The end of Meta-Keywords

For years the meta-keyword has been on the way out but now the final large search engine to still use meta-keywords for page ranking has dropped it.   Yahoo Drops The Meta Keywords Tag Also announcement that Yahoo is following the crowd and dropping the Meta Keyword tag.  But this doesn’t mean that keywords aren’t important anymore. Keywords are still important, optimizing landing pages for specific keywords is still very important.

Dropping the meta-keyword tag means that the search engines are no longer using that tag to decide on ranking of a page.  But the use of the meta-keyword tag is still important as an optimization tool in creating, maintaining, and monitoring landing pages.   In my case even though the search engines don’t use the meta keywords tag for ranking I have an will continue to use the tag as a record for myself and other interested parties such as website producers, content writers, etc.  Keeping this tag logs on the landing page what keywords that page is being optimized for and is helpful for content producers, PPC management, and optimization reporting and monitoring.

Web Site Designers & SEO

I’m seeing a lot of web site design firms that ’say’ they do SEO to the sites they build but from what I’m seeing after they launch the sites, they really aren’t doing any SEO work on the sites.  Many of these companies really don’t know or understand what SEO is and trust these design firms to do it all for them.  Unfortunately, I’m seeing a lot of wonderful sites that don’t even have basic SEO elements.  

Recently a friend’s company had a Web Design firm do a much needed new web site design for the company.  The site went up Friday and the site itself came out beautiful I have to say it’s a great look and feel, the usibility is simple and stream lined.  Really wonderful ‘design’.

 Unfortunately, the SEO quality of the site which the design firm promised leaves much to be desired.  They really dropped the ball on even the most simple and easiest SEO elements.  Looking at the meta-tags they used the same tags for every single page!  The same title, meta-description and keywords.   They re-define ‘keyword stuffing’ in the meta-tags as they used the same 30 keywords for every single page!

 I’m afraid that this beautiful site is just not going to end up cutting it and getting the company what they really need to succeed.  It took a great deal of convincing to get the company to see the need for their web presnce and now they have this fantastic site but how is anyone going to find it?  Unfortunately the web just isn’t ‘Build it and they will come” anymore.  And they are in an EXTREMELY competitive market that their company has never tapped before.  They have HUGE potential here but without even the SEO basics being hit I’m afraid that they are going to give up on the internet and its potential.  

As I speak to other small businesses they seem to have the same idea, get a great site with lots of flash and pretty pictures and they will come…SEO is too time consuming for them to deal with so they aren’t even going to try or start their site on the right foot with the search engines

How To Promote Content On Social Networks Pt 5

Now What?

Post regularly to the social sites you have joined.

• Comment on posts
• Post your own content
• Post other relevant content of interest

Create content to post to social media and post it

• Post to relevant topics
• Send to your ‘friends’
• Comment on your post

Invite Guest to write for you

• Invite people from your ‘friends’ list to write for your blog or site.

Make it easy for people to find you on Social Media and Follow your content

• Build RSS Feed
• Make links on your site or blog to your social media profile so people can ‘friend’ you and follow you there.

How To Promote Content On Social Networks Pt 4

Social Network Effects on Traffic

 

A little goes a long way and social marketing is not an “all or nothing” situation. Eventually you will establish yourself on the major social media sites you need to be on. And you will have a schedule that allows you to keep up with your other work while adding this extremely powerful marketing method to the mix.

1. More activity on their blogs, such as more commenting and interaction.
2. Direct traffic from incoming links on social media sites (One good StumbleUpon.com submission can net thousands of visitors alone.)
3. Fast traffic increases and steady growth in unique visitors month after month.
4. An increase in subscribers and sales. Social traffic, properly acquired, is very warm to your content, messages, and products. 

Steps For Starting a Social Marketing Campaign 

 

1. Sign up for the major social sites: Digg.com, Stumbleupon, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn .  Don’t submit anything to these sites until you have filled out your profile completely and submitted news from elsewhere on the web to generate a real presence and avoid being labeled as a spammer. (Do not only submit your own content to social networks, be sure to submit content from other sites or sources as well)
2. Schedule a bit of time each day to do some new things. Don’t just say you are going to do them. Write the time into your day and follow through.
3. Join groups, make ‘friends’, and interact with others on these networks. Especially the people who would be most likely to link to your content and send you traffic, who write about similar things or have an audience similar to yours who’d benefit by knowing you. You can even start your own group, promote it in the network, and send “shouts” to the group when you have announcements or need attention to a new post.

How To Promote Content On Social Networks Pt 3

Social Media sites are where people post links to information they feel is relevant or vote for or comment on this information, such as articles and blogs.  Anyone can browse and look at content while members of the site may post and comment, but anyone can see or comment without having to be invited by another individual.

Examples are:

◦Digg

• Reddit
• Stumbleupon
• Mixx
• Delicious
• Yahoo! Buzz
• Blogs

A good social media optimization plan would include seeding these mediums with information and relevant links to content.  Building a network of ‘friends’ and posting other relevant information consistently.  You would not just post your own content but content that is relevant to your business or industry.  Be active and vocal, comment on items of interest and be an active member of the community.  

How To Promote Content On Social Media Pt. 2

Social Networks are sites where people’s interactions are the main focus of the information presented. You have to be invited or be a part of the group to interact in social networks.

Examples are:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Myspace
• LiveJournal
• LinkedIn

Joining these networks and building a network of ‘friends’ to share your site information with will help build your brand and bring about word-of-mouth traffic and inbound links to your site’s content.  Posting to these networking sites and building up a ‘friends’ list that will appreciate and utilize your information is critical.

How To Promote Content On Social Networks Pt. 1

This will be a series of posts about promoting content on social networks geared for small companies and individuals to learn the basics and how to get started and why it is important to utilize social media.

What is it and how does it work?

Social media/networking is the new frontier and for those unfamiliar it can be a daunting question. What is social media? How do I use it? Why should I use it? What will it do for me?

Social media is the use of sites that allow users to post and communicate information through the internet and mobile devices directly or through topical or groups.

They can be broken down into two distinct groups, Social Networks and Social Media

The Benefits of Social Media Optimization

Social Media Optimization is a relatively new, often misunderstood form of online marketing that is reaping huge rewards for website owners who incorporate it into their marketing plans.

• Social networks are a good place to gain new eyes on content.
• Social networks are good relevant inbound links.
• Bringing content to a larger community.
• Finding readers for specific topics.
• Creating ‘word of mouth’ syndication of content through social networks.

My Job Search & Social Networking

Last Thursday my company had to let me go.  It seems finances didn’t work out as well as expected for the next round of venture capital for the company, last one in, first one out.

My first move after leaving work was to make contact with some of my former collegues.  Before I even got home I had a phone interview lined up for Monday morning. 

I’ve taken steps  to utilize my network and use the many tips that have been published of late concerning how to use your social network to help you find a job.  

• If You are Laid Off Here’s how to socially network/
• Worried You Might Get Laid Off/
• How to Surivive Work when Everyone’s Getting Laid off
• You’ve Been Laid Off Here’s What to Do Next/
• Flex Your Network/

I updated my LinkedIn account, posted on twitter, facebook, Livejournal, and all of my email groups that I was now looking for a job and in what field etc.  I made contact with old collegues and friends who consult and contract in my field or would have contacts who would need my particular services.

I have updated my resume, loaded it to all sorts of job search sites and sent a couple of dozen resumes to various positions of interest.  I’ve also begun utilizing sites like twithire to find positions and looking through my twitter list’s companies to see if any of their companies have positions etc. 

So what next?  I’m going to redesign my consulting web site and keep up to date on everything that is going on in my field, read books and journals I haven’t had time to read due to work and keep plugging along.  I will keep updating this blog as I go.

SEO and Marketing Strategy

An interesting conversation came up on twitter today concerning SEO in an overall site marketing strategy and I don’t believe that I was able to communicate my thoughts in the short medium of 140 characters that twitter gives me.  So I wanted to expand upon it here.

I’ve been doing SEO for 7 going on 8 years now.  I’ve seen it evolve from doorway pages and redirects, keyword stuffing, and whited out content, to inbound linking and off page optimization.  The works.  The one thing that doesn’t change is ‘Content’  Content is king, after all that’s what the search engines and the online audience is looking for.  So if you have the content they want in a form that is readable for the audience and the search engines can scan it you’re there.   Yes there are many tweaks and things that can be done to a site to better optimize it.  But in the long run they pale in comparison to having content the audience wants to find and will actuall consume and that along with your site design will lead your audience to the overall conversion point you want them to get to.

You see SEO, PPC advertising, Social Media, email marketing, inbound marketing these are all tools we need to be balanced in order to get the best results.  For me those results are to get the audience to that content, to that funnel that will eventual cause them to convert in some way, either to be an impression on an ad, a lead for a product or service, or to buy.  Without that content for the audience to trigger on and instigate the reaction you want nothing is going to be successful.

Sites that succeed are built around their conversion need and the programs and tools used to market them to the audience need to bring them to the content and eventually the conversion point.

Social Media in ‘09

After the year social media had in 2008 will 2009 be even bigger?  According to Pringo CEO Majid Abai’s interview with Keith Shaw the use of social media will have to grow as the new generation of workers step into the work force.

Abai predicts the integration of social media in conferences and events, market research, training, integration of social media into applications, and communications between employees and partners.  Due to the overwhelming number of new employees in the work space being Millenials who have grown up using social media.  So I have to ask “Are Millenials going to drive social media in business? “

Anyone who has been to any Inbound Marketing event in the last year knows that social media is a must at these events.  It’s one of the big reasons I’m on twitter @chrystie69.  But I could definitely see  virtual events begin based on utilizing social media platforms in 2009.  Reducing travel, time out of the office, etc  so that more people can attend an event and be involved.  Something I’d definitely be interested because of my limited ability to travel to events.

Companies will need to utilize social media for their own market research.  We’ve seen this with the Comcast guy and Dell Cares on Twitter but with more and more millenials out there corporate America needs to embrace social media in order to communicate with these consumers.  Something one of my clients is actually already embracing now.  Using their community to encouraged discussions about features they would like in the software, bugs, etc as well as mentoring and supporting each other.

Training through social platforms is definitely on the horizon.  One of my clients already has a training area in their user community where questions are answered, special training videos are available and special chat sessions where users can attend and ask questions.

Companies are finally realizing the power that they have in social media.  Marketing and online presence can no longer be a 1 way conversation. People want to be a part of the process.  And 2009 is when that switch will begin on a much higher level.