your marketing department is not working on getting links to your site; or doesn’t know how to do it without being penalized by Google, point this article out to them.

19. Pay Per Click: The basics of Paid Advertising
Make sure you understand paid advertising; after all, you’re paying for it. Read this to get the basics down.

20. Best Practices for Pay-Per-Action Campaigns
Understand pay-per-action campaigns and best practices with Google’s start guide to Pay-per-action campaigns.

21. Google’s Conversion University
Free online resources from Google that include videos and tutorials, to help you understand search, marketing, and how your company fits in.

22. Google’s AdWords Learning Center
Another offering from Google; free training to sharpen your knowledge of AdWords.

Brand Marketing

23. A Practical Guide to Branding
From Business Week: Understand and define your brand identity—your product’s ‘personality’—before you spend money on advertising or marketing.

24. Word of Mouth Manual
This free e-book is available to download as a PDF. Alternatively, buy the book on Amazon ($45).

25. Brand Personality
Guy Kawasaki interviews Ogilvy’s Rohit Bhargava where they talk about the role of ‘personality’ in branding.

26. How’s your Rep? Online Reputation Management
When a potential customer searches for your firm on the Internet, you want to be in control of what they see on their first search engine results page.

27. Protect Your Brand Online
Everything you need to know about monitoring and managing your online reputation. eBook ($39).

28. Free Tools to Monitor Your Online Presence
Take a look at these nine free online tools to monitor conversations about you on the Web.

Free Online Courses

29. Entrepreneurship and Business (Carnegie Mellon)

30. Open Source and Distribution of Digital Information (UC Berkeley)

31. Understanding Computers and the Internet (Harvard)

32. The Future of the Internet (Stanford)

Reports About the Internet - Trends and Stats

33. Forrester: Consumer Technographics data
Understanding the impact of technology and the Internet on your business.

34. Comscore: Key Measurements of the Digital Worl d
Comscore covers today’s hottest business trends, with key measurements of the digital world.

35. Internet World Statistics
The latest data about Internet users worldwide.

36. Top US sites from Quantcast
Rankings for sites in the US; how many visitors, and type of visitor.

37. The Future of Media (video)
A panel discussion on the Future of Media, with journalists David Carr of NY Times, Keith Kelly of NY Post, Kenneth Li of Reuters, and Johnnie Roberts of Newsweek and Erick Schonfeld from TechCrunch.

38. User Generated Content, Social Media and Advertising—An Overview (PDF)
In 2008, if you’re not on a social networking site, you’re not on the Internet. A report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

Top 10 Management Blogs You Should Subscribe To:

39. David Kellog, CEO
Mark Logic, Inc.

40. Joel Spolsky, CEO
Fog Creek Software

41. John Mackey, CEO
Whole Foods

42. Guy Kawasaki, Managing Director
Garage Technology Ventures, founder of Truemors and Alltop

43. Jonathan Schwartz, CEO and President
Sun Microsystems, Inc.

44. Mark Cuban, Owner
Dallas Mavericks

45. Craig Newmark, CEO
Craigslist

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post and hope we can start a conversation about what CEO’s most need to know about the online world.

Please let me know your opinions and suggestions by leaving a comment below; questions too are welcome.

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How to be an SEO Rock Star - by Lidija Davis

2008-05-18T14:39:00.000-07:00

Lidija Davis (WebMama Web Strategist) equates Rock Stardom in the Search Visibility world with keeping up in the social media world. Really an amazingly clear look at what should now be basics in SEO.

How to be an SEO Rock Star
By: Lidija Davis
June 2008
Visibility Magazine

BIO:

Lidija Davis is the Web Strategist for WebMama.com Inc. WebMama.com Inc. is Silicon Valley's premier search engine marketing company providing SEO and SEM services to corporations around the world. Lidija is also the Silicon Valley Correspondent for Tech Talk Radio Australia and runs her own blog at http://blog-well.com

Lidija's First Page Digg and Technorati Information Articles Include:
100+ Useful Web Resources for Small Business and Non Profits
100+ Resources for Web Developers

BAD Mess in Google 1st Search Result for AMAZON

2008-05-15T16:17:00.001-07:00

Hard to believe but the first result for amazon in Google organic is a URL that takes you to a redirect page that doesn't go anywhere until you click on link shown (or wait long enough and I didn't have the patience to wait). To the right is the result and below is the resulting page.

If you click on the page you finally get to Amazon's home page. What a mess? I wonder if Amazon is tracking organic? Is anybody else seeing the same thing?

Edicts of Search Engine Marketing - WebMama Learnings

2008-05-14T08:34:00.000-07:00

There are some things that are always constant in the world of search engine optimization and marketing. My team and I remind ourselves of these edicts when we are approached by a potential client. If the potential client does not accept these truths, we don't work with them.

Business Expectations:

1. Search Engines change their algorithms all the time.
2. A business CANNOT survive by relying solely on Google to rank them highest in organic results (see #1).
3. It is about Conversion not ranking (see #2).

SEO Tactics:

4. The fundamentals of SEO never change, they just adapt to new media.
5. Never leave it up to a search engine to decide what is important on your site, tell them through internal linking, tags and content.
6. Do NOT expect anything to happen overnight even if you use sitemaps.

Paid Search Tactics:

7. If you need to own a category then bid higher (#3 may need to be ignored).
8. Control your affiliates with changes to their written contracts, not just threats.
9. Automated bid management systems are not the best way to manage #7.

A final thought, encourage your clients to educate themselves on the world of search marketing through courses, respected blogs and conferences, not forums.

Graduated Search Marketers at eMetrics San Francisco?

2008-04-25T09:20:00.000-07:00

I love Jim Sterne. He comes up with the most fun sessions for his eMetrics conferences! I will be on a session called Serious Search. In our cap and gowns a few us will provide the audience with the top 3 things we learned in graduate school and open the floor to discussions about - well - search analytics. eMetrics is THE educational conference for advanced web analytics people with a great focus on teaching the basics of managing paid search marketing. May 5-7 in San Francisco. He saved the best for last - come hang out with us on Wednesday May 7th.

SA-6 Wednesday, 1:30 - 2:30
Serious Search - Graduate Level

Barbara Coll, WebMama.com Inc.
Gary Angel, Semphonic
Michael Stebbins, Market Motive

You’ve read the books, you track the blogs, you’ve got most of your search marketing in hand and are doing a pretty good job of it. Now it’s time to take it to the next level. Find out what Gary, Michael and Barbara learned in 30 years of combined experience in search and analytics. They have definitely matriculated and are ready to outline where things are going next with online search. Come learn from the graduates.

Dana Todd and The WebMama Working Together

2008-04-21T21:02:00.000-07:00

Dana Todd and WebMama.com are joining forces to provide WebMama.com clients and prospects with exciting (some would say explosive) insights into the future of marketing. Dana and I are both well known in the world of internet/online/web marketing and have been search marketing visionaries and disturbers of the peace for at least 10 years each. Both are founders of SEMPO. Both have been Presidents and Chairs for the organization. Dana has the reddest hair and WebMama is one of the most recognizable brand names in the industry. What a team!

Dana's forward-thinking into direct marketing and brand marketing strategies will provide my company with opportunities to discuss with the C-Suite the value of search marketing as an integral part of all marketing strategies and programs. For the prospects and clients who can handle the phenomenal, out-of-the-box ideas and the fast-paced presentation style of Dana Todd, there will be great rewards in helping their company navigate the ever changing world of search and web marketing.

In addition, Dana will be working with the WebMama team to increase their knowledge of a broader range of marketing strategies and tactics based on Dana's experiences with SiteLab. Dana has also announced her involvement in start-up NewsForce, working as CMO.

Can you imagine the two of us together in front of companies like HP, Guthy-Renker and VMware? Can you imagine the two of us ever letting the clients get a word in edgewise!!!??

Moving your Site to a New Domain Name - Scary!!

2008-04-18T15:42:00.000-07:00

The Google Central Webmaster blog has posted "Best practices When Moving Your Site"; and it confirms everything my team and I have been preaching for years and adds some additional good stuff. A summary in my own words:

- Use a 301 redirect on a file by file or directory by directory basis (this is really hard)
- Check to see if the new pages are in the index and the old pages are being taken out
- Don't change too much at once. Move the entire site, let it settle and then throw up a redesign or vice versa
- Watch to make sure pages aren't ending up in 404s unless absolutely unavoidable
- Make sure all internal links are pointing to the new domain
- Try (this is really, really hard) to get external links pointed to the new domain
- Keep the old site up and running for a while (Google suggests 180 days). [I would never give up control but I might take it offline]
- Submit a sitemap to all engines that accept the standard

They suggest using Google Webmaster Tools on both domains to help track 404s and to ensure that 301s are working. Some great questions and comments follow the posting.

Thanks for the validation and the great information Google.

Google Ads on Yahoo - Screenshot as proof

2008-04-17T07:46:00.000-07:00

On the East coast my colleague has seen our client advertising campaigns on Yahoo switch from Yahoo/Overture to Google AdWords. On the West coast I can not duplicate the appearance. Here is a screen shot from the East.

Search yourselves for VMware or Vonage and send me what you see. DON'T CLICK unless you are interested in the product ;) We measure everything!

The Definitive List of Resources for Keyword Analysis

2008-04-15T10:36:00.000-07:00

Determining what keywords to use for optimizing a website is the first step in the SEO process isn’t easy. Here the WebMama team gives you our list of sources for information for this critical stage in all Search Engine Marketing projects. Hope they help make you more successful.

Tools

1. WordTracker [info , free trial]
2. Google AdWords [tool – no account required]
3. Google Trends [tool – relative volume analysis]
4. MSN Keyword Focus [tool - volume analysis]
5. MSN Keyword Group Detection [tool – no account required]
6. Keyword Discovery [info – free trial]
7. Thesaurus
8. Overture [tool – times out regularly]
9. Answers.com

Informational Online Sources

Inside the Client Properties

10. Corporate Blogs
11. Blog Tags
12. Press Releases
13. Current website content
14. Marketing creatives for banners, etc
15. Email campaign content
16. Personas developed for the site

Outside the Client Properties

17. Industry forums
18. Product/Service reviews (and comments)
19. Online magazines
20. Competition’s sites and marketing campaigns
21. Relevant social media group discussions

Non-Online Sources

22. TV ads
23. Radio copy
24. Print ads
25. Focus groups “what would you put in a search box to find our products and/or services”
26. Magazines/newspapers
27. Video advertising
28. Other forms of marketing, especially those of competitors
29. Sales training materials

Data Sources

30. Paid search statistics from all campaigns
31. Organic traffic statistics
32. Internal site search

People in the Company

33. Executives
34. Product Managers
35. Web Developers
36. Web Producers
37. User Interface Designers
38. Customer Experience team
39. Direct Sales
40. Inside Sales
41. Call Center
42. Customer Service
43. Content writers
44. Marketing brand managers
45. ‘whomever hired us’

Use your source information, filter it through the VCR edict that all keywords need to be a balance of Volume, Conversion and Relevancy, and the result will be the right keywords for optimizing your website and increasing visibility and converting traffic to your website.

This list is available in a Word document called KeywordResourceList.doc should you want to spread the word.