50 Ways to FAIL On Twitter

Posted by Lee Odden on Jul 23rd, 2009

Like many others, I scoffed at Twitter when I first heard of it. What use could sending short messages to people I don’t know be? The mental leap from IM and Facebook status updates to Twitter makes it easier, but business use seemed pointless at first. As I noticed more of my Search, Social and PR industry peers using Twitter, it seemed a good idea to test out.

While I don’t have a million followers, or even 100,000, I’ve found out that for my purposes, quality is the key and the 13k or so followers I am lucky to be associated with are appreciated a lot more. Being strategically useful and helpful builds trust, attracts influential followers (vs bots and spammers) and results in a new channel for social networking. Individual tweets may or may not be useful, but when you add them up over time, a bigger picture emerges.

Twitter Marketing tips are not hard to come by. Ease of use combined with the overall ease of publishing online makes available more than enough advice on using Twitter as a consumer as well as for brand monitoring, marketing, customer service, real-time search, competitive intelligence and even direct sales.

Yes, there’s plenty of advice on what you should do with Twitter, but based on increasing mis-behaviors, there are many ways to fail. Below is a list of 10 “Don’ts” on Twitter from me, followed by 40 more provided by the smart Tweeple who responded on Twitter :

• Don’t auto reply follows with a link to your free piece of crap ebook. This sentiment is shared several times below.

• Don’t provide an obscure description of who you are and what you do

• No photo or an image that only makes sense to you and your imaginary friends

• Don’t mention a great resource with no link

• Not customizing your background

• Don’t post 10 messages in succession (also repeated below)

• Don’t follow over 1000 people in a 2 hour period

• Don’t write about the cat/hamster/potted plant over and over again

• Don’t swear often and expect business people to take you seriously (Unless you work for Outspoken Media)

• Don’t over-abbreviate.

Here are a few “Twitter FAIL” tips from Tweeple following @leeodden

• @glenngabe DON’T tell people on the public timeline that someone else is on vacation. Saw this happen last week… Can get a house robbed!

• @glenngabe DON’T reply on the public timeline when you meant to DM (or when it should be a DM…)

• @cyandle don’t retweet EVERYTHING…

• @kholloway Don’t expect me to follow you if you have 0 updates

• @aimclear DO research content you recommend, add value to the bookmark, Success is gained by offering value, Friends made by being a friend.

• @aimclear Don’t compliment gratuitously in public

• @shelisrael Don’t tell people not to do something on Twitter. It will just give them ideas.

• @kenburbary Obvious but annoying, DON’T auto DM spam (also mentioned by @CarrieHill @Justin_Freid @NicoleElise)

• @RonArden Twitter don’ts: don’t send spam and don’t send me ads for things. This is the quickest way to get me to unfollow someone.

• @doctordns Just don’t be stupid – some people will take whatever you write and use it against you. If not now, then when you least expect it!

• @JeremyMeyers “don’t” spend all your time on twitter talking about twitter (also mentioned by @timjahn)

• @thelostagency dont tweet broken links, and if you are retweeting check link is accurate and not spam/broken

• @rickburnes Don’t pretend that Twitter alone is a marketing plan (you only get referrals from Twitter if you have great content to refer to).

• @steveplunkett don’t ever argue.. in writing on twitter…

• @Aerocles Don’t tweet breaking news that’s more than one hour old, we’ve all heard/seen it already

• @brandonfritz@leeodden Don’t St@lk

• @KateOnline Don’t take credit for tweets that did not originate from you (also mentioned by @matthewdiehl)

• @glager Dont report on every piece of news you can get your hands on

• @kimgarretson Don’t tweet about your need for coffee in the mornings. This has moved past cliche to downright irritating.

• @Ms_Write Test links before tweeting them. Nothing worse then a dead link.

• @MBenti Before you use twitter for your business b/c it’s the “thing to do”, take time to observe and figure it out for yourself.

• @Zarniwhooper Don’t retweet something and leave off the original Twitter poster. Always give credit to those who wrote it first.

• @KaseyInCharge here’s a “don’t”: don’t talk about ways to increase followers. so annoying. people are here for conversation…

• @AmberGallihar Don’t repost the same tweet more than three times. We saw it.

• @Zarniwhooper Don’t say anything that could get you fired or prevent you from getting a job.

• @Zarniwhooper Don’t be boring. A simple rule is “Never tweet about food or the weather. And never your bathroom habits. Seriously. Never.

• @steveplunkett no foul language in same tweet as a URL. (SafeSearch Anchor text)

• @Saudiqua Don’t tweet emotional rants!

• @bobmutch ya don’t share stuff you are doing or going to do that is too personal

• @melaniemitchell don’t sell to people who don’t care about what you have to say.

• @michaelpearsun Don’t worry about your follower count. It’s about quality.

• @michaelpearsun Don’t let spammers into your feed

• @marrina Re-tweet of a re-tweet. So annoying.

• @patiomensch First, you must call it a list of “don’ts” (ah, the spelling Fail)

• @EstrellaBella10 Don’t post multiple back-to-back updates on Twitter. Many people have complained about that.

• @myklroventine Don’t try to explain it to Letterman

• @imeldak Don’t join things that gets you thousands of ‘instant’ followers. Quality of followers is always better than quantity

• @anon Don’t post a link to a picture of yourself with a large knife, especially if you are a governor

• @anon Responses to ethics charges are probably best left for a forum where you can respond with more than 140 characters

Last, but not least: @marrinaHelp compile a list of “dont’s” for Twitter

That should get our “What not to do on Twitter list” party started. What are your Twitter dont’s?

Resources: http://www.toprankblog.com/2009/07/50-ways-to-fail-on-twitter/

High Impact/Low Effort SEO from a Developer's Perspective

Posted by jennita on July 22nd, 2009

When was the last time you had a heated discussion with your developer? Or better yet, when was the last time they rolled their eyes at you when you asked them to make some sort of change to the website? My guess is that it probably hasn't been all that long. Or has it? A higher probability is actually that you work with some wicked smart developers who blow your mind away with their sheer awesomeness!

Recently, there was a post over on YOUmoz about the naivete and misconceptions that developers have about SEOs written by cyberpunkdreams. He had gotten into a conversation with a group of developers who thought that SEOs were spammers and were only out to get bad sites at the top of the rankings. The dialogue on this topic is interesting, because at the same time that developers are thinking we're a bunch of spammers, we, as SEOs also have misconceptions about developers in general.

Sure, there are many developers out there who may not specifically focus on SEO, nor do they have a keen knowledge of everything that goes into ranking well. But they are no dummies. They often are very analytical and can think through problems or come up with excellent solutions to issues. They can create an algorithm that will take 8 different pieces of data from the database and build dynamic title tags with length restrictions, keyword usage, and anything else you want to throw at them. Without our technical counterparts, our jobs would be pretty boring, since half of the tasks we need completed, we can't do on our own.

With all this said, I decided to run a little test and find out what developers felt were the top 5 changes they could make to a website to provide high SEO impact and value with a low level of effort. I set out on a mission to contact developers through Twitter, Faceboook, email and IM. As I'm writing this I'm wondering now if they wondered what the heck I was asking them this question for. Little did they know they were going to be quoted in this post. :)

Top 5 SEO Changes

This list is derived directly from the responses I received via Twitter, Facebook, IM and email from 13 different developers. With that, here's a list of ways developers can optimize their site for highest impact, with the lowest amount of effort, from their perspectives.

1. Title Tag
   This was overwhelmingly the top response by most of the developers. Many of them specifically mentioned building dynamic title tags, and not just hand coding each page.
   Reference: Best Practices for Title Tags
   
   
2. Canonical URL Tag
   Multiple people mentioned the canonical URL tag which I found very exciting. In the SEO world we all got super giddy when this tag came out, and it's great to know that it has surfaced as an important feature for developers as well.
   Reference: Canonical URL Tag - The Most Important Advancement in SEO Practices Since Sitemaps
   

3. Permalinks
   Get your URLs right! I built dynamic URLs for years that were not user friendly at all. There are so many options to rewrite and redirect your URLs, and many CMS's are getting more and more SEO savvy.
   Reference: Dynamic URLs vs. Static URLs - The Best Practice for SEO is Still Clear
   
   
4. Robots.txt
   Although the robots.txt file is there to help a site owner make sure that the right areas are being crawled, if it set up incorrectly it could do more damage than it's worth. The theme from the developers was to make sure that you don't have "Disallow: /" or are in some way blocking access to relevant areas of the site.
   Reference: Managing Robot’s Access To Your Website - From janeandrobot.com
   
   
5. Image Alt Tags
   For me, this should actually be moved further up the list. This is a big one, as we've been talking about lately that keyword rich (not spammy) image alt tags correlate with higher rankings. Now before you go and get all huffy, puffy about this one, watch the Whiteboard Friday about Correlation, Causation and SEO.

WOW! Blows your mind right? Nope. Not so much. Developers actually DO live on the same planet with SEOs. In fact this list might very well have come from any one of us. Developers are knowledgeable. Be sure to give them the credit they deserve for knowing the things you don't. The beauty in the SEO/developer relationship is that they shouldn't have to know everything you know, and you shouldn't have to know everything they know. :)

Also worth noting, but didn't make the top 5 list, were dynamic meta tags, internal linking, valid X(HTML), URL Hierarchy and fixing bad navigation.

Resources: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/high-impact-low-effort-seo-developers-perspective

Brand Promotion Online -- Signals for Today's SEO

Posted By Mark Jackson on 21 July 2009

I've recently discussed some of the fundamentals of SEO that haven't changed for some time. Now let's touch upon the "new" realities of SEO and what you need to do to build your brand online.

Why Branding?

Well, you may have heard it mentioned that Google wants to rank brand Web sites. It isn't so much that Google only wants to rank big brands. But they do like all of the signals that these big brands carry.

Big brands, more often than not, have very deep/informational Web sites and have their share of other Web sites linking to them. These are two very important "signals" of the authority of these Web sites.

So, to dig into this deeper, I consult with Wikipedia (a "big brand"):

People engaged in branding seek to develop or align the expectations behind the brand experience, creating the impression that a brand associated with a product or service has certain qualities or characteristics that make it special or unique. A brand is therefore one of the most valuable elements in an advertising theme, as it demonstrates what the brand owner is able to offer in the marketplace. The art of creating and maintaining a brand is called brand management.

What Makes Your Web Presence 'Special or Unique'?

How are you going about your brand management? Part of doing well, organically, in the search engines is having a deep, informational Web site that has plenty of (good) links to it.

Wikipedia certainly measures up to this, with around 47 million pages indexed in Yahoo and 179 million backlinks, sitewide. This is the best example of creating good, unique content that people will want to link to as a reference (as I've just done).

There are other signals that make you a "big brand" to the search engines; things that can help you build a big brand online, without the expense of international marketing efforts that may have made Coca-Cola and others big, back in the days of traditional marketing only.

Today, it's possible -- even for smaller companies -- to build a big brand online at a greatly reduced price compared with what Coca-Cola had done through years of television, radio, and print advertising.

And, the nice thing about these "branding" efforts is that they can, at least indirectly, be measured as they impact your ability to rank in the search engines, gain quality traffic to your Web site, and grow your bottom line.

Expand Your Web Presence

Here's a list of some of the signals that you may want to begin strategizing against:

1. Blogging: This isn't new. Still today, however, some companies refuse to get into the blogging game for fear of what "might be said about them" or that they would have to divulge company secrets. Successful blogging requires that you provide something of value to your readers. When you provide useful information, and you promote it to the masses (social media marketing), you'll gain links to your Web site in much the same manner as Wikipedia.
2. Press Releases: "Traditional" press releases were for the benefit of reaching journalists in the hopes that they might write an article in their magazines/newspapers or cover it on television news/radio. Today, these press releases can be found in Google's universal results (if you select the proper method of distribution) and add quality links to your Web site (using quality anchor text within the press release; drive deep links to areas of your Web site that you would like to promote).
3. Social Media Channels: A quality post doesn't mean much if no one reads it or links to it. So, you must have access to a network of "friends" on Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and others to make sure you have readers. Be sure that your posts also allow the reader to easily promote the posts to their network.
4. Link Building: Back in the old days, it was all about reciprocal link building (i.e., I add a link to your Web site and then request that you link back to me). What does this tell the search engines? That you're somehow affiliated or partnered with this company? Better still, that a number of people link to you and you aren't linking out to a number of people. Right? When that happens, it's probably a signal of your brand/authority. And, if a number of people that happen to be linking to you also happen to be within your industry, or are writing a blog post titled "Search Engine Optimization -- The Very Best Resource Available" and linking to http://searchenginewatch.com, that will probably be a good vote that Search Engine Watch is a great resource for "search engine optimization resources," right? If enough quality Web sites are doing this, that's a pretty strong signal to Google that you should be ranked.

All of these help you gain reach and frequency. More importantly, you'll reach those who are interested in your products and services.

This isn't a "run of network" buy. This is targeted "advertising." Many of these channels aren't directly measureable to ROI, and I know that the struggle is how do you budget for something like this, call it "search engine optimization," and not have it be directly measureable to a ROI.

The truth is, branding still works. And, there are methods to measure many of these to a ROI. But, the real benefits could be in the form of more people searching specifically for your brand.

Resources: http://searchenginewatch.com/3634477

Getting an SEO Copywriting Job

Posted by Lucy Langdon 20 July 2009

The inspiration for this post came when I was chatting with a recently graduated friend of mine who'd been looking for work online. Much like myself when I graduated with that all-purpose English Lit degree, she was looking for copywriting jobs online. Before I started at Distilled I did a bit of freelance writing so I knew exactly where she was coming from. Out of curiosity, I decided to have a poke around craigslist and gumtree- a couple of regular haunts of mine about 18 months ago. The very first thing I noticed was that the vast majority all of the writing jobs mentioned SEO, if not in their title then somewhere in their description. I don't remember it being like that all.

Obviously, SEO copywriting isn't as new as 18 months, but it is impressive how the landscape has changed so that now some awareness of writing for SEO (and a lot of the jobs were asking for more than that) is nigh on essential to landing some work.

This post is a fairly simple checklist for copywriters who need to be able to walk the SEO walk. It's pretty top level but I've made sure to link out to essential resources.

I just looked on craigslist and found this handy ad that illustrates exactly what I mean:

1. Web-savvy content writer
What it is: Last time I checked, 'savvy' was something this dashing young pirate said a lot. However, on closer inspection, I can reveal that web-savvy nirvana can be reached simply by getting acquainted with the Internet. You should probably know who this and this are. Web savvy folk know how to Google.
How to have it: Make sure you know what a blog is and be able to talk about them without sounding stupid, (you can write a blog post, post a post, write posts, even post posts, but you can't post or write 'blogs', unless you actually mean publish to more than one different website). Have your favourite three websites tattooed on the inside of your eyelids. You might also want to write why you like them on the back of your hand- is their usabiilty to die for? Have they fully unleashed the power of social media? Actually, it'd be worthwhile getting to know a social media site or two- Reddit and Digg are the hotspots for what's hot online. Here's a handy list if you're playing catch up.
Buzz word/s: RSS, Technorati, Firefox or Chrome, social media, hot trends

2. Produce and upload
What it is: The produce bit's ok, but what's that sneaky upload? This is the point where your writing gets put on the Internet for other people to read. If you're anything like me, that whole 'other people reading it' takes a tiny bit of getting used to. There are a few ways your writing can get uploaded but if it's more complicated that publishing a blog post I shouldn't think you'll be expected to do it without help the first few times.
How to have it: My advice is get your own blog and try uploading a few posts. It's easy once you get going and is also a great place to showcase anything you've written. It's also a great way to practice some basic html. If you're really busy/lazy, try just signing up to a social media site and submitting someone else's content. It's a different process, but the simple act of publishing something online can be a bit daunting first time round.
Buzz word/s: Wordpress, Blogger, Tumblr, CMS

3. Keyword rich, compelling content
What it is: Ah, keywords. This is how search engines work- keywords (or keyphrases) are very important. This'll do for a very short definition: keywords are the words or phrases people use in the search engines to find what they're looking for. A lot of job adverts ask for a basic level of keyword research. Check out this introduction. You also need to learn about actually writing optimized copy.
As a side note, there are quite a few misconceptions about keyword use out there. Back in the day, something called 'keyword stuffing' or achieving the right 'keyword density' was all the rage. If a potential employer asks you to do that sort of thing, you should have the confidence to tell them that practice won't help, and writing well-optimized and, most importantly, natural copy will be much better for their site.
How to have it: I think keywords are the beginning and end of SEO. They're important across so much of what we do. You have to see them as part of the whole; understand where they come from and how to use them before you actually try finding them. There are lots of online tools you can use to find out keywords and estimate their importance to your writing. I started out on SEObook's keyword tool and now mostly use Google's Keyword Tool.
Buzz word/s: keyword/keyphrase research, meta tags, optimization, keyword stuffing

4. Website needs viewers
What it is: Viewers, traffic, users, customers, visitors- all pretty much the same thing. These are the people sitting at their computer that arrive on the website in question via any number of ways. More often than not, these viewers will need to be 'converted'. That can mean anything from signing up to a newsletter to buying a sofa- and your copy will come into play somewhere along the way. Your copy might also need to attract visitors. I've written more on that below.
How to have it: As far as this ad goes, you just have to write well. Obey all the usual rules about old school copywriting- don't babble endlessly with words that only you and your much-missed Professor understand. Don't try and be funny unless you actually are.
Buzz words/s: traffic, Google Analytics

5. SEO efforts
What it is: SEO is Search Engine Optimization. It's very similar to SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and on the same page as PPC (Pay Per Click). As for 'SEO efforts', I'd take a guess that this is the same as the point above. Websites undertake SEO to bring more visitors to their sites by ranking better in the search engines.
How to have it: Learn the basics of SEO. SEOmoz.org is one of the best places to start.
Buzz word/s: blackhat, whitehat, SEO, SEM, PPC, CRO

6. Web link campaigns
What it is: After copy come links (as a writer, I'm a little biased). The phrasing's a bit strange in the advert, but they're almost certainly talking about dedicated linkbuilding, which is really just a part of SEO. There are lots and lots of ways to linkbuild. One method might be to promote the quality content you have been hired to write.
How to have it: Learn about why links are important to the search engines and understand the philosophy behind why people link. The search engines essentially see a link from one website to another as a vote. Understand the difference between a spammy footer link and a quality editorial link and the different value of each of those.
Buzz word/s: anchor text, linkbuilding, spiders, indexing

7. Social networking
What it is: A social network is an online community- they hang out on forums, blogs and social media sites. LOTS of people use them on the Internet, some for fun, some for profit, some for pure unadulterated spamming. A few of these sites have 100,000's of users and getting your content to appear prominently on their radar can obviously bring a lot of traffic and links to your site.
How to have it: Start by spending time with a few different online communities. You'll soon notice the one or two you keep returning to. Treat the group like you would an offline community and you'll soon earn your place amongst the ranks. Be warned: social networks can become a time vacuum that you will never truly recover from. Subscribe to a few blogs that regularly appear in these social networks- Cracked and The Onion are a couple of my favourites.
Buzz word/s: social media sites, Twitter, linkbait

8. Online PR
What it is: It's kind of the same as offline PR except that it's more informal. You can use sites to publish and distribute your Press Releases in an SEO friendly way, or you can go directly to webmasters and bloggers to see if they want to cover the story. It's all in the same bag really.
How to have it: Have a go at submitting a press release- you can do it for free. Wait a few hours and then google a section of the release and see how many results appear. Or, if you're feeling really brave, try pitching an idea for a post to a blog you enjoy reading. This is called guest-posting or guest-blogging and is a really good way to get coverage of something you want to draw attention to.
Buzz word/s: news wire, PR Web, guest blogging

9. Natural search
What it is: As opposed to unnatural search? Natural search just means visitors that come through searching in the engines and didn't click on a sponsored listing (aka a PPC ad).
How to have it: As above, learn SEO. It can seem a bit overwhelming to begin with but what you have to remember is that a lot of the stuff that gets discussed day to day to do with search is quite high-level. The basics of copywriting for SEO are fairly easy to master, particularly if you spend a bit of time actually having a go, rather than just reading!
Buzz word/s: Organic traffic, search

10. Create great content that ranks on search
What is it: Content is king. Another tattoo for the back of your eyelids. And, crucially, this is why you're getting hired to write about your Top 10 Favourite Bond Villains. Content that ranks on search means content that ranks naturally in the search engines.
How to have it: All your new found SEO skills (and related buzzwords) will help, but just being able to write in a clear, concise, engaging and readable manner will do wonders.
Buzz word/s: Content is king, optimized copy

Resources: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/getting-an-seo-copywriting-job

The Top 5 SEO No-No's

Posted by Rob Fleming on 17 July 09

As a SEO professional the majority of my time is spent correcting the SEO errors and mistakes made by my customers. The art of effective SEO optimization is convoluted with many variables, and although you can Google SEO optimization and find literally thousands of results on the subject with tips, tricks, and strategies; until you remove all unfriendly SEO code your site is doomed in gaining prominent placement on the SERPs.

1. Avoid the use of flash, DHTML, and internal java script. These coding practices offer slick visual enhancements, but are some of the biggest SEO killers. Search engine spiders see flash objects as big chunks of empty web space because there isn’t an effective SEO method to tag them to be crawled by the spiders. If you are using flash for photo slideshows then convert them into pop-up pages and reinforce them with keyword rich content and anchor text.

DHTML and link roll over effects bloat the html coding of your website and remove the important “alt” and image “title” tags which help to further weaken your SEO ranking potential. The best menu linking method is “text” based links with keyword rich anchor text. The same goes for internal java scripting this coding just pushes your relevant content down further into your code and slows the search engine spiders crawling your site. Convert your internal scripts into external .js applets and drop them in a folder in your site.

2. Non-unique, duplicate, or non-relevant content. Your websites content should be fresh and always match and relate to your sites niche. If you are selling party supplies then it would be a bad idea to have pages or content about bowling balls. Duplicate or redundant content is a big no-no as well; part of the Google PR algorithm is based on fresh relevant content.

3. Keyword stuffing and hidden text. Google and the other major search engines view these practices as spamming and can get your sites sandboxed (dropped so low on the SERPs that no one will ever find it!) or banned altogether. Keep your keyword density to no more than 5%, and never use hidden text.

4. Poor Meta data. Your Meta data is the information that tells the search engine spiders what each page of your site is about and how it relates to your content. Research your keywords and phrases and always a unique keyword rich tile for each page, avoiding stop words like “and, or, the, if, it, were”. Keep you title to 57 characters or less. Your description tag should be short and no longer than a sentence or two. Your keyword tag should always have your primary keyword first, and that keyword should also be in the first sentence on your page content. Don’t bloat this tag with dozens of keywords; this will only hurt your ranking potential. Use no more than 10-12 per page and build landing or gateway pages to promote additional keywords.

5. Always use “alt”, link, and header (H1, H2, Etc) tags. Each image and hyperlink on your site is meaning less to the search engine spiders if it isn’t tagged with relevant keyword descriptive phrases. When tagging your menu links never use tags like “click here” etc. always be descriptive. Your content needs to be user-friendly first then SEO friendly. Avoid long paragraphs. Use bullets and numbering to summarize and break up long text. This will make your key points stand out to your web visitors and to the search engine spiders as well. Always use header tags to highlight important information. A trick I always us is I start of using the H2 tag at the top of my pages and use the H1 tag further down. It seems that almost every SEO tech starts off with the H1 tag and this has caused the major search engines to give less weight to the H1 tag as a result. This doesn’t mean it is useless, but when used second or third I have noticed better results.

There are so many important strategies in achieving top ranking on Google and the other search engines, but by getting back to basics and making your site SEO and user friendly, you will have a clean web pallet to work with and build upon.

Keep your site filled with fresh relevant content, avoid “Black Hat” and deceptive practices and keep your pages easy to navigate and informative and you site will gain higher SERPs long before those who disregard or do not follow SEO best practices!

Resources: http://www.examiner.com/x-13995-Detroit-Internet-Marketing-Examiner~y2009m7d17-The-top-5-SEO-nonos

Create a press release optimization strategy to enhance your SEO program

Posted by Craig Abramson on 18 July 09

Most companies understand the importance of distributing press releases to promote product launches, make special announcements, or even responding to controversy. But the press release isn’t just a promotional vehicle to be used by large companies relying on public relations firms to develop the best message. All companies should take advantage of the opportunities that are available to them through the use of press releases. In fact, press release optimization (PRO) should play a key role in any search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.

So how does PRO enhance SEO? The key is to use the various press release distribution services available on the Web that enable you to link content in your press release to your Web site. By adding these links, it helps build your Google PageRank, which effects your keyword position on the leading search engine.

Using these distribution services is important for another reason as well; the major search engines will only include two links to your Web site per keyword search. But by distributing your release, news about your company can take up countless positions on a keyword search. For example, I was targeting an accounts payable phrase for one project. We already achieved a listing in the top two positions on Google. Soon after we issued a new press release that focused on the keyword phrase, we actually took over the top 7 positions on Google and all 10 on Yahoo. This ensures that if anyone does this keyword search, they’ll see our company. If they click on the press release link to read it, they’ll have numerous opportunities to click on specific keywords that link back to our corporate site.

All of this is accomplished with very little spend. The services can cost anywhere from $1 up to $300. They typically offer different programs; some are enhanced specifically for SEO purposes. Some of the better performing services include 1888pressrelease.com, 24-7pressrelease.com, prweb.com, and prnewswire.com. These also distribute your release over the wire so it will be picked up by numerous other online sites through RSS feeds.

Of course, you may think this sounds like a great idea but you can’t think of an announcement that you’d make that’s newsworthy. That’s the wrong type of thinking. Almost any new program you implement, new product feature, new product offering, new service, or new sale can be incorporated into a press release. For example, if you are launching a new Webinar, you should issue a press release about it. Did you recently make a significant sale? Are you speaking at a tradeshow or industry event? Are you offering a new product or service? Did you make a significant new hire? All of these are press release-worthy.

When writing the press release, you have to consider what keyword(s) you want to target. Typically, you want to work this keyword in to the headline of your press release and in the first paragraph with a link back to your Web page in which this keyword is targeted. It’s important though not to force the keyword in to the copy. It should flow naturally with the news you’re presenting.

Several of these press release distribution services enable you to include several hyperlinks back to different pages on your site. It’s important to take advantage of this opportunity as long as the keyword links flow with the story. But you can always work critical keywords into your company boilerplate that appears at the end of the press release.

PRO is often overlooked because many companies think they’re too small to issue a release. In fact, it’s even more imperative for smaller companies to issue a press release to make sure their company can be found through keyword searches. It’s a cost-effective way to compete with the larger companies and make a significant impact in your SEO program.

Resources: http://www.examiner.com/x-16921-Newark-Internet-Business-Examiner~y2009m7d18-Create-a-press-release-optimization-strategy-to-enhance-your-SEO-program

Chris Boggs Building Directory Links: A Valuable SEO Tactic?

Posted by Chris Boggs on Jul 17, 2009

Although many SEO experts differ on the specific tactics required to gain organic search visibility, the majority of them would place a relatively equal emphasis on the refinement of site structure and taxonomy/hierarchy, the importance of having relevant and indexable content, and the value of inbound links. Each of these focus areas has a variety of different tasks and goals associated.

To ensure the validity of each individual SEO tactic, it's important to constantly measure the performance of each tactic. This can be very difficult, because often many of the recommendations for SEO are implemented in conjunction.

However, in some situations, establishing case studies can measure the apparent results of a specific tactic. From a link building perspective, one of the longest-tenured tactics to employ is to build links within topical free and paid directories.

In late 2008, we launched three new pages within a specific business line of a financial services client. The content was optimized, and some internal links were established in order to get the content indexed. Our next step was for the link development team to request links from free and paid directories.

Let's look at a case study of the results of this effort.

The Situation and Tactical Execution

The three pages we were dealing with were somewhat orphaned within the normal navigation structure of the site, due to the majority of the site's content being "behind regionalization." As part of our overarching strategy, these three business-line-specific pages were created with the intention of providing valuable content that the search engines could index. In order to build immediate relevance and inbound links to the new pages, our "low-hanging fruit" was the ability to place links within directories.

We use a combination of paid and free directories when establishing these types of links to client sites, and these often vary based on the subject or niche of the destination pages. However, from a high level, there are a few directories that we have consistently achieved results form. These include the two most important and historically effective: Yahoo and Best of the Web.

We typically update our high-level list of paid directories to consider at least quarterly, or as research indicates a loss or gain of authority within the eyes of the search engines. Currently, additional paid directories that we have confidence in include JoeAnt.com, Starting Point, and GoGuides.org. Fees are associated with the review of the site, ranging from $39.99 (Joe Ant) up to $299 (Yahoo). Some are one-time fees, while others are yearly renewals (BOTW and some others offer an option).

Since at least 2004, I've told Web marketers that the $299 yearly fee for Yahoo is one of the best ways to spend money to help drive authority and relevance to a Web page. Yahoo charges annually, and for the same cost, a permanent, editable link and description is available at BOTW.

We submitted the three pages to a selection of these paid directories, as well as a handful of free directories. When we submit to directories, we expect rapid indexing for the paid ones, and a somewhat slower approval process for the free directories. This actually isn't a problem for us, as it paces out the time between links being established to pages, and subsequently indexed and counted by search engines.

Also, we optimized our submission process through a number of other ways that I can't share due to risking losing intellectual capital. But catch me at SES San Jose, and maybe I can talk through some of those considerations.

The Results

As expected, we began to see increased visibility for the pages within about 30 to 45 days after the paid directory links went live. Visibility, of course, never automatically equals traffic, so we measured visits to these pages and subsequent conversions, and were happy to see that these both increased dramatically after the implementation of the directory links.

We must give some credit to the optimized content and the authority of the domain, but we're very confident that the results can be at least 50 percent attributed to the implementation of the directory links, especially because we held off on direct request tactics until 120 days out, in order to measure the directory performance.

The final results that we attributed to the directory link building include a lift of traffic to levels enjoyed by other highly visible site pages, within 90 days, and an increase in monthly conversions for the business line of 45 percent year-over-year, when they had less content to target that niche. We have since moved on to additional link development tactics and have achieved incremental success for the business line.

Don't overlook the power of building links within established and trusted directories. It should be a fundamental part of any offsite SEO strategy. I look forward to reading your thoughts within the comments.

Frank Watson Fires Back

Directory listings are a must for any real SEO effort. I make it part of every recommendation to new clients. I'm a big fan of BOTW because they allow deep links -- that is, you can get listed for the various categories of your site versus the one listing over at Yahoo.

People should also look for any decent directories in their niche. Some make a good additional place to help build recognition.

I also look for places that generate you traffic. While the link love is nice, a directory that actually sends you traffic is a real win/win.

Resources: http://searchenginewatch.com/3634446