Not too many things that Google comes out with do I get excited about. This one is very cool - take a picture and the Google search engine recognizes the content and brings you back search results. Nice!
Murdoch says that Google is in the group of people that just take our work and steal our stories. Murdoch also says that News Corp’s family of news websites are very close to blocking Google from gaining access to their content.
That means when you searched “shootings at Ft Hood” last week, none of the major news sites would appear in the Google results.
Many of the news generating websites will be by subscription only or the search engine companies, Google, Microsoft (Bing), etc will have to purchase the ability to spider their news content in order for their news articles to appear in the search results.
Sascha (saschaeh in Cre8asite Forums) has written a very in-depth article on guidelines for following the SEO process. Here are a couple of excerpts but head over and read the ~~ Starting The Seo Process ~~, An SEO Forward article in full for yourself. You’ll be glad you did.
SEO is marketing and what is marketing without direction. Very often strategic planning and execution are synonymous with each other as we will see later in this post. There are couple variables which will have influence on how we go about finding direction for SEO. The mix of those different variables will have an effect on the depth of planning and style of execution.
5 considerations before strategy and execution:
1. Are you working on an existing site?
2. Will it be a new site?
3. What is the budget? (not always immediately available but try sus it out best you can)
4. How competitive is the arena you are entering?
5. What is the size of the company you are dealing with?
Overall Business Objectives:
1. What are the business objectives?
2. What marketing strategies do you currently have in place?
2.1 How does the online aspect of it fit into your current marketing strategy?
3. What are your core products or services?
4. Who are the different audiences that the site can appeal to, and provide goods or services or information for?
5. What are your primary & secondary key phrases?
6. How do you currently measure performance?
7. How might conversions be defined for the site? Purchases? Leads generated? Newsletter or service subscriptions? Downloading of specific whitepapers or pages or software?
Online Marketing Objectives and Considerations:
1. General, Short term and Long term goals for SEO.
2. Who do you consider to be your competitors?
3. Do you already have an “image” or “brand” in place that can be pushed.
4. Any specific ideas about the type of marking you want to do? (viral, advertising etc.)
5. What skills do you currently already have available in terms of web development?
5.1 If yes; What is the development or change process like, when you want to make changes, including the time that it typically takes to make changes?
6. Have there been any SEO efforts recently or in the past?
7. How are you driving traffic to your site now?
8. Are you willing to change varies elements on your website? (Content, Structure, technologies, etc)
9. Are there any design, infrastructure or development considerations?
10. Are you equipped to handle an increase in business?
11. Whats the budget either monthly or total?
Friday, September 18, 2009, 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM Cavalier Golf & Yacht Club, 1052 Cardinal Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23451, (757) 428-3131
* Wi-fi is free and available during the event
* Gourmet Lunch is free and included in ticket price
* 2 beverage tickets for after-event mixer are included in ticket price
* Valet parking is free and included in ticket price
Check-in begins at 9:00 AM
After-event Mixer / Networking: 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Agenda
Social Media Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow
The Role of Public Relations in Social Media
Successfully Monetizing Your Blog
How to Benefit from the Power of Google
Successful Social Media Marketing Campaign, 140 Characters at a Time
Friday, September 18, 2009, 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM Cavalier Golf & Yacht Club, 1052 Cardinal Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23451, (757) 428-3131
* Event limited to 230 people
* Wi-fi is free and available during the event
* Gourmet Lunch is free and included in ticket price
* 2 beverage tickets for after-event mixer are included in ticket price
* Valet parking is free and included in ticket price
Check-in begins at 9:00 AM
After-event Mixer / Networking: 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Agenda
Social Media Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow
The Role of Public Relations in Social Media
Successfully Monetizing Your Blog
How to Benefit from the Power of Google
Successful Social Media Marketing Campaign, 140 Characters at a Time
The age old question - okay, maybe not age old, but Internet 2.0 age old - why should I blog is one we hear all the time. True that blogging is not for everyone but it’s a great way for people and organizations to obtain a presence in the online world. Blogging is a great way to be heard, to spread your message and to find out information fast.
Here are few reasons why people blog:
To share thoughts about a particular topic such as a product you’re interested in or an experience you had.
To communicate your satisfaction or frustration with a product or company.
To drive traffic to your other web properties. SEO!
To earn money through advertising and sponsorships.
To obtain links from other sites and blogs pointing to your blog. SEO!
To add valuable content to your web presence.
Remember how you used to write notes in class and maybe even wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper? Blogging has the same goal except with a greater result - faster delivery to a larger audience.
Here are few reasons why organizations blog:
To interact with clients and potential clients.
To build your ‘verifiable’ authority on specialty topics.
To announce the launch of a new project.
To build brand awareness.
To address reputation management issues (we can talk at length about the increased value of blogging to handle and manage(!) negative press).
To build trust and alliances with other organizations.
To provide almost real-time feedback about strategies, products and future initiatives.
To generate a viral buzz about a product or topic.
So you see? Blogging is good. Yes, it can be time intensive and definitely addicting if you get the fever. But what better way to network and build your web of trusted individuals and organizations.
According to an eMarketer report, 68% of U.S. marketers will focus on online video. 42% will focus on social media and 34% will focus on search.
I noticed one item missing from looking at the chart below, email campaigns. Apparently the surveyors did not find email marketing important enough to add to the survey. Very odd since most online marketers will mention email distribution in their top 5 of critical tactics.
One disclaimer: these are projected numbers when surveying marketers. This is not a survey of clients of marketing firms.
What do you think? Do the results of this survey fall inline with your plans for 2009?
Rand Fishkin, owner and CEO of SEOmoz.org has published a very informative article on the subject of identifying the differences between an expert Search Marketer and a novice Search Marketer. The words are compiled in the context of helping the novice identify their weaknesses and a providing a means to get to the next level.
Here is an outline of the article but please shoot over to the SEOmoz.org blog to get the full story. This one is well worth the read for novices and experts.
SEO/M expert features:
Brand Level Experience
Contacts and Relationships
Holistic Approach
Accepts the Right Projects
Sixth Sense for Rankings
SEO/M novice mistakes, pitfalls or missed opportunities:
Microsoft has announced that it will launch their Live Search Webmaster Portal in late Fall 2007. Although a private beta test is underway now, Nathan Buggia, Microsoft Sr. Product Manager and Ryan Burkhardt, Group Program Manager say there is polishing yet to be accomplished before a full release is exposed to the public.
At launch the Live Search Webmaster Portal will support these scenarios:
Troubleshooting tools to ensure MSNBot is effectively crawling and indexing your site.
Sitemap creation, submission and ping tools.
Statistics about your website.
Consolidation of content submission resources.
New content and community resources.
Google currently has their Webmaster Central as does Yahoo! has their Site Explorer that accomplish these tasks for their respective search engines for webmasters.
Who gathers 31% of the Internet’s advertising dollars?
Who is obsessed with self-proclaimed world domination?
Who has more than 12,000 world-wide employees?
Who collected $10.6 billion in 2006 from online advertising?
With its current available cash-on-hand, who can buy YouTube (at current market value of $1.65 billion) six times over?
Who owns 64% of the Internet’s search market? (if you don’t know by now, turn your computer off and go to bed!)
Yes, of course it’s Google. But why am I bothering to feed you interesting but totally useless information? Because I wanted to squash any belief you had in your brain that Google ever realistically thinks they can take ownership of the world from Bill Gates. Whether you like it or not, whether you agree with it or not, it’s true.
Here are some quick facts on Microsoft:
MS owns 95% of the world’s computer operating system market.
MS has more than six times the number of employees than Google.
MS has more than three times the amount of cash-on-hand than Google.
My point here is to not spread my opinion of Microsoft being a better company than Google or vice versa. But to tell you to not believe everything you read. And to not believe everything you hear.
Everyone and every entity, especially media outlets have their own agendas. They will tell you “facts” and twist truths to a point that sounds believable. Don’t fall for it. Do your own research. Be realistic about your findings (doubt them where applicable). And come to your own educated conclusions.
Don’t listen to and believe every word Bill Gates says. He loves and has a vested interest in Microsoft.
Don’t listen to and believe every word Larry Page and Sergey Brin say. They love and have a vested interest in Google.
And for goodness sakes, DO NOT listen to and believe every word Steve Jobs says. He loves and has a vested interest in Apple.