Yes, it’s been too long since I blogged at DSM, and I’m honest when I say “I’ve missed it…”

I’m re-motivated to share ideas, ask questions, and even call people (and companies) out on their online business stupidity.

I’ll start, though, with a sincere SEO question:

Is reading a BOOK really helpful to an SEO Firm (or freelancer or wanna be)?

To make sure I’ve clarified – a BOOK is just that: paper back, hard-bound, library issued or purchased on Amazon. I’m not referring to an eBook, a list of blog articles or your habitual RSS Reader.

Books – you know – the things that Borders can’t seem to sell anymore. Do real books even exist these days?

Questions about Reading Books

• What’s the last real book you read?
• What real book(s) are you currently reading?
• Was the book you read just for fun or to further your career as an online marketing “guru”?
• Were you forced to read the book by your company as a PR or HR stunt?

Last night I was going through my Stumbleupon routine and found a great article about reading books. It caused me to ask myself some questions about my habits, the use of my time, and ultimately whether or not reading books would or wouldn’t help further my online marketing career in one way or another.

After reading the article, I came to the conclusion that YES, reading IS important for an SEO. YES, reading a real book WILL improve my online marketing skills. And YES, there are things I can do starting TODAY to get the “real-book-ball” rolling.

I got a lot out of the article and suggest you read it in its entirety; here are some key points I think all SEO’s can use to improve their business situation via reading a real book:

4 Reading Secrets to Help SEO’s Form Good Reading Habits

1. Speed Reading is the Secret Weapon: Have you ever tried this? I know most of us think TIME is the biggest issue when it comes to reading a book. We’re too busy online all day every day to make time to read – let alone learn how to “speed read”. However, the real idea behind speed reading is that you know how (and when) to speed up and when to slow down. With a few basic techniques you can get a sizable increase on your maximum speed. If you want to learn how to speed read start reading here: Double Your Reading Rate.

Summary tips for speed reading:

• Use your forefinger to follow the line on the page. This focuses your vision onto a specific part of the text.
• Practice reading books faster than you can comprehend. This isn’t actual reading but it will make you familiar with using your finger and slowly increase your maximum speed.
• State your purpose before starting to read. This will allow you to focus on information you need and reject information you don’t.

2. Carry a Book Wherever You Go: I’ve started doing this, although I’m not addicted to reading yet and would rather “people watch” than stick my nose in a book. However, “…gaps of a few weeks without any reading material means several less books you can read each year. Worse, time spent without a book breaks down your reading habits so it can be harder to start again.” As SEO’s, we travel from time to time, we take mass-transit to appointments, and occasionally we go on vacation. If we have a book with us, this good habit can begin to form. Otherwise, we are simply wasting time between appointments. Some of the people I look up to most in the business world are those who are avid readers of all kinds of books (not just business books).

3. Stop Web-Surfing! For me, this basically means go on a “Facebook Fast” and stop checking ESPN MLB Standings (By the way, did you all see that the Yankees are up 2.5 games in the AL East and have won 6 in a row?) If I were to add up all the time I “waste” dinking around on Facebook and reading articles about baseball and other sports on ESPN, I would have probably already read 25-30 books this year. How do you waste time? Can you use that wasted time to read a bit more?

4. Create a Book “To Read” List: Yes, there are great marketing books out there. Yes, there are even up-to-date SEO and Social Media Books out there. Search for them on Amazon and make a list. Create an “Online Marketing Book Club” and read books together and then meet to discuss them and share ideas (depending on who you’re with I guess). What are books you’d like to read but haven’t yet? Here are some of mine:

• Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk
• Delivering Happiness by Tony Hseih of Zappos (Reading it now…)
• Linchpin by Seth Godin (or anything by Seth Godin)
• ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income by Darren Rowse

What do you think about reading a real book?

Do you think it’s good for SEO companies to be reading books about their industry (or about whatever else)? Why or why not?

What books do YOU recommend?

One thing that wasn’t discussed is audio books – have you ever tried those? I personally am too scatter-brained and haven’t seemed to get as much out of listening to a book while doing other things.

Nate Moller works with businesses who want to improve their online business. For over five years, he’s worked with thousands of companies who are looking for answers in their online marketing journey. Follow Nate on Twitter and become a fan of Moller Marketing on Facebook!

As I ran quickly through a few sites last week (for potential new clients) these were the common problems found:

1. 301 issues … on /index.htm/html/php as well as not having www or non www’s assigned
2. No site maps … of any kind, nor had any of them even heard of Google Webmaster Central
3. No Custom Meta Data – in some cases all descriptions were same with no unique titles for every page
4. No Blog, or if they did have a blog it was on blogspot or somewhere off domain – (don’t do that if you are wanting SEO benefits onsite) sure there is debate on this one, but I am sticking to my belief that it is best to have your content on your own domain … period)
5. Internal Linking Structure – too many “click here” links – great post by Matt McGee where one of his talking points is on text links
6. No content, or not enough content on home page – I would love comment on this one – what do you guys and gals think is a good number of words for content on home pages?  other pages?  Just curious to see what you all think.  Thanks for playing along.
7. No images, or hardly any images used and if there was an image used the naming structure was bad like “image1.gif” vs “product keyword”
8. No use of H1 tags …. anywhere

Now I am sure there were more issues on these pages, (remember this was a quick site “look over”) but these were the common ones, and that is the point of this post because these are so basic.  You guys … these are basic issues that should be done before the websites even launched.  I just felt like posting this because it seems more and more lately I am getting these kind of issues knocking on my door.

Please add your most common seen mistakes in the comments with links to posts where people can find answers.  Thanks in advance!

Have you ever had this problem?

In your head you’re saying “No, No, No!!!” But then you say “Yes” anyway? Me too, me too…

I’ve been self-employed now for almost six full months.

I’ve found some “Golden Clients”, and I’ve dealt with some that have come close to making we want to go back to “Corporate America” (not really).

I’ve come to the conclusion that some clients are just not worth it. Sure, they may be paying you pretty good money to work for them. Sure, they may have respect for what you’re doing (sort of). But at the end of the day, due to their unrealistic expectations and/or their lack of understanding about what they purchased, they demand more and more for less and less, and they will probably not end up being one of those clients who refers you to all their contacts.

Why is this?

Is it because you didn’t do a quality job?

Is it because they don’t have a good business?

Is it because you lacked good communication skills from the beginning?

Or is it because they’re just down right bad people?

The answer is NO, it’s probably none of these reasons.

I worked with a client once who shared a great quote with me. In talking about sales, he said:

NO is the first two letters of NOT YET…

I think this statement is really applicable with the type of clients I’m talking about. Turning down a client does not mean you have to completely burn a bridge and avoid them like the plague.

Saying No may simply mean “Not yet…”

Here’s why:

1. EDUCATION: The prospect needs a bit more education on what you’ll be offering and what expectations they should have. Unrealistic expectations are the most difficult thing to deal with. You I don’t want to tell the client “I can’t do that…” but in some cases, I just can’t.
2. ORGANIZATION: The prospect needs to make sure they have all their “ducks in a row” before you dive into the complex world of SEO and Social Media. Do they have at least one dedicated employee who will be working closely with your team? If not, they need to get one. I’ve realized that my job is NOT to run their business or make their business decisions; instead, my job is to take what their doing and help get the word out there and optimize their efforts accordingly. Without a dedicated staff member who is teachable and preferably internet savvy, it’s going to be a long road and one I’m not sure I want to travel down.
3. EXPECTATIONS: The prospect needs to determine what they what to achieve with your SEO efforts: increased brand awareness, more traffic, higher ROI, ORM, etc. If they don’t really know what they want to achieve, none of your efforts will completely satisfy. As I said before, unrealistic expectations are the most difficult thing to deal with and are a HUGE RED-FLAG. Using case studies of other clients you’ve worked with can help people understand what they should expect. If they don’t think what you’ve done is enough, then NOT YET is a perfect solution. Chances are, they’ll go with another firm and then possibly come back to you anyway.
4. COMMITMENT: The prospect needs to fully commit to helping you help them. This is similar to organization. If a client expects you to learn their business or industry overnight, NOT YET is a good answer. If a client can’t give you any time to meet together, they just want you to run with it, NOT YET is a good answer. Clients have to be willing to dedicate at least some time and resources if your efforts are going to pay off.
5. BELIEF: The prospect needs to believe that what you’re doing is truly of value. A lot of this goes right back to education: if they have no idea what SEO is or why they need it, but instead their buying from you because they know their competitors are using an SEO firm, they most likely don’t truly believe that what you can do is going to help them. I know, you may be asking the same thing I am – “Then WHY would they invest the money?” Good question! Just like the other points, though, if they don’t really believe they need this (and sometimes it’s hard to catch this right away), “Not Yet” is the best answer.

What have your experiences been with saying No (or Not Yet) to clients?

Have you passed the fear of turning down new business? or do you still say YES to everyone and then regret it over and over and over again?

Nate Moller, a self-employed entrepreneur, has been teaching clients how to start an online business for over five years. He’s worked with thousands of companies who are looking for answers in their online marketing journey. Follow Nate on Twitter and become a fan of Moller Marketing on Facebook!

A Thanks To SEO

SEO has been GOOD to me.  SEO has been GOOD to my clients. I have been doing this since the late 90s, and still no complaints…from anyone, not one.

Don’t compare us to lawyers, don’t try to tell us we are selling snake oil, and especially – I mean especially, don’t try to tell us our industry is dead (have you heard of Google?). We have heard it all before, and to be quite honest, we are getting bored of it. Seriously figure out something else to talk about in 2010. Please? Go link bait your agenda in some other industry.

The number one thing I learned in 2009 is that SEO IS NOT DEAD despite the claims. What a great year to be an Internet business owner. Am I right? When i looked all around my town this year, and saw small businesses closing up (supposedly because of the recession) I never feared about any of my stuff online not continuing to grow and prosper. SEO has been good to me, so when I hear about (or when I wasted my time reading) some ass hats link bait of why it’s dead it makes me wanna scream.

WAY TO BUSY TO CARE

I often wish I had more time to blog in response to these idiots. Even more so, I wish I was a better blogger, but I am not – so guess what? I will just stick with taking care of my clients and growing my company (Its worked so far, pretty well too). Wow how do some of you bloggers do it? My hat is off to you! I barley get time to post every once in a great while, but I wanted to make sure I took this opportunity to THANK, NOT BASH SEO, and what it has done for me.

I implement an SEO strategy for every single one of my clients this year, in one of its forms. Call it what you want, blended search, mixed media, online marketing – again, who cares? If you are a good Internet marketer you already are aware of whats going on, and doing right for your clients.  (I am pretty sure it was) Danny Sullivan said it best “As long as there are search engines, there will be SEO”  (although I can’t remember exactly where)  So now, you try to tell me that because of social media, the rules about SEO have changed. The point of SM is relationship building and sharing of information is it not? Through that, you build links, get sites to rank for your name (example: if you are on Twitter and are active go Google your business name and tell me where Twitter is) and drive traffic. Hmm, sounds a lot like SEO to me. Getting YOU, Your Brand, or YOUR CONTENT to come up in the SERPs. But of course, none of this matters because SEO is dead …. right?

SEO is NOT Dead

Looking forward to SEO in 2010

I am very excited to know what I know, and very excited to continue to use SEO in 2010. I look forward to continuing to help my clients businesses grow with SEO too. They have all thanked me this year, and are looking forward to another year just as good. A side note FYI, I helped a lot of my clients grow their businesses this year with out even an ounce of social media, or other forms of marketing. That’s right, just 100% SEO – good ole onsite and offsite SEO, link building etc.. Please, don’t get me wrong, if all the decisions were up to me, I would use every form of marketing available, but lets be honest with each other, some clients are just not ready to embrace it yet.

How to tell if SEO will not die in 2010?

• Are you always going to need a properly coded site? (technical SEO)
• Are you always going to need good content?
• Do you want people to find your content?
• Do you want people to find your images and videos?
• Are you always going to need people linking to you?
• Do you want people talking about your business?
• Do you think you might use Google, Yahoo or Bing in 2010?

If you answered YES to all of these questions (which I dare any of you to tell me no) then YES, you will be using SEO in 2010.  There are so many posts that answer this better then I do with the bullet points above, so read them, but this post is to THANK SEO, I don’t need to defend it.  I know what its done for me.

This SEO IS DEAD debate is like a bad car wreck, everyone feels like they need to slow down and look at it, but they don’t really need to … do they? Move along, there is nothing more to see here (remember this can date back to 1997 – LOL).   Let’s hope 2010 brings more intelligent posts and conversation about SEO and Internet marketing, especially from people who should know better.

Many people believe it’s enough to blog about their news. For some high traffic blogs (thought leaders) this might be true. For most blogs there isn’t the distribution. You want to reach outside of your community for greater exposure.

Here’s an IM conversation I had recently about the importance of press release distribution:

Clogon: i guess i just put my “press releases” in the form of blog posts

Me: yes and your reach is pretty limited compared to a distribution site that sends it to thousands of people

Clogon: so which one do you prefer at this point – prweb.com or are there better ones?

and cost?

Me: even our hero [name deleted] said the pr is what killed it the last time I worked with him

on a contest

prweb is still the best

http://www.topseos.com/rankings-of-best-press-release-distribution-companies

tell me you can get that kind of reach for free

not going to happen

even if you blog you should be sending out press releases

it doesn’t need to be either/or

What should you write about?

This is easy if you have news to announce – like a new product. If you don’t have any news of your own to announce, look at the news going on in your industry right now. Then give your opinion or slant on it.

One of the best ways to increase visibility is to tie into a trend. Right now a trend that’s hot is the economy and how it’s affecting your business, customers or community. Anything that has a green benefit (as in saves the environment) is popular. For example, colleges are trying to save money by cutting down on the number of commencement ceremonies. What is happening in your industry?

I look at press releases as feature stories more than hard news stories. That way journalists or bloggers have a ready-made story to work from and a good angle. We’re either lazy or we’re overworked and giving us a good storyline is helpful. We can add our opinion and input and it’s good to go. So give us a good story and make sure it’s not boring or bragging. That’s the fastest way to turn off a writer.

A good story will get you links – sometimes not to the press release itself – but they see the story and link to the domain.

Want more information about press releases? Read my Book.
My book, “I Want a Killer Press Release, Now What?!? A Guide to Online PR” goes over more ways to increase your exposure online. It’s in pre-order both in paperback and as an ebook. I wrote it after years of writing press releases and seeing what works. Also as a resource for people who want to write and distribute stories themselves. I also charge a fee to review and improve press releases that are already written. It’s my favorite thing to do.

FREE OFFER: I’m looking for before/after examples of press releases so I have a special offer. I will review and improve your press release free. Just be one of the first 10 people who make a comment on my blog www.OnlinePRBook.com or become a fan of the online PR book on Facebook.

By entering you give me permission to use your name in blog posts and promotional materials. Email me when you’ve done this. If you’re one of the first 10 then I’ll ask you to send the press release to grocerybike @ gmail .com

No matter what your budget writing and distributing news online monthly or quarterly is a great way to build links and get traffic to your site.

He made the comment that after seeing all of my Twitter updates, and Facebook status updates he really just didn’t understand what I did. He said he was trying to figure out what it was I did for a living. I told him that he should have looked at the URLs listed (this one included) on all my profiles, because tuld have been pretty self explanatory as to what I do.

I wish I would have saved the chat (because it was classic), but I didn’t …. so I am going to do my best to share it as it happened. Just so you know the conversation was much more then this, but this was the part that was most frustrating that I wanted to get into.

Here goes:

Him: So what exactly is it you do for a living?

Me: I explained to him that I co-own an Internet marketing firm which helps people who want to be found online. (I did not go into depth about SEO and everything else at this point)

Him: Oh, so you teach people how to use the Internet better? That’s kind of like what I do. (he does Internet hookup etc.) We help people get online and use the Internet.

Me: No, that’s not really what I do at all. I help online business owners be found for the keywords they want to be found for when people are doing searches online.

Him: Pretty much everyone has a website now huh? We help people get the Internet going and get them online .. etc. etc. so its the same thing right?

Me: (aggrivated) NO, I work with real actual business owners that want to be branded online, care about online reputation, want to be found for keywords etc. I went into much more detail, but this is the just of it, and I tried really hard to explain to him that some people may have a website but if they are not found, then what good does it do them? I gave the example – There might be 40 dentists in Gilbert Arizona that are online and have websites, but only a few of them are going to get the most traffic on Google when people search for phrases like “Gilbert Arizona Dentist”, and that is because only a few of them are going to be in the top results of the search engines that people will actually click on.

Him: OH, ok so you help people get and register their domain names with Google? And, You get people to the top of the Google results in those sponsored sections?

Me: (very aggravated now) No, that really is not what I do. Getting businesses into the sponsored results is a form of search engine marketing, but I really am more on the organic side of results. I go into explain what the difference between the PPC results and the organic results are …. walking him through some specific searches and showing results. (hoping he finally gets it)

Him: So really you are just helping people register their domain names on Google and other search engines?

Me: Yes, that’s “exactly” it ….. (quickly finds excuse to leave conversation as I know its going nowhere)

The reason I share this is because everyday I get asked the question; “What exactly is it you do?” This reminds me how brand new our industry really is, 2) it reminds me that we have a big opportunity to inform and help business owners, and 3) that there are a lot of people out there that think they are helping people “get online” and “registered” with Google, but really have no clue what Internet marketing is. We have to be the educators of this industry and be the part of this industry that gives it a GOOD name.

Could I have done a better job describing what Internet marketing is?

I thought I would take this question to my friends on Twitter. I want to see if maybe my Internet marketing friends can help answer this question (140 chars. or less) better then I could, so if my friend is reading this post – he just might learn something! Thanks to @brandonbuttars @atraine @AlanBleiweiss and @dan_patterson

What is Internet Marketing?

• Bringing visitors to the site.
• Getting the website/business discovered.
• Conversions – not just bringing visitors, but converting them
• Using all marketing channels – SEO, SEM, SMO, PPC, Viral, etc.
• Marketing strategy – how all strategies will be used on a site.
• Online marketing objectives – what are the goals for the site?
• Increasing traffic – more traffic = more sales (at least it should)
• Converting traffic into sales – the bottom line here!

These bullet points (taken from answers above) should really spell out what Internet marketing is, and what we do for a living. If you are talking to someone about “just getting your domain registered” You are NOT talking to an Internet marketer. I should have had more patience with my friend and done a better job at “educating him.” Unfortunately, many people just DON’T seem to get it, but I did realize that it is my job to (try) educate people/businesses about our industry because it is so brand new. We have such a huge opportunity and major growth ahead of us. I for one am very excited to be a part of this industry!

I would love to hear other stories from those who can relate.  I think this could be a fun post if you were to share any similar stories that you may have had when talking with friends family or whoever!  Thanks in advance!

Brandon Buttars

A long time friend of mine, who also happens to be a web developer recently took some time to answer some questions for me.  He and I have noticed there is a huge communication gap between most web developers and SEOs/Internet marketers.  We feel that the web developer thinks that they know how to build the site “good enough” without talking to an SEO, and the SEOs assume the developers don’t have a clue about marketing online.  Both are wrong. You each bring something amazing to the table and need each other.  I think we need to have some better communication from the very start and to kick things off, and get you thinking differently – here is my interview of Brandon Buttars, web developer.

When it comes to the design and development process, what is the most frustrating thing for a designer in regards to working with an SEO Firm?

I’ve found that as a designer the company and/or the SEO firm does not give a good guideline for what elements need to be included on the different types of pages. This makes it hard to design and you usually don’t find out what elements they want until a couple critiques in and hours after the fact. If you, as an SEO or company, can give your developers and designers some detailed direction you will end up with a more complete vision.

How could SEOs/Internet marketers do a better job at making what you do easier?

I think the details are necessary up front to make things move quickly. This will cut down on development iterations and design revisions. If the SEO or company you are developing for uses phrases like, “you know what I mean”, then the person saying, “you know what I mean”, most likely doesn’t know what they themselves mean. If any part of the design/development/SEO is run on assumptions there will be problems. Everything needs to be spelled out. If the SEOs need specific features spec them out with as much detail as possible, that includes placeholder content. Do not critique the placeholder content! Be willing to communicate about things too. Even your specs may be a rough draft. Work together to define the final specs.

What does the SEO need to know about the technical developer?

First thing is first, web design and web development/programming is different. Understand what you need. Do you need a web designer, a web developer, or both. Developers often times speak different languages. They live often times in foreign worlds that are much different than the SEO or regular person lives in. When developing web applications and designing user interfaces, everything said is taken literally. Be straight forward in your requests and don’t pretend to understand developers unless you are one yourself. I’ve found that some of the best developers out there have the least amount of patience when it comes to clients and people. If you communicate clearly to your developers they will deliver clearly what you want. If you don’t and pretend they didn’t deliver something you forgot to tell them to deliver, get ready for a pissing match. Developers are often times meticulous in details so if they forgot it you most likely didn’t give it to them in documentation.

How can developers and internet marketers bridge the gap in communication to make things run smoother in the design/development process?

One thing that people often times need to realize is that the cost of a project is eaten up by communication. When communication is made developers and SEOs need to understand that it’s costing both sides money and time. Realize that the more you insist on communicating the more the project is going to cost so realize if the initial cost of the project goes up because of unanticipated communication and unnecessary meetings, don’t be surprised. If both parties would come to the initial planning meeting prepared to ask questions and also prepared to answer questions then things would be hashed out much quicker and communication later in the process would be minimal. I think both sides need to understand who they are talking to. They need to understand who is responsible for what. Documentation is the key. When things are documented you have the ability from both sides to hold people accountable, but understand that when communication slips and delivery slips, you have lost all recourse for a launch date. If you say you are going to do something by a specific date, do it.

Is there anything else you want to tell us internet marketing folks now that the cards are on the table?

I think anyone, whether an internet marketer or not, needs to come to the table prepared with a clear vision of what they want out of the site. With a clear guide on what technical requirements there are to do the internet marketing you need to do. A developer and designer can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Go out of your way to communicate what your requirements are, but be open to help explain those requirements and details to the developers. There are more ways to skin a cat than just one, the developers may have a better way of doing things if you can explain to them why you are doing them.

Do developers even care about SEO?

Most good programming practices lead to good SEO. When you validate HTML code it will often times tell you what you are missing and what code has been written incorrectly, so to a degree all programmers care about SEO. Not all programmers understand how SEO works, but most of them understand why it’s done and what technical elements it takes (meta tags, title tags, alt tags).

Do developers like internet marketing folks?

They don’t hate them. I like to compare it to camping. You go to enjoy the outdoors and to relax. You respect other campers that are around you and try to keep it clean and a better place for those around you. Then there are those campers who come up to camp hooting and hollering around their campfire all night, smashing beer bottles everywhere, and leaving the campground with a burning fire, and a pile of garbage. As long as you are a SEO who leaves the internet with good results and not full of a bunch of irrelevant results, I think most programmers and most people in general respect those SEOs.  As long as you respect the internet and try to preserve search engine integrity you deserve respect.

Bio

Brandon Buttars

Brandon Buttars has 11 years of web design experience, 4 years of experience working directly with web development teams, and 4 years of SEO experience. His love is CSS, XHTML, and graphic design. He currently works as Online Media Marketing manager for PMA Media Group, My Colleges and Careers Online Education, Renevati Lead Verification, and Offer Alliance Affiliate Marketing. He is a social media nut and loves using Twitter.

Do It Yourself Site Review

I complete a lot of site reviews. Often times, I give the same exact advice to each customer. Therefore, I thought I would just go ahead and share the 12 most common things that are wrong or need fixed with most sites – from an SEO/marketing standpoint.  I usually conduct these site reviews during my initial site audit for client or potential client.  I know I posted about the 5 Minute SEO Audit Checklist a while back on Search Engine People, but I wanted to expand on that article with a few other things to look for:

1. URL canonicalization and 301s need to be set in place because on 100% of the sites I review they are not.
2. Custom 404s – I have seen catchy ones, crazy ones, ones that let you search, but at this point having anything is better then an ugly “this page does not exist” result that takes customers away from your site itself, thereby giving you less credibility.
3. Title Tags: “Untitled Document” for Title tag on homepage and sub pages must go, or anything similar to this where you know that it has not been done.  Yea I know, it sounds crazy that in 2009 some people are still doing this and it is hard to believe Google would still want to crawl any site that does not have these basics down.
4. Meta Data – Most sites forget to include custom meta data (not default) for all their pages or have NONE at all.  A quick view of your source will help you determine if you have included, or forgotten your meta data.  In my opinion, the meta data does not help you near as much as it once did, but I feel it can hurt you if done wrong.  I am still able to obtain better rankings by tweeking the meta data too, so as long as I am able to – I will continue to preach its use.
5. Duplicate Content – if you are using a free shopping cart or CMS that sticks custom meta all over the place, and you do not take the right steps to make sure all of your pages are unique as possible it could cause some duplicate content problems.  Another thing that I see with duplicate content is on retail sites that are using products from a dropshipper, and they just copy and paste the product info.  Doing this will flood the search engines with more of the exact same content.  You need to be doing your best to make sure all content and pages are as unique as possible.
6. How do you tell someone their site is UGLY – OH, I know – YOUR SITE IS UGLY, and needs some updating and you need to pay to get your site updated.  The friend of a neighbor that did it for pennies (or cookies) is not going to cut it anymore.  You need to get yourself a real business front online.  Your site will not convert if it looks like it was done in the early 90s.  Yes folks, there still are some sites out there like that.
7. URL Structure – Most of the sites I review need a better URL structure for folders, images and keywords being used in the URLs that relate to what content and information is on the specific page.
8. Alt tags – no alt tags on images which is a must for taking full advantage of image search and getting traffic that way.  There is potential for huge traffic from sites like Flickr, Twitpic, Google Images and all of the other image search websites, but they need to be able to pick your images up and setting them up properly on your site is the first step.
9. XML Sitemap – no xml sitemap (maybe they are not listed in webmaster central)
10. What keywords are you targeting? Most sites I review have not identified any keywords they want to focus on for specific pages, let alone their homepage which I feel should include some of your most important keywords.  The business owner may know the keywords they want to be ranked for, but unless they go about it the right way on their site, Google and other major search engines will never know.
11. Inbound Links -Do most people non SEO type folks even know how to check?  I would suggest they go to the Yahoo Site Explorer.  The more you get into online marketing, the more you will understand how this is a really big deal, especially when you start to more closely analyze your competition.
12. Social Marketing – There is no social presence.  You need to make sure and secure the profile user names that match your business on social sites like Twitter.

No doubt there are many other things to take into consideration, but that was not the point of this post.  It was to outline what I feel are the most common things that people could do to improve their sites online visibility.  These are the things I see people doing wrong, or not doing more consistantly then anything else.  If you would like to share some of the things you see, then feel free and include them in the comments and make this a better post for us all!

OK, so your not impressed and would like to know what SEO campaigns have to do with building chicken coops. The correlation has to do with being able to work both inside and outside of the blue prints.

So, let me tell you a little bit more about my weekend project. The chicken coop blueprint I was following called for both 3″ and 4″ wide pieces of lumber, however Lowes didn’t have any of either. I had to use 3.5″ and 4.5″ wide lumber and that meant that I ran into a snag when it came time to put on the doors. My doors were too big! I had been using 4.5″ pieces when the plan called for 4″. So, I had to improvise and leave the comfort zone of simply following the plan. I realized that a good chicken coop engineer (yes, I like that title) had to be able to work both inside and outside of the blueprint.

A good SEO has to do the same thing. Sure, you can try to simply get links from all of the same places your top ranking competitor has, but at the end of the day if you want to outrank that site you better be willing to get creative and find work arounds when you feel stuck. It seems to me the best SEO’s are great at using tried and true techniques, but even better at finding creative strategies for making the doors fit. So, if your SEO mojo feels like it’s in a rut go build a chicken coop for some creative inspiration.

Local Search Marketing Panel

session looks at a variety of local search tactics that are not necessarily tied to your physical location’s listing.

Moderator: Greg Sterling, Founding Principal, Sterling Market Intelligence

Speakers:
Scott Dunlap, CEO, NearbyNow, Inc.
Matt McGee, Assignment Editor, Search Engine Land
William Scott, President, Search Influence
Dennis Yu, CEO, BlitzLocal LLC

NOTES

Scott Dunlap, CEO, NearbyNow, Inc.
Topic: Tracking and Measuring Online/In-Store Shoppers

Local search is by def: a multi-channel opp.  Search online and buy in store.  There is a 9 to 1 ratio of people wanting to buy in store due to urgency.  So the questions is how do you track traffic to convertion when they are finding you online, yet buying in your store.

Solutions:

1. Use a concierge to gather visitor data online and then call them to provide verification of product in stock, etc.
2. Claim check/apnt setting options for instore meeting.
3. Coupon code only offered online for instore use.
4. Bar code listed online so cause customers will print that off and come in with it for you to scan so they can buy it.
5. Post-purchase consumer survey (get their email instore and then survey them).  This is a very important option.

That’s it for Scott.

Matt McGee, Assignment Editor, Search Engine Land
Topic: Hyperlocal Blogging

Matt’s wife is a local real estate agent in Tri-Cities Washington.  She blogs, and he blogs, about local issues related to their local blogs.  They have 4 hyperlocal blogs that target that area and the objective is to drive local RE buyers to his wife.  They don’t only blog about RE though.

Matt McGee Speaking at SMX

Tips:

1. Find local events that are taking place in your local area and then use those events to blog about and push traffic flow to your site using them.  Typically you can see 10x the traffic in flow from them.
   1. Examples: Circuit City going out of business in Tri-Cities area in Washington.
   2. Leann Rimes coming to do a concert in that local area.
2. About hyperlocal news too (neighborhood level, etc)
   1. Community swiming pool in local area.
   2. Community party or fund-raiser that is taking place in local area.
3. Why local blogging works for you.
   1. Growing interest in local stuff online.
   2. Traditional media declining.
   3. Local web sites often lacking.
   4. Search engines love good blogs.
4. Tips List from Matt Himself.
   1. Write about local stuff.
   2. Use photos and video.
   3. Think ahead.
   4. Do basic SEO on posts.
   5. Don’t overdo self-promotions.

That’s it for Matt.

William Scott, President, Search Influence
Barnacle SEO: Attaching oneself to a large fixed object and waiting for customers to float by.

Local search is location specific for goods and services.  Most often lends to an offline purchase.  Local is different depending on: urgency, service type, demographics, etc.  Local search is long-tail search.  Typically have small budgets, risk aversions, and need quick proof of ROI.

Where is local search?

William Scott Speaking at SMX

1. Yahoo Local
2. Google Local
3. Insider Pages
4. Merchant Circle

All these page results can show up on page one of Google and other engines.

Q: Do I have to have a website?
A: No you don’t.  It’s very easy to promote your business through local, even without a website.  Your website can range naturally, and you can pay for PPC placement, and that is the knock-out punch there.

Local Listings Sites:

1. Yahoo Local
2. CitySearch
3. SuperPages
4. InsiderPages
5. Yelp
6. YellowPages
7. BrownBook
8. MerchantCicle
   

   Dennis Yu Speaking at SMX

Maximize your listings with SEO:

1. Titles and meta
2. Links to local profiles
3. Local search isn’t always on the map
4. Use social bookmarking to build links for local profiles

That’s it for William.

Dennis Yu, CEO, BlitzLocal LLC

How do you do local search marketing when you are a local company with thousands of location?

Make sure to use FaceBook and MySpace ads for local search tactics.  Typically you can see much higher quality traffic and more traffic than traditional PPC and you’ll typically spend less than .20 per click.

Use Twitter to effectively target local businesses on Twitter.  Make a custom background for Twitter and use it to create trust with other Tweeples and allow them to promote for you through social media marekting.