Presently Passionate Philosophy » FirstClickSEO, www.firstclickseo.com

Measuring Social Media ROI

Jacques — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:46:03 +0000

This is an excellent slide show to measure social media ROI!

FirstClickSEO: Basics Of Social Media Roi

View more presentations from FirstClickSEO.

FirstClickSEO hosts professional seminar on SEO and Social Media

Jacques — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:57:46 +0000

“Simple and effective methods to use SEO and social media for the success of your company.”

FirstClickSEO, www.firstclickseo.com, is hosting the 3 hour seminar at the University Club in Santa Barbara on January 26th from 11-2pm. A gourmet lunch will be included. I am very honored to be leading the seminar.

We’ve all heard the buzz about social media in the form of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Here are some of the questions the seminar will answer:

How do you leverage social media for real results with your business?
Is Twitter worth investigating? Can you find leads on Twitter?
What’s the difference between a Facebook user account, fan page, and group page?
How do you ensure your Facebook and LinkedIn activity is indexed by search engines?
How can you integrate Facebook and Twitter in your Web site and should you?
What is the difference between posting a video on Youtube, Vimeo, and Facebook? Is one better than the other?
How do you drive traffic from a Youtube video?
Is Flickr worthwhile?

Social media is definitely here to stay and will only become more important to how every company markets and provides customer service. FirstClickSEO has been providing SEO and social media services for several years. In cooperation with some of the regions top marketing agencies, we have designed a seminar that contains the best practices for successful marketing using SEO and social media.

We look forward to sharing the valuable information with you on January 26th.

Details are below.

Best Regards,

Jacques Habra

When: January 26, 11-2pm – gourmet lunch and SEO & Social Media package included
Where: University Club of Santa Barbara, 1332 Santa Barbara Street – Alumni Room
What: Simple and effective methods to use SEO and social media for the success of your company
Cost: $125.00 – only $75.00 if you register before January 22nd.
Capacity: Limited to 20 individuals

Satisfaction guaranteed

How to register: Please contact Melissa Tierney at:

Melissa Tierney
Business Development Manager
melissa@firstclickseo.com
Direct: 866.745.3555
Cell: 805.708.9828

Local Listings Explained… good for SEO

Jacques — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:29:22 +0000

The Search Engine Pros Quick Start Guide To Dominate Your Local Market Online.

1) Local SEO and local search engines

The Local search engines often crawl each other to find what are called “citations” that will validate or correct the business information in their own indexes. After all, the search engines are in the business of serving up relevant, up to date information.
As an example, you’ll frequently see a business’s Yahoo Local profile show up in the ‘Web Pages’ tab of its Google Local Business Listing. There are other second-tier search engines that show up frequently as well, such as Superpages.com <http://www.superpages.com/> , Yelp.com <http://www.yelp.com/> , and Marchex’s OpenList network <http://www.openlist.com/> .

2) Local blogs

Local blogs are a smart place to get your business listed. These will obviously vary by particular geography, but if you simply perform a search on your favorite search engine for “[your city] blog” or “[your neighborhood] blog,” you’ll find some good locations. Consider using our Link Robot tool to help you save time finding local blogs. http://www.thesearchenginepros.com/link-robot.html
The web sites that top rank for these kinds of searches are very well-indexed by the search engines, and highly associated with a particular neighborhood, city, or region. Businesses that are mentioned or linked on these blogs are viewed as trusted, relevant results in the Local search engines.

3) Local web directories

Similar to Local blogs, getting your web site listed in Local directories can have a tremendous impact on your local search engine rankings. Local directories are well-indexed by the search engines and are highly associated with a particular city or region. Localized directories are typically edited by a human and are much better than those which are “free for all.” You may have heard the term “FFA Link Directory” – this stands for free for all link farms. Steer clear of those. Human-edited directories are less susceptible to spam and are therefore more trusted by the Local search engines. An example of a terrific Locally-focused directory is Best of the Web’s Regional Directory <http://botw.org/top/Regional/United_States/> and Yahoo’s Regional Directory <http://dir.yahoo.com/Regional/U_S__States/> . You can perform searches for things like “[your city] directory” or “[your state] directory” to find good prospects for these kinds of citations.

4) Industry-focused directories or blogs

Should you only go after the local directories or blogs? No. Go after industry focused directories or even if a website or directory is not focused on a particular region. If that website is focused on topics and keywords related to what you sell, it may be included among the sites that the Local search engines count as citation sources. The mantra is of course, Relevance! Search engines love relevance. So what is an example of a industry focused blog or directory? Well, for instance, the membership directory of your trade organization, or a blog that is popular among readers in your industry will probably be crawled by the Local search engines for citations. Searches like “[your industry] directory” or even “[your keyword] directory” will give you some ideas of the kinds of sites on which to get listed. Many say Content is King. But that is actually untrue. It’s Quality, Keyword Rich Content that is KING. Ask yourself, how much quality, keyword rich content do you have on the net?

5) Summary: Best Citation Sources

Here is a good list of major sources of citations for the Local search engines:

infoUSA <http://infousa.com/cgi-bin/abicgi/abicgi.pl?bas_session=S13018894717356&bas_vendor=190000&bas_type=LC&bas_page=350&bas_action=UpdateDB>
Acxiom <http://www.acxiom.com/> – unfortunately, you cannot submit your business to Acxiom online
InsiderPages <http://www.insiderpages.com/advertiser/find_business>
SuperPages <https://advertising.superpages.com/spportal/spportalFlow.do?_flowExecutionKey=_c5835D505-3336-3FDB-96F1-59FE350997C9_kB74C0708-FEF5-E613-2773-F1B31CAD5A83>
Yelp <http://biz.yelp.com/>
iBegin <http://www.ibegin.com/account/login/?next=/business-center/submit/>
OpenList <http://www.openlist.com/update/>

Local Search Increasing In Popularity

Average weekday circulation at 379 daily U.S. newspapers was down 10.6% in the first half of 2009, compared to the first half of 2008. Ouch. 24 of the top 25 US newspapers suffered circulation losses in the first half of 2009. Double ouch. Some of those declines were more than 20%. Triple ouch. The Nieman Lab post puts this into perspective:

“The 10.6-percent decline means that since last year, about 4.5 percent of U.S. households have given up reading a printed newspaper, and that printed newspapers now reach less than 40 percent of U.S. households.”

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not rooting for newspapers to fail. In fact I enjoy reading my local newspaper The Independent and seeing the latest events coming to town.
But let’s face facts: For local bloggers, this is a golden Opportunity. The reality is that the decline of the traditional media is imminent If you’re thinking about starting a hyperlocal blog, there’s no better time than now to do it.

Here’s a few reasons why:

Your neighbors are starting to shift their news-reading sources. The web will soon replace traditional media as the primary source of news.
Traditional media is struggling, newspapers especially. The numbers above offer plenty of evidence.
Not only are papers struggling, but many of them haven’t yet figured out how to gracefully transition to the web. There’s a high likelihood of a deep void in your area where online news is concerned.
Starting a loyal customer following, whether online or offline, typically takes time. The difference with the online strategy, such as with a local blog, it that cost wise it is much more affordable, and it is also quite easier than traditional media to maintain the customer base (email). Granted, your local blog probably won’t be an instant success. Start now, get those beginner’s mistakes out of the way, and get into a routine. Learn what works and what doesn’t in your hometown, and keep repeating the mantra, Content is King. Remember to include those target keywords in your posts.

This shift from traditional media to online media is still in progress. Over time, more and more of your neighbors will turn to the Internet for local news and information. If you start now, you’ll be better prepared to give them what they want when they find you. Don’t wait. Get started today!

A number of other sites can also help you increase the traffic to your website via Local Search:
infoUSA <http://dbupdate.infousa.com/dbupdate/startupdate>
infoUSA is a major business directory whose data is used as a starting point by many local search engines. If you have a new business, or have moved addresses or changed phone numbers, it is essential to update your information with infoUSA <http://dbupdate.infousa.com/dbupdate/startupdate> .
Superpages.com <http://advertising.superpages.com/spportal/advertisingsolutions.do?omlinkid=hp_advert-solutions-dropdown>
Superpages.com is a top online resource for finding information and insights on businesses and retailers. Google and Yahoo often “double-check” Superpages.com to make sure they’re showing correct business information. Here’s where to claim your listing <http://advertising.superpages.com/spportal/advertisingsolutions.do?omlinkid=hp_advert-solutions-dropdown> .
Yelp.com <http://www.yelp.com/business#moreinfoform>
Yelp is a very popular Local information portal on the U.S. West Coast, and in certain industries across the rest of the country. If you are in the hospitality industry, especially bars and restaurants, it is essential to claim your profile on Yelp <http://www.yelp.com/business#moreinfoform> .
Citysearch.com <https://selfenroll.citysearch.com/>
Citysearch is a major competitor of Yelp that charges you to claim your business listing. It can be expensive but again, if you’re in the hospitality industry, it’s probably worth the investment to claim your listing on Citysearch <https://selfenroll.citysearch.com/> .
Brownbook.net <http://www.brownbook.net/business/add/>
Brownbook.net is a free local business directory that anyone can edit. You can add business listings, update them, and review businesses free and instantly.
Insiderpages.com <http://www.insiderpages.com/advertiser>
Insiderpages.com is a Local search site that is regularly crawled by Google–many times reviews that are left for your business on Insiderpages will show up on Google. Unlike its parent company, Citysearch, Insiderpages lets you claim your listings <http://www.insiderpages.com/advertiser> for free.

Rank Higher in the Local Search Engines With A Universal Business Listing
For only $30/year, Universal Business Listing will ensure that your business is included on all major and secondary search engines.
Create a Universal Business Listing » <http://www.universalbusinesslisting.org/?ref=231-the_search_engine_pros>

<http://www.universalbusinesslisting.org/?ref=231-the_search_engine_pros>

UniversalBusinessListing.org provides a single entry point where you can create an enhanced business profile that is distributed to all major U.S. search engines, online yellow pages, 411 Directory Assistance, mapping and GPS navigation sites. UBL is the fastest way to get your business included on the primary databases, such as infoUSA, that are the backbone of all Local search engines. You can update your listing for free at any time using UBL’s online interface.

Here are some best practices to follow when setting up your local profiles:

Your Business Title

It is commonly agreed by most local seo professionals that your business title is one of the most important factors for ranking well in the Local search engines. Having a title that remains consistent across all the major search engine and directory data sources is important, because it establishes a high level of trust in the existence and location of a particular business.

If your business calls itself “Bob’s Pilates Studio” in one directory and “Bob’s Pilates Yoga Fitness Studio” in another directory, chances are that Google and other search engines might see that as two separate businesses when it comes to indexing Bob. Bob should pick ONE title for his business and make certain that he stays consistent when adding to other directories. Including high searched keyword phrases in your business title will greatly enhance ranks (Shh! The search engines probably don’t want us to tell you this!). But remember: use common sense people, if you try to cram TOO many keywords into your business title, the search engines might see this as manipulation and send you to the back of the line.

We recommend describing exactly what you do. In the case above, “Bob’s Pilates Yoga Fitness Studio” is preferable to plain old “Bob’s Pilates Studio” It is a more descriptive business title and this may pull in additional searchers (and clients).
In September 2008, Google unveiled the guidelines for local listings which state that you should list your business using its actual business name, regardless of whether that name contains keywords related to your products or services.

If you are a new business, you might want to take this guideline into account in determining what to call your business, and depending on your area, and what you sell, it may be worth a great deal for established businesses to change their DBA’s to incorporate keywords. Getting your domain name with a keyword inside in the actual domain can be another helpful strategy for top ranks.

Links and Citations

The major search engines, Google, Yahoo, MSN, Best of the Web, and others typically discover your business in two primary ways:

1) Visiting links that point to your website, and tracking on what sites those links appear.

2) Tracking citations of your business, and on what sites these citations appear.

The search engines use these factors when determining where to rank a particular business (i.e. which keyword phrases). All other things being equal, (key consideration) the business with the most links from high-quality websites in your area (like a chamber of commerce or a city government) and most “citations” from high-quality websites in your area, will usually rank the highest. So you will want to make sure to get your name, contact information, and website on as
many places as you possibly can. Consider using our Link Robot to help you save time with those efforts. http://www.thesearchenginepros.com/link-robot.html

Currently, the ‘Web Pages’ tab of your Google Local Business Listing is the most complete list of your citations, though Google probably doesn’t show every single one it knows about.

Citations

Think of citations as “mentions” of your business name and address on other webpages, even if there is no link to your website. An example of a citation might be an article online in a blog where you are mentioned, but not linked. It can also be a local chamber of commerce, or a local business association where your business information can be found. The difference between a backlink and a citation is primarlity that a citation may not necessarily be linking at all to your site. “Web references” is a synonym used on other websites for “citations”.

Categories

Many Local search engines, including Google, Yahoo, Best of the Web, and Bing, allow you to place your business into a number of categories (typically between 3 and 6) that help describe what your business primary function is.

The search engines use this data when deciding which businesses to show for particular search queries. The search engines will not display a business which is not categorized, or even worse, mis-categorized, for particular sets of keywords. This usually happens among keywords and phrases that are most competitive—where there are already a number of businesses who are associated with a particular category, and that will satisfy what the searcher is looking for. Pay close
attention to this. It could be a showstopper if you don’t get it right.

Reviews and Ratings
After all of the work we have done with local search engine optimization, it’s still unclear to us how many reviews and ratings of a business actually impact its ranking position. But one thing is certain, reviews and ratings are very persuasive to prospective customers. A negative review can encourage someone to hit their “Back” button and perform another search, and a good review can encourage someone to pick up the phone and call you!

Engage your customers after each sale, and ask them to make a positive comment on your local profile. Also, it’s important to do damage control when someone posts a negative review of your business. Use twitter and web alert monitors to stay on top of bad reviews. Reach out to that customer and find out why they had a bad experience with your company, and see if there is anything you can do to change their opinion of you. Often times it is not worth it to suffer a bad review online compared to the cost to make the customer happy.

Photos / Videos

Photos and videos don’t seem to matter much for rankings, but they are helpful for conversion reasons. A Google Local Business Listing with no photos probably has just as much potential to rank well as a listing with 6 photos and 3 videos.

That said, we’ve found that attractive photos and videos increase the number of clicks that a particular listing gets. They generally offer a great way to show off your business. Consider showcasing projects that your company has worked on, some of the people in your office, perhaps the office itself, etc. A human feel can increase trust levels and help you stand out in an otherwise flat playing field.

Social Media Presentation to American Advertising Federation

Jacques — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 05:54:43 +0000

A couple weeks back, I had the pleasure of presenting to the American Advertising Federation on the best practices for implementing social media techniques to build business, market products and services, and establish an expertise in a field. It was a packed room – about 60 folks – a few standing. Social media is relatively new and best practices are only now becoming standardized. So, it was an especially rewarding experience to share insights and learn from the audience. Here’s an abbreviated version of the presentation!

Social Media – Best Practices to effective social media marketing and business strategy from SB Click on Vimeo.

20 Goals for Social Media

Jacques — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:45:20 +0000

Last week, I presented to the American Advertising Federation on “Using Social Media to Build your Brand”.

Here are just some of the goals one can achieve using effective social media:

20 Possible Goals

1. I’m a content provider, and I want to expand my reach.

2. I want my customers to be able to stay updated with news about my company.

3. I want to get to know my customers.

4. I want to promote my product.

5. I want to stay abreast of current news and trends.

6. I want to share my ideas with likeminded individuals.

7. I want to increase brand awareness.

8. I want to provide customer service and support easily.

9. I want to find a job.

10. I want to recruit.

11. I want people to like my brand.

12. I want to collaborate on business projects.

13. I want to directly sell a product.

14. I want to earn respect within my industry.

15. I am getting information overload, and I want to get organized.

16. I want to drive traffic to my site.

17. I want to attract advertisers and make money.

18. I want to get more involved with local prospects.

19. I want to get more involved with people on an international and global level.

20. I want to keep up with my competitors.

There are certainly more possible goals for business social media use out there. I’ve probably not even scratched the surface. What goals do you set for your social media efforts?

MIT Central Coast Forum – Social Media, September 2009

Jacques — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:29:10 +0000

I really enjoyed this event because I learned so very much, and I’m in the business !

MIT ENTERPRISE FORUM – SOCIAL MEDIA from SB Click on Vimeo.

Cool Blog Entry my Sister passed along…

Jacques — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 05:49:16 +0000

Goodbye to Google Ranking

The days of Googling your keywords to measure the effectiveness of your SEO strategy are coming to an end. According to Bruce Clay of PubCon, there are big changes in ranking. In the name of Top Shelp Organic SEO, Google is tuning into the specific behaviors of individual users to serve up more customized results.

What this means to the end-user is better results and less spam.

What does this mean to SEO professionals?

Well, for the good ones it means more business. For those that have been concentrating on ranking without any reference to traffic, bounce rates and conversions it means a serious reality check.

At the end of the day, this is a change for the better. More individualized search results means higher conversion rates for companies that have a well built website. This does not mean that SEO is no longer important; it actually makes it more important! Tracking your marketing efforts will definitely require more diligence.

Q: What should you do?

A: Nothing that you should not have already been doing.

The most important part of a website is the ends result; attracting more leads and increasing business. To get there you have to attract website visitors, keep them interested in your website long enough to stay past the first page and finally get them to convert. By convert, I mean to get them to perform a specific action like sign up for a newsletter or request additional information. Conversions vary by website. A conversion for you may be a request for information about one of your listings while a conversion for amazon.com could be the sale of a bestselling novel.

I, for one, think this is a great lead by Google. It forces website owners and SEO professionals to take a closer look of what traffic is actually DOING when it gets to your website. It puts the emphasis on website content, navigation and functionality.

Sending people to your website and getting XXXXX visitors is one thing, conversion rates are a completely different (and more important) aspect. I mean, you can send all the traffic (paid or otherwise) in the world to a dilapidated home, but if they never get out of the car and go inside… it’s not going to sell.

It’s time to get your website to do what it’s supposed to: SELL!

Go Google!

RTV Marketing

Link Exchanges – The Poor Man’s SEO

Jacques — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 05:47:49 +0000

Link exchanges: The poor man’s SEO

(CNET) — Large Internet companies spend millions on consultants and technology trying to get their sites to rank among the highest results on Google. Everyone else has to rely on the poor man’s search-engine optimization: the link exchange.

The thinking behind link exchanging is that Google will record links as a vote of confidence for sites.

If you’ve ever hung up your own shingle on the Web, you’ve probably gotten an e-mail to this effect at some point: “Dear So-and-so, I believe your site and mine could benefit from exchanging links.”

We probably get eight to 10 a week in the CNET News general mailbox, mostly from technology-related companies but occasionally from auto-parts suppliers and watch retailers who either have no idea what we do or few moral qualms about spam.

The idea is that if you can coax a link out of a large site like CNET, Google and other search engines will record that link as a vote of confidence in your site’s worthiness and improve your ranking in searches for certain topics, thereby boosting traffic to your site. The technique is quite old, dating back even before Google and its PageRank system emerged as the Web’s dominant search engine.

But does it still work? And at what point do two or three sites struggling to get off the ground veer off the road from mutual assistance to a full-blown spam operation designed to game the system?

Evan Duffield, for one, thinks it still works. He contacted us trying to get CNET to exchange links with WarpedAI.com, a site he has launched to promote stock-trading tools for day traders, and says he has been able to slowly build up the PageRank of another site he owns using techniques that don’t run afoul of Google’s Webmaster guidelines.

“It’s kind of a vicious circle,” he said. “To start a new business you need PageRank, but to get PageRank you need links to your service. You have to get the ball rolling.”

PageRank is the currency of the Web. Google’s novel approach to site indexing way back when was to evaluate the worthiness of a site based on how many other sites were linking to it, also taking into account the worthiness of the sites passing along the links.

This meant, and still does mean, that a link from a site with a high PageRank counts for way more than a link from a site with low PageRank.

But how do you get a link from one of those sites? Google’s official advice: “The best way to get other sites to create relevant links to yours is to create unique, relevant content that can quickly gain popularity in the Internet community.” That, of course, sounds like something your mother would say.

In a Web as vast as this one, getting attention for a new site, even one with superb content, is a very difficult undertaking. Bloggers can discuss each other’s work and help each other build up a following, but if you’re selling a product or service it can be much more difficult to climb the ranks of search results for things like “day-trading software” when you’re starting from scratch.

So Webmasters like Duffield turn to solicitations for links. Danny Sullivan, who writes about search-engine optimization for Search Engine Land, says “if you’re a new site, absolutely you want to be doing link building. But you need to be doing that in a smart fashion.”

Duffield says he’s very careful to only solicit links from sites that are related to his product: his pitch for exchanging links that somehow wound up at our doorstep was addressed to computer-go@computer-go.org, a mailing list for hobbyists trying to tackle the difficult chore of building a computer AI system for the ancient game of go.

That was a mistake, he said; the result of prematurely hitting send on an e-mail template. Duffield compiles his targets by searching for sites that are related to finance and stock trading, and attempts to contact a general e-mail address to pass along his site’s information and offer a link exchange.

“It’s not about the actual links so much as it is optimizing search queries,” Duffield said. “When I figure out a query I want from Google, I can see the top three positions have this much page rank and this many positions, and try to beat that out.”

As long as people like Duffield are exchanging links without offering payment, or crossing obvious lines such as breaking captchas and posting spam links in guestbooks or comment forums, they’re following the spirit of Google’s Webmaster guidelines.

“Where it tends to get into tricky issues is where people are doing it primarily for payment,” Sullivan said. “Search engines would see links as votes. Google does not like that people would simply be buying links to do better.

While paid links are clearly off-limits, Google appears to ban link exchanges in general, saying it does not allow “excessive link exchanging” but failing to define exactly what constitutes “excessive.”

Other practices that are verboten include links to “bad neighborhoods” on the Web and complicated networks of several Web sites with little content but pages and pages of links amongst themselves that Google can usually identify.

For the most part, however, the practice is rampant enough that only the most egregious violations get snagged. “If you start thinking too much about not getting caught, you’re probably doing things you shouldn’t be doing,” Sullivan said.

In an era where SEO is a budding industry unto itself, link exchanges are perhaps the most basic approach. Far below the realm of those dithering over Google’s search index are those like Duffield trying to make something out of literally nothing.

While he needs to build PageRank equity to get started, Duffield acknowledges that at a certain point that Google is right: a site will live or die on its content. Link exchanges only work to get one’s name out there: the real boost needed to turn a Web site into a business comes when real people start discussing and linking to a service on blogs, message forums, and social-networking sites.

That’s when your search ranking (and therefore traffic) really starts to grow, he said. “If you can make Google see that something is being talked about all over the Internet, what choice do they have?”

The Time has come to Regulate Search Engine Marketing and SEO

Jacques — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:53:02 +0000

The Time Has Come To Regulate Search Engine Marketing And SEO

The following post was written by a well known executive at one of the largest sites on the Internet. The author has requested to remain anonymous – not for dramatic effect, but because of the backlash he would receive from the SEO industry and possibly Google itself. He also doesn’t want his company associated with the post.

He is starting a discussion on the need for government regulation of the organic and paid search policies of Google, which maintains a commanding lead in search market share today. Or at least transparency in how search results are determined. There is clearly growing frustration on the constantly changing “border policies” that are created and enforced by Google and other search engines. It is a fascinating read.

Imagine, if you will, that the entire Internet is contained within a single continent. That continent is filled with countries, states and cities. Each jurisdiction is autonomous, relying on visitors to cross on to their turf to engage in commerce. Now, imagine if the only way to get into this continent involved just two methods: SEO and SEM. Let’s further imagine that the borders to this continent were controlled by a single company. Let’s also hold that the rules for search engine optimization listings and search engine marketing were not only defined but were completely controlled at the whim of this single company. Of course, we all realize that word-of-mouth marketing and viral marketing also contribute to traffic to individual websites. That said, the primary methodology for all users to reach any individual website destination is still search, of either paid or organic listings.

Or suppose the paradigm is the streets of Los Angeles. Let’s imagine that in order to enter the city you had to pass through a single gate. And once you entered that gate, the streets you were or were not allowed to go down — and thus the businesses you were or were not allowed to visit — could be randomly blocked from your access. Blocked to a point where you might not even know they exist; whatever streets were available for you to traverse were in essence the only streets you knew where business could be transacted.

Whatever the scenario, it’s unsettlingly close to the situation that prevails today in search. It’s now conventional wisdom that search engine optimization, representing the organic result sets on any search query, is more voodoo than science. Through an uncontrolled set of factors search engines determine which listings appear at the top and bottom of any individual query. In addition, consumer behavior dictates the top three results on any search page are all that matter. If you happen to own an online business, unless you exist within those top three, the amount of individual traffic you will obtain from organic listings is very, very low. As the proprietor of that business you may hire search engine optimization companies to assist in increasing your rankings on organic results, with or without success. And at any one time, the controller of these borders (that is, the search engine itself) can change and manipulate those rules – and that can substantially decrease or destroy all organic traffic coming to your website, without notice and without your knowledge.

Search engine marketing now faces a similar challenge. Although anyone can open an account to buy paid search listings, the rules on each account are arbitrary. Accounts can be shut down at any time, without notice to the website owner. In other words, if you haven’t successfully obtained enough traffic to your site from organic listings and you decide to rely on paid search, you still face a situation where regardless of how much you bid per click you may or may not show up at the top of the paid results. That’s because paid results that are displayed on any query are not only determined based on the price the buyer is willing to pay. Unlike other auctions that are completely priced-based, these results are determined and sequenced not only on price but also on quality of advertising and click-through volume. For example, if company A was willing to pay $1 per click on a certain term and company B was willing to pay 10 cents but company B’s ad generated ten times as many clicks as company A’s, the yield to the search engine would be identical between the two.

The second factor is that the search engine can, at any time, determine that either company A or company B may or may not buy traffic within its index. And without notifying the company and with no path toward recourse and statement, the search engine can disable the paid search account from either business. Returning to the continent metaphor, this ends up looking quite a bit like free trade. Various businesses (call them sellers), operating within this continent, wish to conduct business with the rest of the world (that is, the population of buyers). The border — which in this case is the search engine — thus has complete control of who can transact and how often. And at its discretion, the search engine can decide to increase, decrease or completely disable access between buyers and sellers. Because search is the dominant methodology for consumers to find what they are looking for, whether a product or a service, the unilateral control that search engines wield enables them to control billions upon billions of dollars of consumer spend every year. It also gives them the ability to completely determine which companies become more successful — or less so.

The situation we face today is unique. Due to Google’s dominance — and the fact that it controls such an enormous amount of consumer behavior through paid and organic search listings – the company in essence governs commerce on the web. And any company that falls out of favor with Google, whether for reasons of bad practice or simple disagreement, can find itself at risk of going out of business.

This system also benefits the few in a host of other ways. Because the rules of organic and paid search change frequently – and remain undefined — agencies and other traffic brokers can win big; through their experience, they’re capable of reverse-engineering these rules. This means that, as this market matures, individual businesses have a diminishing chance to actually compete and gain search market share. That, in turn, puts them in a position of not only needing to hire an agency in order to find any traffic, but also making it more expensive overall to build businesses on the web.

I’ve worked with many businesses who feel they are playing in Google’s world — behaviors from product decisions to marketing strategies rely completely on appeasing these undocumented and often mystical Google desires. I’ve seen companies choose to not work with Google’s competitors for fear that by building those relationships, they’re damaging the ability to be indexed properly on Google and are anxious that result sets will be compromised. Many likewise believe that by having a monetization relationship through Google, they will somehow achieve higher quality listings through organic search. I’ve also witnessed companies who, in addition to using Google for monetization, have preferred relationships with purchasing traffic through Google Adwords. By supporting this dual relationship, they appear to want to live by two sets of rules – those that exist within the Adwords marketplace and those that apply to the Adsense product. And because they’re walking on both sides of the (Google) street, they feel they have a strategic advantage — as though the Adwords product will enable them to acquire traffic at both a lower cost and with a looser rule set than their competitors.

Here’s where the parallel to free trade breaks down. There are no perfect paradigms looking at free trade and import/export laws that exactly define or address this challenge. Neither would a secret relationship between the government and the search engines solve the problem. The only real solution is disclosure. Transparency. Those traffic generators that use rule-based algorithms to determine result sets must publicly disclose their methodologies. That is the means by which all businesses can compete freely in the organic and paid search marketplaces. If we lived in a world where Google didn’t hold sway over such a significant portion of consumer behavior, this kind of regulation wouldn’t be necessary. The market would be self-correcting, and we could trust the individual decisions of a healthy and competitive search industry. Regrettably, due to search dominance, the industry can’t be left to its own devices.

OK, I’m finally on twitter – here’s some knowledge on best practices

Jacques — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:30:44 +0000

Check me out at www.twitter.com/jhabra

With all the buzz about Twitter these days, I thought I’d pass some thoughts along

At FirstClickSEO, www.firstclickseo.com, we use Twitter to build a buzz about a service and/or product. It’s one of the many techniques in social media marketing that drives traffic to a Web site. At the end of the day, it still comes down to the brand image you want to convey. Whether you’re a multi-million dollar conglomerate providing precision tools for electronics, like Excelta, www.excelta.com, or a regionally based executive search recruiting service like iSearch, www.isearchrecruiting.com, your expertise is your brand.

Twitter is the worldwide conversation, in real time. Here in Santa Barbara, many of us used Twitter to get real time updates on what was going on during the Jesusita Fire. This was much faster than conventional news outlets; including news Web sites and even Facebook status updates. Residents knew where the fire was rather instantly. And, there is a very fast assembly of “accurate” information that the populous transparently assembles. With Twitter you can choose to observe the conversation like watching a river flow; or dip your cup into the water and concentrate on what matters to you most.

So, how to use Twitter.

I recommend first observing that river flow of conversations. Pinpoint the areas of interest for you. Sometimes it will be a timely analysis of recent film, or song, or artist, or the news of the
day. Other times, you’ll want to ‘follow’ subject matter experts in various fields and concentrations.

From there, it’s time to broadcast. Now this is where Twitter has turned many people off. Most ‘broadcasts’ are pretty meaningless and not worth of following. Don’t tweet meaninglessly. Tweet with substance, strategy, and brand. Like any good marketing program, you’ll want to define your brand using simple terms and practice frequency and repetition.

Find content that support your brand and tweet about it. Write/develop your own content. Comment on others peoples’ content. Etc, etc. This will lead to your ‘brand’ and
expertise becoming worthy of following. And, this will lead to increased traffic to your web site and ultimately conversions (transactions, phone calls, e-mails) that lead to revenue.

And, that’s a good reason to tweet.

I’ve enclosed below an interesting article about “orphaned” tweets that reflects the often initially popular wave of technology and then fade that often follows.

For an example of a twitter account that really does lead to those conversions, visit one of the accounts we designed and managed for weddinglocation.com, and FirstClickSEO lead client, at www.twitter.com/wedlocation.

Also, this is a very solid article on Twitter – the background and leadership – enjoy!
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/01/22/db.twitterverse/index.html?iref=newssearch

Thanks for reading – hope this was helpful.

Orphaned Tweets
When people sign up for Twitter,
post once, then never return.
By John Swansburg and Jeremy Singer-Vine
Posted Monday, June 8, 2009,
at 11:41 AM ET

After examining some 300,000 Twitter accounts, a Harvard Business School
professor reported last week that 10 percent of the service’s users
account for more than 90 percent of tweets. The study dovetails with recent analysis by the media research firm Nielsen
asserting that 60 percent of Twitter users do not return from one month to the
next. Both findings suggest that, thus far, Twitter has been considerably
better at signing up users than keeping them.

Which got us to thinking—there must be a legion of Twitterers out there who
sign up, tweet once, and never return. In the spirit of the great blog One Post Wonder,
“a collection of blogs that have one post,” we set out to find these
orphaned tweets. Different people obviously have different tweet metabolisms,
but we decided that any account that’s been dormant for at least six months is
fair game. We found several thousand of them.

Naturally, many orphan tweets betray skepticism about microblogging. “I
don’t get it… what’s the point of this thing?” read ben_pursell’s first
and last tweet. “Twitter deez nutz,” remarked beebles, rather
caustically, before signing off for good. Yet a surprising number of
one-and-done Twitterers demonstrate keen enthusiasm, leaving us to ponder what
led them to change their minds:

sk8ie I’m here!
7:42 AM May 16th, 2008

micatron sign me
up damn it!
9:28 AM Sep 11th, 2008

treyharness
This technology is awesome. If you haven’t signed up already, do it now so we
can all stay connected. Its much easier than email or phone.
7:25 PM May 7th, 2008

Some one-time users don’t seem to understand what kind of service they’ve
signed up for.

brittanyblevins
what kind of donuts are you offering?
12:23 PM May 8th, 2008

reginarowland
o1o6AqhQ0B
9:46 PM May 19th, 2008

pmosterday
Director of Advancement
12:55 PM Nov 20th, 2008

The lion’s share of these singular postings describe a discrete experience
or a current mood. This is probably because an orphan tweet is also a first
tweet, and first-timers typically stick to answering the question hovering
above the Twitter dialog box: “What are you doing?”

beckysomsel
heading north for a party!
6:44 AM Dec 5th, 2008

anord04 eating a
miniature pie
10:21 AM Jun 23rd, 2007

kttheet Wearing a
gigantic t-shirt (2XL).
9:56 PM Apr 22nd, 2008

apsolutely4me
picking lint from Judy’s naval while she is napping!
4:10 PM Sep 7th, 2008

ChristianDA
Designing performance nutrition for Navy SEALs. Fighting government corruption
(tall order). Telling American stories.
12:58 PM Nov 28th, 2008

Because orphan tweets are followed by a long silence, these ephemeral status
reports take on a strange permanence. Is anord04 still working on that
miniature pie? Was it bigger than it first seemed?

Reading many of these one-offs, you can’t help but wonder whether some
tragedy has come between the user and his second post.

Phillyrules it
hurts to breathe. should I go to the hospital?
10:09 PM Aug 23rd, 2008

muthuboss life
is hopeless ……
10:26 PM Jul 6th, 2008

rvictor Trying to
escape this insanity
7:24 PM Jan 7^th

jeffreyshardy
Sitting next to a big, hairy, smelly guy on the bus
5:04 PM Feb 11^th

DouglasAllen I
am writing an email to the makers of Spray N Wash to thank them for making a
product that got the blood stains out of my new PJs and robe.
7:40 PM Aug 27th, 2007

Not all orphan tweets inspire such macabre thoughts. At their best they
resemble found art, an index of first lines of poems that have yet to be
written:

mundial marching
backwards toward the source of the four winds
9:45 AM Jul 17th, 2007

stonelove27
I am standing behind my nose…
11:59 AM Sep 5th, 2007

ladydrea Marcus
Aurelius! You are loved! (I’m typing now…)
10:53 AM Jun 7th, 2008

newdayrising
sold your soul to Jesus for a carton of yoghurt. He doesn’t even like yoghurt
that much.
12:48 PM Mar 31st, 2008

boustanyn
Getting ready for the third phase of life on this earth….
12:51 PM Nov 17th, 2008

bkennedy weeping
gently
2:47 PM Mar 30th, 2007

In at least one instance, two orphan tweets appear to have been in
conversation.

marcbresseel
getting ready for cannes – printing latest briefing – I hate folding my shirts 8:36
AM Jun 14th, 2008

Kolcott
@Marcbresseel You fold your shirts?
9:13 AM Jul 10th, 2008

A lone call followed by a lone response; a social network of two.

While we found thousands of orphan tweets, our search was by no means
comprehensive. Slate readers, let us know if you’ve come across
orphan tweets in your travels across the Twitterverse. Send your favorite
examples to slateculture@gmail.com,
and we’ll publish them in a follow-up on Brow Beat,
Slate’s new culture blog. Also, if any of the authors of the
orphan posts featured here happen to read this, please send us an e-mail and
tell us why you quit. To verify your identity, we’ll ask you to log back in to
Twitter and file that long-awaited second tweet.