The Internet Made Easy

Search Engine Optimization Workshop - Saturday April 9th

2011-03-17T09:24:00.001-04:00

SATURDAY, APRIL 9 - BLOOMFIELD - Search Engine Optimization Workshop with Joanne Marcinek

Sponsored by The Center for Holistic Empowerment and The Door Opener Magazine

Boost web traffic with search engine optimization! Improve Web traffic and search engine ranking. Do you want more web traffic? Improving search engine ranking will do just that! If you already have web presence, discover the key steps required to boost your rankings without paid advertising. You'll learn how to: find quality keywords for your business; choose the right keywords for each page of your site; properly position keywords to optimize your site; submit your site to the "big 3" search engines and important directories; continually improve search engine visibility. Use savvy SEO methods to build the web presence you desire.

Joanne Marcinek of Ask Joanne, LLC, is a woman on a mission: translating techno-babble into straightforward, understandable language and steps that web site owners and bloggers can easily implement. She has been working with the internet since 1992, and began developing websites in 1999 and optimizing them in 2003. Ask Joanne, LLC helps clients implement complete, frugal and effective internet marketing plans that hit the mark.

Visit TheCenterforHolisticEmpowerment for more info. Held at 3 Barnard Lane, Top Floor (enter through rear of building). Register with The Door Opener at thedooropener@comcast.net or (860) 693-2840.
Time: 10 am to 1 pm. Cost: $30

Search Engine Marketing Issues: by Jill Whalen

2011-03-03T08:21:00.002-05:00

++Some Farm Aid for the Afflicted++

By now you've surely heard of the recent Google algorithm changes dubbed the "Farmer Update."

According to Google, about 12% of search queries were impacted by this update. The SISTRIX blog provided additional insight by posting the top 25 websites that overnight stopped showing up in Google for numerous keywords. I was interested in learning more about this update, and SISTRIX was kind enough to share their big list of over 300 sites that have had deep traffic losses. In addition, I've had various people send me their sites to look at.

I hoped to analyze the data to spot similarities between the sites that got hit so that I could understand the specific factors Google used when deciding which pages to nuke. As you can imagine, there was a lot of data to sort through and I feel as if I've only just gotten started. However, I do have some preliminary findings to share with you as quickly as possible.

Please note that just because I noticed similar things on sites that got hit, it doesn't mean those things were the cause of the loss of Google traffic. It's far too easy to make assumptions and mix up cause and effect in nearly every aspect of SEO. So I caution you to treat the information I'm providing as what it is -- preliminary findings that make me go "Hmmm." Also note that I've barely had enough time to look at the potential on-page factors that might be causing issues, and haven't even started to look at the off-page links that are pointing to these sites. Because we know that links and anchor text are Google's main squeeze, my on-page analysis could very well be completely off base.

With that caveat out of the way, below are some of the interesting things I noticed that made me go hmmm...with the small set of sites I've looked at so far.

Semi-hidden Content

One surprise finding, which may or may not relate to the loss of Google traffic, was that many of the sites had content that was behind tabs, and not visible all at once to someone using a typical browser. It's possible that this type of design element is so common on websites these days that many sites from a random sampling would also be using it, but it definitely struck me as odd. What made it especially interesting was that most of the sites using the tabs had a very large amount of content contained within them. With tabs such as these, a person only sees the content in one tab at a time, while Google sees all the content from all of the tabs, as if it were contained on one page. (Technically it is, because it's all one URL.) In many cases all the tabbed content put together added up to thousands of words, and often hundreds of links as well.

While there's nothing inherently wrong with using tabs this way (and many sites are currently using the technique), some cases might trigger red flags.

There are many different coding methods to "hide" content behind tabs. The code on two of the sites I reviewed that had lost Google traffic were using different methods. One had this code: "display: none; visibility: hidden;" and the other had this: "overflow: hidden;".

Why Google might not like it: Each site was using their tabs for different reasons, and I doubt that the "visibility: hidden" in and of itself caused Google to no longer like those pages. But perhaps Google took issue with the extremely long pages of content because they might appear to be less user-friendly (if Google didn't realize that the content is tabbed). In addition, the numerous extra links in some of the tabs might appear to go overboard.

In one instance, I set my default browser to Googlebot and tried to browse a page that was using tabs with tons of content behind them, but I got an error message that the page couldn't be viewed at all. The error seemed to have something to do with a very strange, hidden ad link contained in the tabbed content.

In another case of semi-hidden content, the pages were designed in a way that is very cool and easy to use for people, but all the content from the various hidden areas, when viewed on one long page as Google saw it, ends up looking like a disgusting keyword-stuffed mess! I have no idea if the site was purposely designed to stuff keywords in that way or not, but before the Farmer Update it was apparently working for them.

Completely Hidden Content

Another common finding between some of the sites I reviewed was having the real "meat" of the site behind a registration wall. While there would be some keyword-rich content on the page in question, you couldn't read the whole article unless you registered for it. Google has never been a fan of that, and even offers their "First Click Free" program so that content publishers who require registration to read their articles can still get their content indexed. But the site must show the entire piece of content to people who have not registered if they got to it from a Google search. The sites I reviewed were not using the First Click Free approach.

Why Google might not like it: They believe that if you want your content indexed, you should play by their rules, which in this case is the First Click Free rule. They probably also believe that a page with just a summary of information related to the searcher's query is likely not the best page for the user to land on. So it doesn't surprise me that those types of pages may have been hit in the Farmer Update.

Merry-Go-Round Sites Containing Mostly Ads or Links

Interestingly, I recognized one of the sites on the big SITRIX list as one I had done a website review for last year. I have to say that it was one of the craziest sites I had ever seen, and I was shocked that Google was even showing it highly in the search results. So when I saw it got nuked bigtime by Farmer Google, I wasn't surprised. I noticed some similarities between that site and a few of the others that got nailed -- mostly that you felt you were going round and round in circles as you tried to find the information you were originally seeking at Google.

Here's what happens on this type of site: You get to a page that uses the keywords you typed into Google, only to find that you need to click a link on that page to really get the information. But when you click that page, you either end up at another site, or on another page on the same site -- and you still don't quite have the info you wanted. It seems that you could keep clicking that way forever and never find what you were looking for. Yet you always have the feeling it is you doing something wrong, not that the site simply sucks wind. (Of course, the pages are also always full of Google AdSense and other ads.)

Similar to the merry-go-round sites, others I reviewed were simply aggregating others' content in one way or another. In many cases, it would make more sense for Google to just show the original site (or sites) rather than a page with a list of sites -- especially when the list of links is actually just running an ad platform that appears to be links.

One site was a niche comparison site, which seemed okay on the surface. But I found that when I browsed to a particular product and then tried to view it on the website that was listed as the cheapest, in many cases I was brought to either the home page of said site or a page that contained a product similar to the one I was looking at, but not the exact one. Ugh.

Why Google might not like it: Google stated that part of this update was to improve the quality of the results their searchers were receiving. All of the above types of sites have numerous pages that meet the "poor quality" label, assuming anyone ever paid attention. In these cases, I can see where it makes more sense for Google to show the pages being linked to directly in their search results, rather than the page that's doing the linking.

So there you have it -- my first impressions from a very small sample of sites.

What You Should Watch Out For

With everything I've seen, the consistent themes seem to be usability and the intent of the page in question. I can't say how Google is technically figuring out intent, but they appear to be going after pages that might frustrate users. Google's goal is to satisfy the search query of their user -- the searcher. Their goal is not to provide their searcher with pages that link to the pages, that link to the other pages, that satisfy the original search.

With all that said, after writing up my findings, I also looked at some of the new Google results, and, sadly, there are some even worse pages that show! In one case, the site I was reviewing, while not satisfying the search query itself (other than having the search words on the page), was beat out by a pathetic little made-for-AdSense site that had no redeeming qualities whatsoever. How that one survived the Farmer Update, I'll never know.

It's key to remember that this update is most likely just the beginning. About the only thing I'm sure of at the moment is that Google still has a lot of tweaking to do over the next few months to truly sort things out.

Jill

Jill Whalen is the CEO of High Rankings, an SEO Consulting company in the Boston, MA area since 1995. Follow her on Twitter @JillWhalen

(reprinted with permission)

SEO Consultants Are Not the Enemy!

2010-12-15T13:59:00.006-05:00

SEOs have been getting a bad rap for a long time. Unfortunately, in many cases, their bad reputation has been well deserved. When a client hires an outside SEO consultant during the design and development of a new website, it's often not looked upon kindly by the development team. Chances are the team has had bad experiences with an SEO who forced them to design for search engines and not for people.

Who wouldn't be upset by that? Search engines don't buy products. They don't sign up for newsletters, and they don't tell their friends about your great company.
If that's what any SEO consultant tries to do, it is wrong. More than that, it isn't SEO. It is pseudo SEO that is implemented when there's not enough budget to do things correctly.

Get that type of SEO out of your head.

Real SEOs Understand Usability

But don't be fooled into thinking that their SEO recommendations are just for the search engines. Nearly anything that's implemented for better visibility in search engines, when done correctly, also enhances the website for users as well. But it does take a lot more work, which means you're also going to have to spend more money.

Remember, while Google's own user interface may be evolving rapidly, the crawler and indexing components are still very much like old web browsers. Crawlers can't easily use the search boxes on your website to find information and products hidden in your database. They need obvious links that point to web pages that showcase the content that sits in your database. They also can't see or index content contained in images. And while they can extract some information from Flash, in practice, it might as well be invisible.

Guess what else behaves like an older web browser? Screen readers meant for people with low vision or other disabilities that impede their ability to surf the web through traditional browsers.

Know what else? Ironically, many mobile browsers (which should be on the cutting-edge) can act in an old-fashioned way – iPhones don't see Flash at all! And some cell phone browsers make it difficult to navigate around a site that only has search boxes. On slow mobile connections (can you say "Edge Network"?), images may not even show up. In all of these cases, if SEO and usability best practices have been put into place, the visitor experience is much simpler and better all around. Clearly, it's a lot easier to click links when you're browsing a website from your phone rather than it is to try to figure out the various configurations of some e-commerce site search boxes.

SEO Creates Better User Experiences

Whether you care if your website is search engine friendly or not (and you ought to care!), it should never be designed so that the only way to get around is via search boxes. It's nothing short of poor usability. Your target market is composed of different types of people who are likely to find what they're looking for in different ways. Providing alternate forms of navigation helps everyone (including search engines) find exactly what they're looking for.

The next time your SEO consultant recommends something that you don't think is necessary, ask them why it should be that way. If they mention that it will be better for both search engines and site visitors (and can explain why), then you can rest assured that they are not your enemy or trying to sabotage your beautiful website. They have the best interests of everyone in mind at all times.

Jill

Jill Whalen is the CEO of High Rankings, an SEO Consulting company in the Boston, MA area since 1995. Follow her on Twitter @JillWhalen

Reposted with permission.

Convert HTML to PDF

2010-11-18T11:35:00.002-05:00

Looking for a free and easy way to convert HTML pages to PDF documents? Check out PDFCrowd. It also integrates with a Google Chrome Extension to send web pages to Google Docs.

Social Media Strategies: Staying Connected Without Feeling Chained to Your Computer

2010-11-16T12:47:00.005-05:00

THE DOOR OPENER MAGAZINE PRESENTS:
Social Media Strategies: Staying Connected Without Feeling Chained to Your Computer

Saturday, December 11, 2010
10 a.m. to 1 p.m. ~ $30
Held at Center for Holistic Empowerment, 3 Barnard Lane - top floor, Bloomfield, CT

GO FOR THE GOLD!
Folks who attended our Business Skills Enhancement Days specifically requested a training dedicated to Social Media only.

We are happy to bring that to you!!
MAKE IT HAPPPEN!

Do you have goals for your business in 2011? Would you like to develop some new marketing strategies? How are your skills in:
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

DON'T HESITATE!

Our presenter will demonstrate much needed info on a big screen LIVE right from her computer! You can see the exact steps to take!

Become confident, connected, and successful!!

Are you timid when it comes to Social Media, but you see everyone else connected and seemingly proficient? This is one of the most powerful marketing tools to come along in a long time. Do you feel the nudge to finally get started?

JOANNE MARCINEK OF ASK JOANNE, LLC has been connected with The Door Opener for many years and we continue to be impressed with her knowledge base and unique ability to bring difficult concepts down to plain language for simple understanding. This is something we definitely need in the area of technology.

Join us on December 11 for a three-hour session of training on these and more:
- learn the difference between a personal and business account
- how to set up an account
- how to post and include a photo or link
- how to link Facebook to Twitter and Linked-In
- and so much more!

Bring your questions. In the meantime, please visit Joanne's website to see how she can help you and your business, and to get a preview of her extensive knowledge and expertise! Visit www.askjoanne.com

Register through Dory Dzinski at The Door Opener at (860) 693-2840 or through thedooropener@comcast.net We look forward to seeing you there!!!

More Pictures on Your Google Places (Maps) page

2010-10-13T13:54:00.001-04:00

Google LatLong: For your viewing pleasure: a new and improved way to explore online photos:

When you’re curious about a new place - be it a restaurant that you haven’t yet tried or a popular tourist attraction you’re considering visiting on an upcoming trip - you may find it useful to see what that place looks like in advance. For this reason, Place pages make it possible to visually explore various locations by aggregating and displaying photos from around the web.

Today, we’re offering you a better, more streamlined way to view these photos. With this new feature, you can easily flip through a whole collection of photos and find the sites on the web that have relevant pictures of a given place. Photos that have been uploaded by our Panoramio or Google Places users will appear in high-resolution as an overlay when users click on them. For photos from other sources, you can easily click on a specific photo to see more and visit the site it comes from."

Social Media Marketing Doesn't Replace SEO

2010-08-13T14:34:00.001-04:00

Looking at the latest search marketing conference agendas, articles, and online news in the SEM space, it certainly appears that social media marketing and networking are the wave of the future.

To a certain extent, they are.

Social media, and social networking in particular, create a back-and-forth conversation with your target audience, so you can virally market your website through the "buzz" that can be created. When something interesting, cool, or unique is being talked about in "all the right places," it can certainly provide a boost in website traffic.

We search marketers tend to hang out in numerous online and offline communities where it's easy to promote our own products and services, yet I can't help wondering if our view of Web marketing is skewed because of this.

Are potential B2B clients and even B2C customers spending time at Digg? Do they attend SEM conferences in order to hire a company, or are they just trying to learn to do it themselves? And what about other industries? Is there a Sphinn equivalent for developers of product lifecycle management software? Are there groups of people online comparing the various brands of auto parts? Are there really people seeking out articles on these topics?

Perhaps.

And if so, we'd be remiss not to promote our clients' websites in those spaces. But is this search marketing? Or is it simply online marketing? Arguably, it becomes search marketing when it increases link popularity, but surely that should be the secondary goal of this type of marketing campaign. True link popularity comes from having something worth linking to, not something you've asked your insulated group of cronies to link to.

Certainly, the boost in direct traffic that a site can gain when it is being discussed in all the right places online is not to be taken lightly and that alone is reason enough to try to be found in all the right places. Yet how much of that traffic actually converts into anything good, and how much does it help your organic search rankings?

More important how does it increase your bottom line?

For instance, I've written a few articles that received upward of 1,000 visitors a day fromStumbleUpon alone. The spike in traffic was nice, and the slight increase in newsletter subscribers was certainly welcome, but for the most part, those StumbleUpon visitors spent just a few minutes on our site, and only a small percentage signed up for our free newsletter. None of them were interested in using our services. They read the article and then stumbled their way to the next site of potential interest.

Isn't participation in social media really just preaching to the choir?

You reach your peers, not the people who will buy your product or service. Sure, it's a nice ego stroke to have others in your industry tell you how cool you are, and there's something to be said for building credibility within your own community. I'm certainly not knocking that, and have built my own credibility via various online communities in which I've participated over the past decade.

But how does it sell your products and services?

Do you gain customers and sales from your social media marketing and/or your participation in social networks? Does it increase your rankings for the keyword phrases your actual target audience is typing into the search engines? If your business model depends on traffic for traffic's sake, or on how many ad impressions your site generates, then there's an obvious value. But if you sell a product or a service then not so much.

My fear with all the hype about social media marketing is that people new to search marketing will believe it's what SEO demands and what SEO is all about.

It isn't. Not by a long shot.

Social media marketing is a great addition to any traditional SEO work that you do, but it's not a substitute. It's more akin to hiring a PR firm once you've launched your already-SEO'd website. On-page SEO is definitely not as sexy as social media marketing, but it is still the most important investment in your website that you can make. Period.

So, go to all your social media conferences, and Digg your way to increased traffic. But first learn exactly who your target audience is, what they're searching for in the search engines, and how your website can solve their problems. Then make sure your website does exactly that. All the social media buzz and traffic won't amount to anything if your target audience isn't already part of the online conversation.

Be sure to have your own house in order before you give social media marketing a try.

And don't be surprised if it doesn't actually provide you with the ROI you hoped it would. In most cases it will depend on who your target audience is, where they hang out, the types of services or products you offer, and whether your website truly provides people with what they're looking for.

Getting back to SEO basics that is, creating a crawler-friendly website that is built around the keyword phrases people use at the search engines to find what you offer is the first and most important thing you can do for your website and your business. Yeah, it's not as fun and exciting as social media marketing, but skip this step at your own peril!

Jill

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Jill Whalen is CEO of High Rankings an SEO consulting company in the Boston, MA area.

Reprinted with permission

Social Media Explorations...

2010-02-12T17:52:00.003-05:00

OK, so I am finally getting into learning about all the social media tools and how they can work together to spread news and information. I'm experimenting with http://ping.fm and http://hootsuite.com to consolidate some of the work of posting to several networks. I'm also playing with http://wisestamp.com to add links to all this "stuff" to the signatures in my emails. I'll keep you posted on how it all goes.... stay tuned.

SEOBook Firefox Toolbar

2010-01-28T19:57:00.002-05:00

A really great tool for getting all kinds of information about a single webpage or a selection from search is the SEOBook Firefox Toolbar Addin.

You can find the age of the site, the incoming links, Compete.com traffic data and lots more. A very valuable tool for quick analysis of websites. There's even a comparative tool for a quick snapshot of key data about different sites.

WiZIQ

2009-09-17T16:56:00.003-04:00

I recently discovered a very full featured new tool for conducting online classes. It's called www.WiZIQ.com.

You can create live classes with audio, video, whiteboard and animation components. The classes can also be recorded and played back later. You can create free or paid public classes or private classes.

Stay tuned for classes from me on SEO, Link Building, Keyword Research and more.

Google Guide to Search Engine Optimization

2009-07-24T09:18:00.004-04:00

Google has published their own 22 page guide to getting started with Search Engine Optimization.

It's a good read, with great basic information. I have to admit I was beaming from ear to ear as I read directly from Google exactly what I have been advising clients to do since I started in SEO back in 2001.

It's all about relevant information and getting that relevant information in a format that both your site visitors and the search engines can read and understand. Happy Optimizing!

Keyword Search Trends

2009-06-29T12:06:00.004-04:00

I've spoken before about using Google Trends to find out about search trends... but now there's an even better tool for measuring and comparing keyword search trends, volume, demographics and location.

Check out: Google Insights for Search.

You can even enter several search terms and compare them:

Essential Steps for Small Business Internet Marketing

2009-06-16T16:16:00.005-04:00

The first thing any locally based business should do is make sure they are listed in the local business directories for Google, Yahoo and MSN. The submissions are free and easy to do. The results come up above almost all the other "natural" search results.

Here are the links for Local Search Engine Submissions:

If you have questions or problems, just Ask Joanne.

Why GMail is best.

2009-06-05T19:48:00.003-04:00

Why is GMail the best email solution? It's not just because it has the best SPAM filtering of any email program I ever used. No, Gmail is the best because you can archive emails forever and never have to delete anything.

I am currently trying to find an email verification of a directory submission done in June of 2007. I used Gmail for the first time in 2006, then went back to Outlook for a few months (because I liked to have my mails linked to my contact records). Then in Fall of 2007, I went back to Gmail and have been there since.

Wouldn't you know, the email message I am missing and can't find anywhere in my Outlook archives (!) is during those few months that I wasn't using Gmail.

With Gmail you can use the search box to search your email archives just like you search the internet with Google. If I had used Gmail all this time, I would be able to grab that email at a moment's notice an would not be about to pull out all my hair trying to find it!

Highlighting Web pages Made Easy

2009-04-18T09:07:00.003-04:00

Have you ever wanted to highlight a part of an online article, either for your own future reference or to point out something specific to someone? Well, I just found a cool tool called AwesomeHighlighter.com that lets you do just that.

Once you've registered for an account, you can highlight text on any URL. AwesomeHighlighter will save a summary of what you've highlighted and create short URLs to the highlighted page that you can share using email, twitter, facebook, delicious or wordpress.

I just used it this morning to send links to my sister on several articles (important parts highlighted) on a topic of interest to us both. Check it out.

Make your own Videos - Super Easy!

2009-02-28T10:55:00.002-05:00

Ok, I'll admit, I was behind the eight ball on this one. I found out about Animoto from a client of mine (www.AllSmokedUp.com) and was totally impressed. There's a free version and a paid version. You can use your still photos to create videos with great movement and sound, quite frankly they are much cooler than the "plain vanilla" slideshows I recommended in my post about creating YouTube videos with Picasa. Like the Picasa slideshows, these "music videos" can be uploaded to YouTube, added to Facebook, linked to your Google local listing, and put on your blog or website. Enjoy!

LOOKING FOR A TIME-TESTED BUSINESS STRATEGY?

2009-02-24T13:10:00.007-05:00

In this economic climate, you go with what works. Becoming a published author is just such a tactic. With “Doing Business By the Book: How to Craft a Crowd-Pleasing Book and Attract More Clients and Speaking Engagements Than You Ever Thought Possible” by Sophfronia Scott you will learn how to write the right book for your business. You’ll find ideas for powerful lead generation strategies as well as the basic nuts and bolts on choosing and assembling just the right stories to tell in your book. If writing books works for the likes of T. Harv Eker, Robert Kiyosaki and Jack Canfield, it can work for you!

To get started and receive a special bonus package, “The Savvy Entrepreneur’s Toolkit”, just click here NOW. http://tinyurl.com/d8zn3r

Make Your Own YouTube "Commercials"

2008-12-15T09:56:00.003-05:00

I just discovered the coolest, easiest tool to create little "commercials" to post on YouTube. Picasa3 from Google now has a nifty little button called "Make Movie" which will make a slideshow of any photos you choose from a Picasa album. You can add audio (make sure it's public domain or copyright free!) There are a variety of ways to display and scroll your photos, you can add text slides in between, you can add captions to each photo, and much more!

Then once you create the movie, you can automatically upload it to YouTube (I had trouble with that feature) but you can easily upload it through your YouTube account.

Check out a couple I did this weekend:

Doreen Osto - Black and White Fine Art Photography
All Smoked Up BBQ Catering - NY Giants and NY Jets Tailgate Parties at the Meadowlands

7 Secrets to Success - Sue Stebbins - Over it Already

2008-12-15T09:41:00.006-05:00

I'd like to share a link with you to an inspiring free business coaching presentation by Sue Stebbins, the Maven of Accelerated Results. I listened to this presentation the other day, and it highlights the simple steps that any entrepreneur can take to catapult their business to the next level of success. This is a particularly important message now, when most of the news about "this economy" is filled with doom and gloom. Sue is inspirational and upbeat and has a real and concrete message about a new approach to large scale success.

Sign up here to get the link to Over it Already - 7 Secrets to 7 Figure Success

Blog it on Facebook

2008-10-28T13:57:00.001-04:00

Just trying to figure out how all this works... there used to be a Facebook application that picked up blog posts from your blog and added it to your mini-feed.

This application appears to work the other way around.... I post through Facebook and it gets updated at my blogger.com blog.

Interesting.... keeps you on Facebook longer, that's for sure.

Let's see how this works...

Reviews on Local Search = High Rankings

2008-10-11T09:44:00.004-04:00

This is completely unscientific, I haven't done extensive studies, BUT it appears that Google ranks sites within it's local search results based on the number of reviews a site has.

Example... search Google for Hair Salon, Bethel, CT and you will see that A New Beginning is first on the list (they have 3 reviews - more than any other salon in that search.) Now try Catering, Danbury, CT ... the number 1 result is Loree's Catering in BETHEL... but her site has 6 reviews - more than any other catering site in the local results.

Kinda makes you go H'mmm...

SO, if you have a local business and you're listed in the Google Local results... get your happy customers to post an online review for you.

Reviews show up on Google from several different sources:
- directly at Google (for How To, see Local Reviews - Easier than Ever)
- from Judy's Book (for How To, see my e-booklet How to Promote Your Business with or Without a Website)
- from Yelp
- from Insider Pages
- and probably others that I don't yet know about....

Update from Joanne

2008-08-30T14:40:00.009-04:00

Well, it's been nearly forever since I last posted (April 2008) many things have changed, and many stayed the same. First off, let me announce that for now a book, video tutorials, and teaching workshops are all on the back burner.

I discovered that I much prefer working one-on-one, doing basic search engine optimization, Adwords, website analytics, link building and helping small business professionals and solo entrepreneurs understand the internet and effectively use it to promote their businesses. (Whew! was that really all one sentence?)

I have also have been doing keyword research and link building subcontracting work for two of my very talented colleagues: Josh Katinger of Accession Media (High quality website design/development, Analytics and Adwords) and Bill Gleason of WaterPath Electronic Publishing (SEO copywriter extraordinaire and overall Marketing Guru).

Basic Website Development is back in my repertoire, now that I have discovered a wonderfully user-friendly (and search engine friendly) content management system called Brightegg. Developing sites on this platform is very fun and I can easily train site owners how to setup and maintain a site of their own, cost effectively, and with the best possible optimization available for an affordable CMS system.

I will continue to publish this blog and send updates "Once in a while, sometimes twice" (to steal a phrase from another excellent SEM firm, Hochman Consultants.)

Please contact me when you are ready to start promoting your small business on the internet in the easiest, most efficient, cost-effective way possible.

YouTube Video Linked to Google Local

2008-04-14T11:20:00.003-04:00

While updating a Google Local business center listing for a client today I discovered that you can now link YouTube Videos to your Google local listing. Very Cool! It's like having your own commercial come up in the search listings.

I haven't yet seen on in action, but as soon as I do (or put one up for myself), I'll let you know what it looks like in the search results.

If you haven't done it yet, log into the Google Local Business center and make sure they have the most up-to-date info about your business - adding; categories, photos, videos, custom attributes, coupons and more are all available for free.

WIIFM - Free Internet Marketing Video Tutorials

2008-03-31T10:42:00.003-04:00

I am sure you have heard of that popular station, WIIFM (What's In It For Me), that everyone is tuned into. It's in the interest of any marketer to answer that question for their target audience.

For a while I have offered a newsletter sign up on my website (and on this blog) that simply sends to my list a "snapshot" of blog posts throughout the month.

It occurred to me, that while it is a nice "service" to have blog posts delivered to your email box, I am not actually offering my subscribers anything more than what can be gotten by visiting my blog on a regular basis (or subscribing to it via RSS.)

SO, I have decided to offer something new.... I just got a wonderfully fun piece of software called Camtasia for recording screencasts / video tutorials and training materials. I am now going to offer a series of free video tutorials on topics related to Keyword Research, SEO, Link Building, Google Adwords and more ONLY to my newsletter subscribers. Stay tuned for the first free tutorials in April 2008.

If you know of anyone who would appreciate receiving this newsletter/upcoming tutorials, please pass the word!

The Joys of SEO! - Internet Marketing CT

2008-03-26T15:37:00.005-04:00

Wow! I just found out that my site has made it to #2 on Google for Internet Marketing Connecticut. Thank you Josh Katinger, for letting me know!

I'm not banking on my site staying there... I think it's probably a temporary thing caused by some algorithm change or by personalized search. But it sure is fun to do that search and see my site pop up there right near the top! :-)

AskJoanne.com has been in the top 5 for Internet Marketing Newtown CT for quite a while. I usually recommend, when starting your internet marketing, to focus on having your primary service plus location be the first keywords you optimize for. This ensures that people who are looking for you can find you. The next phase of optimization is to optimize your site for other keywords and phrases your target audience might use in a search engine when they don't yet know they need you.

Sell Information Products on Clickbank

2008-03-21T08:47:00.006-04:00

There's always SO much to learn about marketing on the internet! While I know alot about SEO, Link Building and Google Adwords I am still learning about things like eZine article distribution, Social Media Marketing and selling information products on marketplaces like Clickbank.

However, I just completed my first Clickbank project for a client and helped her get her e-Books into the Clickbank marketplace. Paula Terifaj, DVM is a Holistic Vet who has written a series of eBooks that address many common issues that dog owners face - Vaccines, Food Issues and Dog Allergies.

The process for Clickbank is pretty straightforward:
- Set up an account with them and create a "pitch page" that pitches your products. Clickbank gives you the payment links to use on your pitch page.
- Set the Title and Description for your products in the Marketplace
- Set the commission you are willing to pay affiliates for selling your products (eg. 25%, 50%).
- Set up each product individually and create a Thank You page that includes a link to download your products.

At first the Clickbank payment links send you to a test payment page so you can thoroughly test the links and your "thank you pages." Products can be e-books, audio files, screencasts, etc. anything that can be sold as a download.

Once it's all working properly, you request approval from Clickbank, pay a one-time $49 activation fee and then your products show up in the Clickbank Marketplace where affiliates can go to create links to your product pitch page and begin selling your information products for you.

You don't have to worry about being able to accept credit cards or even Paypal, Clickbank will cut you a check when your sales have reached a designated threshold amount.

The next step is to learn how to really market products within the Clickbank marketplace to get the most sales possible.... always learning!

Gmail the greatest thing since eMail

2008-03-13T09:33:00.003-04:00

Why am I such a fan of Gmail? It has the best SPAM filtering of any email program I have ever used. I only get about 3 spam messages per day in my inbox instead of 50-60 because they are accurately filtered out by Gmail. I also almost NEVER have legitimate mail dumped into the junk folder by accident.

Another thing I love about Gmail is that I can have all my email addresses delivered to one inbox that is accessible from any computer via the internet. So, my personal email accounts, my business account, the accounts I have at client sites can all come into the same inbox. This saves me having to check multiple email accounts each day. Outlook can do this too, but the other benefit of Gmail is that I can log into my account and view my emails from any computer with internet access (great for traveling or when I need something at a client site.)

Gmail is SO easy to search and you get so much storage space that you never have to delete a mail. You can just archive them and then, if you need that info again, use the search box to search for words or phrases that you know were in the message you're looking for.

You can flag messages with a star for follow up, create filters to sort certain types of messages, and label messages to help keep them organized.

Gmail uses a "thread" type system for keeping track of mails so if you send an email out to a distribution list, everytime someone replies, it gets linked to the original mail message so you can always track back through the thread to find "who said what."

And as with most Google services, Gmail is free. The only thing you need to be able to deal with is seeing Google Ads next to your mail messages like the ones along the right column in this screenshot:

YouTube - Google Analytics Interface Tutorial

2008-02-19T12:55:00.001-05:00

A How To Video from Google on getting started using Google Analytics. YouTube - Google Analytics Interface Tutorial

The Internet's Alphabet Soup

2008-02-04T11:23:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I think that one of the things that makes the internet intimidating for small business professionals is the "alphabet soup" that gets sprinkled throughout anything dealing with the internet. When you don't know what the abbreviations mean, you need to make deliberate effort to ignore the "unknown" and that can make learning new things even tougher.

Here are a few definititions of some of the most common abbreviations you will see when discussing the internet and websites.

URL - Uniform Resource Locator. An Internet World Wide Web Address.

HTML - stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. This is the beautiful language that lets us add hypertext links to our online text so that people (and search engines) can follow the links and get more information.

HTTP - stands for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol, is the protocol which allows browsing on the World Wide Web. The protocol allows a user browsing a hypertext document to jump to another document that may be located on another host thousands of miles away, and to retrieve the information in that document.

CSS - stands for Cascading Style Sheet. A style sheet allows a web developer to separate the content of a webpage from the formatting of a webpage. This is excellent for the search engines (they are interested only in the content) and excellent for developers because they can easily change the formatting on an entire website by making a change in the style sheet instead of needing to change every page of the site.

CMS - stands for Content Management System. A content management system is a collection of tools that allows the creation, modification, organization and removal of information from a web site. Usually CMS to requires no knowledge of HTML in order to create web pages. This means that if you have a developer set up a CMS for you, you will be able to easily update the information on the website without having to get your developer involved.

RSS - actually has two definitions, Rich Site Summary and Really Simple Syndication. I prefer Really Simple Syndication. It's a format for sharing content among different websites. Sites can syndicate “feeds” (content) and Internet users can use an application called an RSS reader or aggregator to download feeds. A website owner can publish a feed of their own (like the one on this blog that says Subscribe toPosts [Atom]) or you can include an RSS feed from another site on your site (IRS feed for accountants, AMA feed for doctors, legal feeds for lawyers, etc.)

And, my all time favorite, though not an internet term, is TWAIN. I discovered this acronym while installing my first scanner years ago. I looked it up in the manual and found that it meant "Toolkit Without An Important Name." Wikipedia now lists a different definition, but that's definitely what was in the manual I read in the 1990's

One easy way to find out what abbreviations mean is to use the define: function in Google search. Just type define: word/abbreviation in the Google search bar and you will get all the definitions that Google has indexed.

Love M&Ms? Marketing & Munching all in One

2008-02-01T17:27:00.000-05:00

Have you seen these? Your logo or (very short) tag line on personalized M & M's.

Yum!

The Truth about Links

2008-02-01T11:56:00.000-05:00

The truth about "getting links" "buying links" "having links" "building links" is that it's really all about connecting with people.

I've seen lots of internet marketing related websites giving instruction on how to automate link requests, write a "convincing" link request emails and so on. Sometimes it seems funny to me... wouldn't a personal approach, just like getting to know someone at a networking meeting be more genuine and effective?

When you are asking another site for a link from their site to your site, you should be thinking about more than the "vote" or search engine value of having links to your website. If you think about it the way the search engines think about it, providing the most relevant results, you'll know which are the best sites to request links to your site. These are the sites for which your site adds value, makes sense and is the logical choice.

When you find a site like that... requesting a link from them is like asking for a referral. The easiest way to do that is to personally connect with the person at the other end. Write an email like you would introduce yourself in person. Who you are, what you like about their site, why you think your site might be a good resource for their visitors.

I almost never respond to automated link requests. They seem rude to me. But I have responded to those that are noticeably personal and truly addressed to me and my website.

Yes, it's a sometimes tedious, labor intensive job. No, there's no way to effectively automate it (though stay tuned for some spreadsheet add-ons that will make keeping track of all your link building a bit easier!).

But, linking is like networking... you are making connections with other websites the same way you make the best connections with other people; one person at a time, in a friendly, amiable way.

Try it, you'll be surprised at the results.

Choosing the Right Keywords - Part 2

2008-02-01T11:18:00.001-05:00

Once you have your starting list of keywords from answering the questions in this pos t, do a little research to find out if people are actually using those keywords.

If you have a Google Adwords account, you can start with their keyword tool. If you don't have an adwords account, you can use the Google External Keyword tool, but you have to enter in a challenge word each time to prove you are a human.

I also use Nichebot. You can use their free tools or buy "credits" to use other tools (importing large keyword lists, running additional tools, etc.).

There's also Keyword Discovery, which I like alot. They use a wide variety of search engines let you choose which "set" you want to focus on.

Anyway, put your keywords into tools like this to find information on search volume, competing sites, related keywords that might be "high quality" - that is, have a high relevancy, high search volume and low competition.

Include all sorts of variations in your keyword list and let it grow, we'll be trimming it down later...

BEWARE! Liberty Names of America SCAM

2008-01-28T11:40:00.001-05:00

Liberty Names of America sends out official looking documents to unsuspecting domain owners telling them "...Failure to renew your domain name will result in losing exclusive rights to it on the web, and losing access to your online identity. Renew today and take advantage of the big savings we have to offer."

The part that REALLY burns me up is the "big savings" bit... their prices are DOUBLE what you would pay from a reputable domain registrar like GoDaddy.com. Who does not send out scammy mailings trying to steal your domain from another registrar.

Domain owners beware. KNOW who your domain is registered with. Keep your email address with them up-to-date. DO NOT fall victim to scams like these because you're not sure who you are registered with. When in doubt, check the WhoIs record for your domain, or Ask Joanne :-)

Aaron Wall Rocks!

2008-01-26T17:00:00.000-05:00

Aaron Wall, the author of the SEO Book has put everything you need to know about the nuts and bolts of SEO in one place. Not only that, the book gets updated online, so you are never without the most up-to-date information. This book is definitely written for the person who wants to do their own SEO work. It demonstrates accurate how to's for every step of the process.

I like Aaron's approach because the way I do SEO consulting is to provide my clients with a report of how to implement the right keywords and begin building their search engine rankings themselves. I want my clients to learn how to do it themselves, because in essence, it's not difficult to do. But like all things, people need to decide where to put their attention and where to spend their time and money. If you decide to pay for ongoing SEO work (like link building and spotting new SEO "keyword opportunities"), just like you'd decide to pay for ongoing lawn care... knowing how it all works will make sure you hire the right professionals to do the job at the right price.

How to Choose the Right Keywords for your Website

2008-01-26T16:54:00.000-05:00

Choosing keywords is almost more of an art than a science. The trick is to shift your viewpoint from one within your company into the head of your target audience.

Who are you talking to? Who is your target audience? How do they search? Where do they hang out on the internet.

What do you intend to sell them? What words might they use to describe what you have to offer - generic or specific?

What problems do you solve for them? Often people search using problem words because they don't yet know what the potential solutions are. What problems do your products or services solve.

Make a list of all the words that come to mind when you answer these questions. This is your starting list of keywords.

Seth Godin Rocks!

2008-01-26T11:23:00.000-05:00

I have read nearly all of Seth Godin's books and every time find myself saying "YES!" I haven't yet read his latest - Meatball Sundae but I did attend a webcast this week that he did about the ideas in the book and, as usual, it was excellent.

The basic idea is that things don't work when you add all the fun sundae toppings (social media, blogging, podcasts, interactive web tools, etc.) on top of plain old meatballs (everyday products for everyday consumers.) These days it takes being "remarkable" in some way to really create a buzz about your business or products. You need to choose your niche and be the best within it... not too hard to do, but a very different approach than the "old" way of marketing meatballs.

Jill Whalen Rocks!

2008-01-18T08:11:00.000-05:00

I have been a huge fan of Jill Whalen and www.HighRankings.com since I started learning about optimizing websites... in fact, it's from Jill's newsletter and forum that I learned how to optimize sites.

While doing some searching the other day on techniques for link building, I came across this interview with Jill on www.RecognizedExpert.com.

It's a very down-to-earth look at the basic tactics of SEO that worked in the early days, work now and will continue to work in the future. Why? Because ultimately the goal of the search engines is to provide their users with relevant information. If you "feed" the search engines relevant information about your site by using the right keywords in the right places, the search engines will "reward" you by ranking your site high.

Regardless of all the new internet marketing tools, techniques, gadgets and gizmos success on the internet is really all about providing relevant information and unique value to your customers. Search Engine Optimization is about making sure that message comes through loud and clear on your website through using your keywords in your page titles, web copy and behind-the-scenes code.

Money for Nothing (and your clicks for free)

2007-12-27T09:23:00.000-05:00

Another GREAT ebook from Seth Godin! Learn about why having your web content be Unique, Useful and Updated is one of the BEST ways to get continued, targeted, motivated visitors to your website.

Stumble Upon - The power of social bookmarking

2007-12-21T08:00:00.000-05:00

Have you heard of Stumble Upon? It's a service that "discovers web sites based on your interests, learns what you like and brings you more." There's a toolbar that can be added to Firefox or Internet Explorer. You can mark sites that you like, or don't like. You can tag them with keywords to let others know what they are about. It's also an interesting way to "cruise" the net by clicking "Stumble" and seeing what comes up.

But other than being a fun way to bookmark, review and tag websites, it also appears that sites tagged in StumbleUpon, just list sites tagged in del.icio.us get some extra link benefit in the search engines.

As you probably know, the search engines see each incoming link to your website as a "vote" for your website and the more quality, relevant incoming links your site has, the more "votes" your site gets and the better you can do in the search engines. Now, social bookmarking sites are meant for bookmarking, and not as an SEO tool, but it's an interesting side benefit to note that sites tagged and bookmarked do appear to get some SEO benefit from the incoming links.

Better Rankings, More Visitors but NOT More Sales?

2007-12-05T09:50:00.000-05:00

You've optimized your website, gotten incoming links, advertised on the search engines and in directories. You're getting better rankings, better visibility, and more visitors to your site (everything your SEO consultant promised!) but you're still not making more sales, getting more leads, more phone calls. So, what's a business owner to do?

The answer is testing and analysis. Anyone who has heard me speak knows that I subscribe to the cyclical method of internet marketing success - Optimize, Test, Analyze (aka Try it, Measure it, Tweak it). If you are not getting the results you want and expect from your website, start doing some testing.

Testing and analysis all begins with a good tracking package (I recommend Google Analytics). Then, once you've gathered some data, try some new things... customize your landing pages, move or add graphics, write a more compelling call to action and then test your changes against your baseline. It won't take long to find out what works and what doesn't. Then, start doing more of what works!

YouTube - Google Analytics - Bounce Rate: The Simply Powerful Metric

2007-12-03T12:34:00.000-05:00

Great video by Google on Bounce Rate!

YouTube - Google Analytics - Bounce Rate: The Simply Powerful Metric

Local Search and Business Reviews - easier than ever

2007-11-14T11:00:00.001-05:00

I've written previously encouraging businesses to get listed in the local listings at Google, Yahoo and Ask.com. I also have a How To eBooklet (called How to Promote your Business on the Internet: with or without a Website) on getting listed in Google Local and getting a review of your business linked to that listing through Judy's Book.

Well, getting reviews of your business linked to your local results is now easier than ever. Both Google and Yahoo have links directly on their local search results that allow you to quickly and easily add a review of a business. Encourage your happy customers to submit reviews to your local results... it will pay dividends in the long run.

For Yahoo, the link to write a review is right next to the local listing:

For Google, you need to click on the local listings details (reviews, directions and more) to get to the links to write a review:
The ease of having reviews linked to your business also opens the possibility of people posting negative reviews. Always be on the lookout for reviews of your business to manage your public relations. Search for your business periodically in local searches to make sure the news about you is Good News!

Keywords and Google Trends

2007-11-09T13:44:00.000-05:00

Anyone who has listened to me for a while knows that I feel that optimizing websites for the search engines begins and ends with KEYWORDS.

A neat tool available from Google that I've probably mentioned before, but am starting to use more often is Google Trends. You can plug in any keyword or keyphrase and see a history of the number of searches on Google for that phrase.

You can see an entire history, view it by year or month, or narrow it down to the last 12 months. You can see all regions on the earth, or narrow it down to a specific country.

Google also includes notations of major news articles that contain the phrases you are searching on so you can see. You can compare several phrases on one graph to see the difference in search volume for related phrases.

Following is a screenshot of a search I did for the last 12 months in the United States for the phrases SEO, Internet Marketing and Search Marketing.

While a lot of the data is extrapolated and includes the following note: Google Trends aims to provide insights into broad search patterns. Several approximations are used when computing your results. Please keep this in mind when using it. It can be a very useful tool for seeing patterns and trends in keywords and matching up spikes in search volume with significant news articles. Overall a great research tool.

See Also:
Free Keyword Research Tools

Internet Marketing 101 - Find Keywords!

Analytics - What is Bounce Rate?

2007-11-06T14:09:00.000-05:00

There are several statistics that I recommend site owners pay attention to on a regular basis. They are: number of visitors, referring sites (where did those visitors come from), keywords (what keywords did they use and top content (what content was the most pertinent to your visitors.

Another statistic to pay attention to is the Bounce Rate. On Google Analytics, Bounce Rate is defined as:

Bounce Rate: Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits (i.e. visits in which the person left your site from the entrance page). Bounce rate is a measure of visit quality and a high bounce rate generally indicates that site entrance (landing) pages aren't relevant to your visitors. You can minimize Bounce Rates by tailoring landing pages to each keyword and ad that you run. Landing pages should provide the information and services that were promised in the ad copy.

Pay attention to your bounce rate - particularly if you are paying for advertising. A high bounce rate means that most people are NOT finding what they expect to find on your website.

Yellowpages Internet Advertising - Just Say NO!

2007-10-25T14:36:00.001-04:00

This week a client faxed to me a proposal he received from Yellow Pages Distribution Services offering him (for $495/year, reduced to $287/year) a whole lot of nothing!

Well, I should qualify, there were two items on their list that aren't already free and easy to do, and that was a link from the Switchboard.com website to his website and the "Profile Content Management System" that would allow him to update his own profile at YellowPages.com.

A few other items they say the fee included were:

Google Local Listing Submission (it's a free service)
Yahoo Local Listing Submission (also free)
MSN Local Listing Submission (yup, it's free too)
Google Mapping Service (free and included with a Google Local Listing.)
Switchboard.com listing - his site is already listed here
Local.com listing - his site is already listed and linked here

If you want to pay to be in the printed phone directories - go for it, but I recommend saving yourself a lot of money and NOT paying for YellowPages internet services.

Best Resources for learning about Adwords

2007-10-23T14:21:00.000-04:00

Sorry all, I seem to have lost most of the month of October in getting ready for, going on and recovering from our first family vacation to Disney World in Orlando, FL. (If you're ever planning a trip like that, I highly recommend getting "The Unofficial Guide to Disney World." )

In this post I would just like to recommend a few books and website resources that I have found valuable in getting the most from AdWords campaigns.

My favorite is by Andrew Goodman, "Winning Results with Google Adwords." Andrew also has a website and newsletter available at http://www.page-zero.com/

Another good resource is Perry Marshall. His book is the "Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords." His website is http://www.perrymarshall.com/.

And of course, Google's own learning center for adwords is a great resource: http://www.google.com/adwords/learningcenter/ Google also offers adwords optimization information from within your adwords account... but always keep in mind that Google's recommendations might not always be the best solution for you (they usually recommend higher budgets, higher cost per click bids, etc.) so take their advice with a grain of salt.

Find Feeds Fast (RSS feeds for you and your visitors)

2007-09-29T10:23:00.001-04:00

If you subscribe to RSS feeds for news, or are interested in providing RSS content on your website for your site visitors, FeedMiner is a good place to find new topic specific feeds.

The benefits of RSS feeds (one of the definitions of RSS is Really Simple Syndication) include being able to get up-to-date content without having to visit each individual website or blog. You can subscribe to feeds using something like Google Reader.

Another cool use of RSS is to publish feeds that are of interest to your target audience and publish that syndicated content on your own website or in your eNewsletter. This can be a way of providing interesting, relevant content to your visitors or prospects without having to write the content yourself. iContact is an email management system that allows you to add RSS feeds to your eNews quickly and easily.

YouTube - The Power of Social Media

2007-09-28T09:10:00.000-04:00

I'll admit, there's a lot of really odd stuff out there on YouTube. However, I recently discovered that it can be an effective way to get new leads and clients. I've posted several "How To" screencasts in the How To and DIY category . They are very short How To videos that I created with some free screencasting software (Screencast-o-matic) on a variety of topics (Google Calendar, Blogger, Analytics, etc.).

Just this week I got an email from a new client in California, (a vet who sells natural homemade dog food) who had been surfing around in the How To category on YouTube, watched my video, visited my website and decided that I would be a good match for her needs.

If you have something to share - a "how to", an interview, examples of your work, a demonstration, a clip from a talk you've done, whatever - think about creating a video clip and putting it up on YouTube. You might get your next client there too.

What to do when Optimization isn't getting you the high rankings you want

2007-09-21T09:32:00.000-04:00

For many businesses, the most basic website optimization will make a HUGE difference in their search engine rankings (a well-designed site that can be indexed by the search engines; targeted page titles, descriptions, content; and a basic link strategy).

I have had clients climb from "nowhere to be found" in Google to the number 1 position for an important keyphrase. Example: www.SuccessWaves.com came from nowhere to be found up to #1 on Google for CT Wealth Coach.

However, I also have clients who do all the right things yet can't seem to get the Google rankings they want. Most do terrific in Yahoo and MSN, but Google is so much tougher. The best advice I can give in situations like this is to make a close analysis of what the sites who ARE in the top 5-10 for coveted keywords are doing right. In most cases, the top sites have at least one of following going for them:

-The site has been around for YEARS
-The site has pages and pages and pages of relevant content
-The site has thousands of incoming links (per Yahoo) or hundreds per Google

It's a very hard thing to tell a client how much work (and patience) might be involved in getting better Google rankings for their keyphrases. As I've said before SEO is NOT a short term strategy. Continuously adding quality content, continually requesting relevant links, and participating in the cyber-conversation (by posting to blogs, having a blog of their own, being "out there" on YouTube, Linked In, Facebook, Industry Forums, and even MySpace) are all becoming important ways to "be found in all the right places" on the internet.

PPC Advertising is another method of getting to the top by "buying" your way into the top sponsored spots... but even that is getting tougher and tougher as more businesses enter the arena and the "prices" of quality keywords go up and up.

I don't mean to sound discouraging... but website owners need to know that marketing on the internet is a long-term commitment that requires an on-going budget, consistent effort and patience.

Lastly - keep in mind that top search engine rankings are NOT the ultimate measure of internet success. Success comes from more visitors, more leads, more sales - not #1 rankings! Don't get lost in pursuing rankings without considering what will turn those rankings into more leads and more sales.

How to Conquer the Business World with Kindness: The Power of Nice

2007-09-10T11:29:00.001-04:00

I recently signed up to be a BzzAgent where you volunteer to try new products and websites and then Bzz about them and spread the word of mouth. My latest Bzz Campaign was to read the book The Power of Nice: How to Conquer the Business World with Kindness by Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval. It's an excellent book! Short and Sweet, it outlines simple and effective techniques for using niceness to both succeed in business and create a nicer world.

Reading it reminded me that if we all lived by the Golden Rule, the world would be a better place! This book would be a great tool for use in "getting to know you" and team building meetings.

Read and enjoy!

What to Expect from SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

2007-08-20T17:05:00.000-04:00

When you purchase a website optimization review report from Ask Joanne, LLC you get a detailed roadmap for you or your webmaster with page by page recommendations on what changes need to be made to your site's page titles, keywords, description and text content to improve your search engine rankings for your primary search terms. Also included are suggested changes to site navigation, information architecture, and other important site elements that could be effecting your site's ability to convert visitors into leads/sales/donations.

Search Engine Optimization is, however, a long term strategy. Do not expect to get instant top 5 rankings the day after you get your reports! Once ALL the recommendations in the report are implemented it can take 2-3 months for an existing site and up to 6-8 months for a new site to begin to show improvement in the search engines.

How much of an improvement you get in rankings, traffic and conversions (leads/sales/donations) depends heavily on how competitive your market is. Optimization is the first step, in addition to that we recommend link building, email marketing, and pay-per-click advertising.

Successful internet marketing is a cyclical process. After you've optimized your site, you MUST track and analyze the results and tweak them as necessary to achieve optimal results. Methods of tracking and analyzing include using Google Analytics (we have a how to setup analytics tutorial on AskJoanne.com) and Google Webmaster Tools.

Age REALLY matters to Google

2007-08-15T07:56:00.000-04:00

While noodling around in Google's webmaster tools this morning, I discovered something interesting. Before I focused my business on internet marketing, I was doing work as an all-around computer consultant and helped clients with things like reconciling Quickbooks, adjusting their mouse scroll speeds, attaching files to aol emails and other computer issues.

To that end, I created individual pages on my site that addressed those issues with "how to" instructions for my clients.

Well, this morning I found out that my page for How to Reconcile a Bank Account in Quickbooks
comes up #1 on Google for the keyphrase "reconcile quickbooks". It comes up ABOVE the results for the Quickbooks support forum!

Just another reminder that putting quality relevant content up your website (with accurate page titles) now, rather than later, can pay great dividends in higher rankings in the long run.

Graphical Link Maps - TouchGraph

2007-08-13T12:31:00.001-04:00

There's a neat service out there called TouchGraph that will show you a graphical representation of internet links. You can enter keywords or a domain name to see a color coded link map. The link maps include both actual hypertext links and in the case of using keywords versus a domain name in the search box, it will show semantic links.

Here's a portion of the map that comes up for www.askjoanne.com:

They also have two additional versions... one for Facebook.com and another for Amazon.com.

Find out about Spyware from Google

2007-07-18T14:20:00.002-04:00

Have you seen this yet? A line beneath the search engine results on Google that say "this site may harm your computer?

Today was the first time I saw anything like it. When I clicked on the link (not for the site, but for the warning) I got to this page at Google answers.

If you click the link for the flagged website, you get another warning page before you are redirected to the site.

You can choose to continue on to the site at your own risk. However, please be aware that malicious software is often installed without your knowledge or permission when you visit these sites, and can include programs that delete data on your computer, steal personal information such as passwords and credit card numbers, or alter your search results. For more information on these types of sites, please visit StopBadware.org

What a handy tool for people using Google to search. Spyware, malware, etc. has become more and more of problem for unsuspecting users. I periodically run anti-spyware software on my computer. It's provided called Ad-Aware and is by LavaSoft for free at www.lavasoftusa.com.

I recommend using anti-spyware software regularly, particularly if you share your computer with kids/teens who might be visiting a wide variety of download sites.

Custom Home Page - iGoogle

2007-07-12T09:17:00.000-04:00

While it's not exactly related to internet marketing, having a custom home page can be a handy tool from which to do your work on the internet.

Google has a tool that allows you to create a custom home page for yourself. There are hundreds of "gadgets" that you can add to the page including bookmarks, your Google calendar, links to Google Reader (for Blogs you subscribe to), news on topics you are interested in and more. You can even create tabs on your home page to categorize types of information.

To get started, go to: http://www.google.com/ig, sign in with your Google account and start creating your custom home page.

Mine currently has a "beach" theme that changes with the time of day... so even when I'm not at the beach, I can get the "feel" of summer fun.

Custom Search Engine Creation

2007-06-29T13:36:00.000-04:00

The bigger the web gets, the tougher it is to find relevant information. Google has introduced a concept called Google Co-op which allows "we the people" to create custom search engines that are targeted to a particular topic or area of interest.

I haven't delved too deeply into it, but I did create a few of custom search engines. One is right here on this blog - the blog search box. Another is on my website. These are both set to only search either the blog or the website.

Another one of my custom search engines is located at a page created by Google called Internet Marketing Made Easy. This search engine searches not only my own site, but also quite a few other sites that I have found useful information on Internet Marketing.

So, for example, if you're looking for information on 301 redirects or email marketing this custom search engine will show relevant results from only the sites identified as being included in the search.

If you have questions about this, or would like help creating your own custom search engine, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Screencasting Made Easy and How to Create a Blog

2007-06-20T12:37:00.000-04:00

I stumbled upon a cool site the other day called Screencast-o-matic that allows you, with just the microphone on your computer, to record screencasts with audio. And, as is always my favorite attribute, it's FREE!

The screencasts can be viewed at the Screencast-o-matic site, but you need to have java installed (so several of my testers were unable to view it there.) However, they also offer and export feature in which the screencast is exported as a movie file.

The movie file can then be uploaded to YouTube!

Please let me know what you think!

Get a Website Sooner Rather than Later

2007-06-13T11:11:00.000-04:00

Being an early adopter pays off... part of Google's algorithm is a function that weighs the "trust value" of a website. Websites that have been around longer have more trust value. This ties in with an earlier post about how long it takes to get well ranked in the search engines and the Google "sandbox" effect.

If you are considering a website for your business but are not ready to invest the money in development, I suggest registering a domain name (I use GoDaddy), setting up a hosting account (I use Westhost) and putting up at least one page of text (preferably several pages) that describe your business and contain your keywords. This will act as a sort of "place holder" for when you are ready to develop the site in more depth.

It also allows you to start using an email address associated with the new domain name and working toward establishing your internet presence.

Do It Yourself SEO - Recommended Resources

2007-06-02T17:05:00.000-04:00

Ask Joanne’s Do It Yourself SEO

(Search Engine Optimization)
Recommended Reading

Books / eBooks

The Big Red Fez by Seth Godin
SEO Book – Downloadable eBook by Aaron Wall
Call to Action by Bryan and Jeffery Eisenberg
Nitty Gritty of Writing for the Search Engines, by Jill Whalen

Online Resources:

Jill Whalen’s High Rankings Forum and Newsletter
Search Engine College
Conversion University

Online Tools (Free)

SEO Book Keyword Tool
AdWords Keyword Tool
Spider (bot) Simulator (see how the search engines see your site)

Blogs to Subscribe to:

Subscription Software

IntraVNews – Get blog posts delivered through MS Outlook
Google Reader
Bloglines

The Official Google Blog

Yahoo Search Blog
SEO Book Blog
Ask Joanne's Internet Marketing Made Easy Blog

Your Events - Searchable in Google Calendar

2007-05-30T14:21:00.000-04:00

Do you host workshops, classes, events, seminars in your business? Did you know that you can post these events on a publicly accessible Google Calenda r and have them show up in the public event search through Google Calendar?

Google Calendar is a handy online calendar that with some add-on software can synchronize with your Outlook calendar on your desktop.

Adding a public calendar to your website is easy to do. Here's an example of a simple calendar we put up for my client All Smoked Up BBQ Catering. Rob can update the calendar at any time, from any computer and have the changes show up immediately on the calendar on his website. This eliminates having to contact your webmaster every time you want to add or change an event.

Putting up a public calendar not only invites people to subscribe to it (and have your events auto-magically added to their Google Calendar), but also puts your public events in to the Google Calendar public database. This means that someone searching the public events with your keywords can find out about your events and easily add them to their own calendar.

If you'd like more information on how to get a public calendar up and running for your business, just Ask Joanne!

Ask City Search - Search for Local Businesses

2007-05-21T13:32:00.000-04:00

I recently discovered the Ask.com city search. You can use their tools to draw an area on a map where you would like to confine your search. This means that you can easily search over several towns, but always within a radius of your main search area.

If you'd like to get your business added to Ask's CitySearch, contact their Customer Service department. Please be sure to send the following information:

Business name
Business address
Phone number
Category the business or service falls under
URL address
Email contact

They say it will take about 28 days to get your business listed.

Internet Integrity

2007-05-17T09:21:00.000-04:00

Successful internet advertising and website promotion, in my opinion, need to move toward integrity. Deliver what you promise.

Potential customers and clients move at the speed of a click. If your ad or your link promises X, but when clicked delivers U, V, W, X, Y, & Z people are likely to be frustrated to not get exactly what they were promised and will click away in the blink of an eye.

The key to successful advertising on the internet is to deliver what you promise. Gently lead your potential customers to where they can easily sign-up, contact you or purchase what you offer. Make it EASY for them to do what you want them to do.

A couple of great books (that I am sure I've mentioned before) that discuss ways to do this are: The Big Red Fez by Seth Godi n and Prioritizing Web Usability by Jakob Nielsen.

Website Quality Guidelines from the Search Engines

2007-05-11T08:18:00.000-04:00

Each of the major search engines publish Quality Guidelines on their websites. Following the quality guidelines will insure that your site will not get "banned" from the search engine indexes for techniques that are considered to be "spamming" the search engines.

This is also a good place to check if you get advice from a search marketing "guru" and you want to be sure it's a strategy that is in alignment with the search engines' guidelines.

Google Quality Guidelines
Yahoo Quality Guidelines
MSN Quality Guidelines

You can also find some tips in the webmaster guidelines on how to better promote your website.

Yahoo Local - Free Local Advertising

2007-05-08T10:36:00.000-04:00

I have to admit, I have a Google bias. A few algorithm updates ago I didn't like the Google results and frequently used Yahoo to find what I needed, but lately, I am finding what I need on Google and rarely use Yahoo.

However, just because I have a bias doesn't mean I should ignore Yahoo. Lots of folks use Yahoo for their searches and Yahoo is particularly good at serving up accurate commercial, retail and shopping results. So, today I investigated Yahoo Local listings. It used to be a paid service, but is now available free.

Just like with Google local, if a searcher on Yahoo types in a search phrase plus a city, state (eg. internet marketing Newtown, CT) Yahoo will bring up the local results above their natural search results.

To add your business to Yahoo local, sign in with your Yahoo! account at http://listings.local.yahoo.com/signup/ The process is simple and straightforward, and best of all FREE.

Personalized Results from Google

2007-05-05T09:40:00.000-04:00

If you have a Google account for Gmail, Google Calendar, Adwords, Analytics or other Google services, your Google search results will now be "personalized."

What does this mean? Here's an excerpt from the Official Google Blog:

Today, we're taking another step toward making personalization more available to you by combining these two into a single signed-in experience. Now, when you're signed in, you'll have access to a personalized Google—one that combines personalized search results and a personalized homepage.

Keep in mind that personalization is subtle—at first you may not notice any difference. But over time, as the search engine learns your preferences, you'll see it. For example, I (Sep) am an avid Miami Dolphins fan (no joke). Searching for [dolphins] gives me info about my favorite football team, while a marine biologist colleague gets more information about her salt-water friends.

What does this mean for those of us who optimize websites? Well, it means that checking the rankings of a website has less meaning than ever. Where a site ranks on my personalized search may be very different than where a site ranks for you.

So, as an internet marketer, if you're not focusing on rankings as a measure of success, what do you use? Increased number of unique visitors, leads, conversions and sales have actually always been a better measure of successful internet marketing than being able to say "we rank #1 for ______." Know your visitors, watch your stats, design your site for conversions, make it the best it can be and don't worry about where you rank.

The Way Back Machine - for fun

2007-04-26T13:17:00.000-04:00

Have you ever wondered what some of your favorite websites looked like when they were first launched? Well, you can find out by using the Way Back Machine at web.archive.org.

You can type in any domain name and see the history of that site. For example, this is Google's very first homepage: http://web.archive.org/web/19981111184551/http://google.com/

A really great SEO primer and How to Write for the Search Engines

2007-04-13T19:37:00.000-04:00

I'm almost embarrassed to admit this, but while I've used tools on www.SEOBook.com and read the blog posts there, and even gone there for advice, I had never purchased and read Aaron Wall's SEOBook!

I just bought it today and Wow! Not only does all that I've read agree with the methods and techniques that I use for SEO, but it's well written, easily accessible to technical and non-technical folks alike. I haven't read the whole thing yet, I'm on page 150, but so far it's excellent and I HIGHLY recommend it. Good, solid, down to earth SEO advice. Definitely a winner.

I should also mention an e-book I got long ago, from my SEO "guru" Jill Whalen (www.HighRankings.com) called the Nitty Gritty of Writing for the Search Engines. If you're interested in learning simple techniques for making your website copy more search engine friendly and targeting your copy for your keyphrases, this is THE book to read.

Both of these recommendations are for e-books in PDF format, so once you get them, you have the instant gratification of being able to delve into them immediately.

Enjoy!

Website Optimizer (beta) - AdWords - Google

2007-04-13T13:58:00.000-04:00

Really COOL new tool from Google on optimizing your website to increase conversions! It provides ways of testing, experimenting and analyzing how people use your website.

Website Optimizer (beta) - AdWords - Google

I'm learning all I can about it now....

Designing your Website with Credibility

2007-04-12T17:52:00.000-04:00

Last night, while re-reading Andrew Goodman's book, Winning Results with Google AdWords, I came across a listing of what makes a website credible from a credibility study by Stanford University. Fascinating stuff. Most of it makes the utmost sense but is often overlooked by website owners.

As an SEO, I have learned that while it's fun to help people get higher rankings for their websites, I am doing them a disservice if I don't point out things on the site that may reduce the credibility of the site and the business.

Here are the top 10, details and references are available at the Stanford site...

Make it easy to verify the accuracy of the information on your site.
Show that there's a real organization behind your site.
Highlight the expertise in your organization and in the content and services you provide.
Show that honest and trustworthy people stand behind your site.
Make it easy to contact you.
Design your site so it looks professional (or is appropriate for your purpose).
Make your site easy to use -- and useful.
Update your site's content often (at least show it's been reviewed recently).
Use restraint with any promotional content (e.g., ads, offers).
Avoid errors of all types, no matter how small they seem.

Use your Key-Words!

2007-04-10T19:26:00.000-04:00

Have you ever heard a mother say to her child "Use your Words!" when trying to encourage more social behavior from a toddler? In optimizing your website for the search engines, "Use your Words" is actually the perfect little nugget of advice.

The search engines determine what a web-page is about by the words used on that page. You say you want your site to be found whenever someone searches on "personal development course"? Well then, make sure to Use your Words (personal development course) in your page title, in your keywords, in your meta-description and in your page copy.

This is also why for Search Engine Marketing, content is king. If you have 5 pages on your website, but want your site to be found for 300 very relevant key-phrases, you have a problem. To be found for that many keywords, you need more copy, more relevant content. If you want your website to be found for 300 different phrases, you need to have about 100 pages of unique, relevant, targeted content. This is because ideally you want to focus on only two to three keywords per page of your site. If you try to target a page for many more than three main keywords, each keyword gets "diluted" and it becomes harder for the search engines to know what the page is about.

To get more pages of content....Write about your business. Write about successes your clients have had. Write about why your business is different. Write about your products and services. And when you write content, make sure to optimize each page for the keywords that appear in that content, for the keywords that you want your site to be found for.

Google Base for Real Estate (and more)

2007-04-06T08:37:00.000-04:00

Google Base has been around a while as a place to post just about any kind of information or things for sale (it's Google's answer to eBay!)

Just found this on the Google Blog... they have a special section set up for Realtors and Agents to upload listings to Google Base

I recommend keeping a close eye on what's going with Google Base... results from things in the Base are going to start showing up at the top of the search results page (just like Google Local results do).

If you need any help getting your information up on Google Base, just Ask Joanne, we've done lots of bulk uploads to Google Base and can do it for you, set up an easy-to-use template for you or train you on how to do the whole kit-n-kaboodle yourself.

Quick Tips - Practical Advice about Using Technology

2007-03-30T13:20:00.000-04:00

If you're looking for practical advice on using technology, sign up for the QuickTips Newsletter from John Sarra of CMIT Solutions.

I've been getting John's newsletter for a while and there's always something I can use. The last one was about keyboard shortcuts for MS Outlook.... I love keyboard shortcuts! anything to make my life easier and my time on the computer quicker and more efficient.

How long until my site gets in Google?

2007-03-29T17:00:00.000-04:00

It's a question most new website owners ask. There's a lot of speculation about the Google "sandbox effect" however, there's been no confirmation from Google that such a thing actually exists.

I can say that I see the effect of it, or of "something" whether it exists purposely or not. For sites newly optimized, I usually see a pattern like this:

gets ranked in MSN - 2-3 months
gets ranked in Yahoo - 4-6 months
gets ranked in Google - 8-12 months

It's a pattern I've seen repeated over and over.

What can you do about it? Start off with some Pay-Per-Click campaigns to get some instant visibility for your keywords (this will also give you a chance to analyze which keywords bring you the best return on your investment in terms of leads and conversions).

Make sure you get links to your site from local and niche business directories and other places on the 'net that are relevant to your business.

And then, Be Patient.

Intelligent Search Engine Marketing - Web Metrics and Analytics

2007-03-28T08:57:00.000-04:00

The most intelligent discussions I have heard about measuring the success of a website have involved people who are, or have been, involved in the direct marketing business. I personally know very little about direct marketing, but what I have gleaned from these discussions is that it's all about metrics. Get an idea, determine how you will measure success, do it, measure the results, make changes as needed and do it again.

This is terrific model for measuring the success of a website... what do you want your site to accomplish? More sales leads, more sales, more newsletter signups, what? Implement what you think will accomplish your goals (one change at a time please!) then use a tool like Google Analytics to measure the results. Did your changes work? What else might you do to get a better success rate?

For tips and suggestions on how to get the most from your website, check out Google's Conversion University there are some terrific articles about how to measure success, how to write better copy, how to increase conversions and more.

RegisterFly Terminated by ICANN - DomainTools Blog

2007-03-20T21:05:00.000-04:00

While surfing around the net today, I found the following article on the www.domaintools.com blog.RegisterFly Terminated by ICANN » DomainTools Blog

If your website is registered with RegisterFly, I suggest moving it to another registrar...

Squidoo - Lens of the Year

2007-03-20T17:27:00.000-04:00

Back in May 2006, I wrote a blog post about Squidoo, a really cool tool that allows you to create your own "lens" in to the net with links, lists, pictures, free form text, etc.

Well, lo and behold, one of my lenses: How to Start an Elementary School Chess Club has been nominated as a lens of the year.

So, check it out. If you think it's worth it, please place your vote at Lens of the Year. Last time I checked, my lens was ranked #28! You need to log in or register at Squidoo to be able to vote. There's no fees, they just want a name and email address. Once you're registered, you can even create your own lens(es) about topics near and dear to you!

Small Business Advertising Tips

2007-03-19T20:20:00.000-04:00

I am a big advocate of doing all you can to advertise and promote your business using free and low cost options. When you are first starting out, you often have more time than money. With a little bit of effort, and knowing the right people to ask for help (hint-hint - Ask Joanne!) you can get excellent exposure for your business on the internet, particulary for your local market.

Here's a link to Google that tells a bit about their suggestions for small and local businesses....

FREE Local Advertising by Google

2007-03-13T13:03:00.000-04:00

Google Local Business Center has been around for a while as a way for businesses with (and without) websites to promote/advertise their business for free. The local results come up even above the paid listings when a searcher uses a City, State combination in their search (eg. Internet Marketing Newtown, CT).

But now - it's gotten even better! Not only can you now upload an image (your logo) along with your listing, but you can also enter specialized "attributes" that help define your business.

For example, for a caterer or restaurant, the special attributes include things like: Specialty, Menu, Ambiance, Cuisine, Average Price, Dress Code, Features, and more.

If you don't yet have a Google Local listing, I strongly suggest you get one (Ask Joanne if you need help getting setup). If you have a Google Local listing - update it with your logo and specialty attributes.

AirSet.com - Get Organized by Group

2007-03-12T14:22:00.000-04:00

It seems that lately my posts are all about new groovy stuff I've found... and this one is no exception. I think Basecamp is a fantastic project management and collaboration tool, BUT, my Virtual Assistant, Gloria, just told me about a new tool she found out about from the Virtual Assistant Chamber of Commerce called AirSet.

AirSet is a FREE online organization tool that allows you to arrange your life into "groups." You can define any number of your own groups, but some common ones are Work, Family, Personal, School, Sports, Volunteer, Faith, etc.

Each group has a calendar and a contact list associated with it. There are also lists, tasks, links, file sharing space and even a blog for each group you define. You can invite others to be members of your groups. For example, your spouse and children could be part of the family group so that everyone could see at a glance what the family schedule is. Or if you are collaborating with other professionals on a project, they could be part of your work group, or a special group defined for that particular client.

For me, the VERY best part about AirSet is that it will synchronize with MS Outlook! Now, how cool is THAT?

I'm in the process of learning how to use it with groups - my family, my work groups, etc. I'll let you know what I find out!

Mind Mapping Software

2007-03-08T21:22:00.000-05:00

Have you tried FreeMind, the mind mapping software? It can be used for all kinds of projects, ideas, thoughts, plans, inspirations, etc. After you've done the map, you can export it in any number of file formats. The html version is quick and in outline format. Super easy for sharing information in an understandable manner.

Give FreeMind a try - it's Free.

Recommended for Collaboration - Basecamp

2007-03-08T17:17:00.000-05:00

Have you heard of Basecamp? It's just about the coolest thing since telecommuting! Are you a professional who needs to collaborate around the office or around the world? Then Basecamp is the tool for you.

They offer several levels of service from free/personal plans all the way up to premium plans. Your monthly fee gets you a calendar with task lists and milestones. A To-Do list, a whiteboard for brainstorming, real-time chat with colleagues or clients and a secure place to store and load all the files that are related to each of your projects.

The number of projects you can actively manage is governed by the level of service you have. As is the amount of disk space you have available for active files and archives.

As the jobs I work on get bigger and I need to bring in more professionals (more on our newest venture coming soon....) to handle the workload, Basecamp gives us a virtual office for our mobile web team.

Search Engine Marketing New England

2007-03-07T11:09:00.000-05:00

Went to the very first SEMNE (pronounced Sem-nee) event last night. It was excellent. Got to meet lots of search engine marketers from the New England area as well as hear a terrific presentation by Frederick Marckini, CEO of iProspect.

His presentation was on the Search-Centric future of marketing. Lots of thought provoking information and some great new ideas for using Social Search for marketing as well as the Eternal Life of documents indexed in the search engines.

The next SEMNE event will be in Connecticut on May 2nd will be about Blogging and Search Rankings.

If you're in the area and are involved in any aspect of marketing on the internet, I highly recommend attending.

Google Toolbar Page Rank - Entertainment Only?

2007-03-05T20:01:00.000-05:00

For anyone who has installed the Google Toolbar into their browser and uses the Toolbar Page Rank as a judge of how important a page is, you may want to think again.

I used to think it was very important, and sometimes it can give you the relative merit of a site. However, when I saw my own site's page rank begin to drop, (even though my search engine rankings for my keywords are better than ever) I got worried and started to search. I found the following information on the Search Engine Watch forum as having come straight from Google:

"The PageRank that is displayed in the Google Toolbar is for entertainment purposes only. Due to repeated attempts by hackers to access this data, Google updates the PageRank data very infrequently because is it not secure. On average, the PR that is displayed in the Google Toolbar is several months old. If the toolbar is showing a PR of zero, this is because the user is visiting a new URL that hasn't been updated in the last update. The PR that is displayed by the Google Toolbar is not the same PR that is used to rank the webpage results so there is no need to be concerned if your PR is displayed as zero. If a site is showing up in the search results, it doesn't not have a real PR of zero, the Toolbar is just out of date"

More info on why you shouldn't worry about PageRank from the HighRankings.com Forum

Google Documents - Word Processing and Spreadsheets

2007-03-04T13:36:00.000-05:00

Do you know about Google Documents? They are a combination of programs (word processing and spreadsheets) that allow you to post your documents online for commentary and collaboration (and as with so many of the cool Google tools, it's free.)

The home page for Google Documents is: http://docs.google.com/ and you can use your Google account to log on. Once there you can create documents and spreadsheets that can be edited by other collaborators, commented on by people, published to a web address if you want to share your stuff publically, etc.

When I think about the way work teams are moving - diverse groups of individuals creating small, mobile teams working together on projects. Creating the power of a large company solution without the overhead and bureaucracy of a large company. Able to share and collaborate on documents and spreadsheets with nothing more than an internet connection. Pretty cool!

Long Haul SEO or Algorithm Chasing?

2007-02-26T17:01:00.000-05:00

I read somewhere recently (can't remember where!) that search engine optimizers fall into two basic camps - those that focus on long term strategies to improve site rankings and visibility using well-researched keywords and those that chase the search engines' algorithm changes trying to surf to the top of the rankings by using the latest "sure fire" method.

Recently the "sure fire" method has included link farming - getting any and every link to a website that could be begged, borrowed or stolen - regardless of whether the linking sites had anything remotely to do with one another.

Google states in their webmaster guidelines that they can distinguish between "natural" and "unnatural" links. While I think this might still be wishful thinking (considering the number of sites I find at the top of the Google results that have very obvious link-schemes going on), I believe that the algorithm will triumph and Google will begin dropping sites that are using link schemes down the rankings like stones.

I am in the SEO for the Long Haul camp. I think that over time, a well-designed, well-written, easy-to-use site will always triumph over sites that try to scam their way to the top of the engines.

Free Keyword Research Tools

2007-02-24T10:14:00.000-05:00

While Free Keyword Research tools won't give you all the data that a paid service will give you (detailed competition numbers, effectiveness index numbers, costs-per-click for pay per click campaigns), they can give you good information on whether your top keywords are being used in the search engines and offer lots of good variations of words and phrases.

WordTrackers Free Keyword Research Tool
A new tool introduced just recently
Keyword Discovery's Free Keyword Research Tool
Google's Keyword Sandbox
Includes a very handy tool for finding popular keywords in your existing site copy
SEOBook Keyword Research Tool

As I've said time and again, keyword research should be the very first step in your search engine optimization efforts.

With ANY keyword research tool, you should not take the numbers you get as the gospel truth - the numbers are all relative. Each tool uses a different database of information to come up with it's figures and sometimes the numbers in each tool can differ widely. However, this type of research will give you a baseline of information about your primary keywords that will enable you to find the perfect mix of popularity and competition for the keywords you optimize your website for.

RSS feeds in Outlook

2007-02-22T09:45:00.000-05:00

While doing some research on the ways to get customized RSS content from a variety of sources, I came across IntraVnews. It's an add-in for Microsoft Outlook that lets you subscribe to all kinds of RSS feeds that it then puts into folders in your Outlook Personal folders.

It's free for personal use, $24.95 for a commerical license for 1-5 people in your organization (licenses for more people are also available.)

This is a way to get RSS news feeds without having to visit a website like Bloglines, or Google Reader or any of the other news aggregator services available.

The RSS feeds I subscribe to include: Google's Official Blog, the HighRankings.com forum, Dilbert and the New Yorker cartoon.

SEO Hourly Consulting

2007-02-20T09:30:00.000-05:00

In an effort to be able to assist individuals and businesses with all levels of budgets, we've just introduced hourly phone consulting for Search Engine Optimization.

This can be a one on one call or a conference call with all the members of your web team. We will review the top three things you can do to improve your website's search engine rankings and visibility for your primary keyphrases.

We've also just posted some of our client results and successes.

10 Signs That Your SEO Is a Quack

2007-02-19T08:41:00.000-05:00

By Jill Whalen (reprinted with permission)

There are so many SEO/SEM firms cropping up that talk a good game but don't deliver results. This is in part because there's so much information that is freely available about search engine optimization. On the surface, SEO sounds easy -- and it really is -- once you've had a number of sites to experiment with. What's even easier than SEO, however, is discussing SEO as if you know what you're actually doing (when you don’t)!

Here are 10 signs to watch out for that may very well indicate that your potential SEO is a quack. Please note that one of these individually may not be bad, but if you notice more than 2 or 3 of these when speaking with any SEO company, you may just want to head for the hills!

1. Your SEO company talks about Meta tags and Google PageRank (PR) as if they are the magic bullet to high rankings.

For the most part, there's no reason to even bring up the keyword Meta tag nor toolbar PR in a discussion about what needs to be done to get better search engine exposure for your site. Both of them are issues that quack SEO companies will talk about because they actually believe they are the key to SEO success. They are not. I've discussed in previous articles the Meta keyword tag’s lack of importance, so I won't go into that again here. In regards to PageRank, increasing the little green bar graph's number should never be the ultimate goal of a professional SEO campaign. A good campaign will automatically increase your real and true PageRank (as measured by Google) without your specifically setting out to increasing it on your own.
Since PR doesn't bring you traffic and sales (nor rankings), increasing it should not ever be the main goal of your campaign. This fact is of course lost on SEO quacks.

2. Your SEO company's site (or those of their clients) has the same Title tags on every page. Sounds crazy I know, but I've seen this more than once!

I once got a client who had previously used a very major SEO company that most people have heard of. They had been with this firm for a whole year, and yet the Title tags on every page of their site were all the same (the name of the company). Since Title tags are probably the most important (and easiest) thing to change on a site, any SEO company that can't do this one basic thing for their own site or their clients’ is most definitely a quack!

3. Your SEO company talks only about optimizing for the "long tail."

Now, don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with long-tail keyword phrases, as they can bring a lot of traffic when all is said and done. But you don't need an SEO company if those are the only phrases you're interested in -- you can do it yourself just by writing articles. Your SEO company should not be afraid to optimize for the actual keyword phrases that most people would use at the engines to find your site. Yeah, it's gonna take time and money to go after the most competitive keyphrases, but there's usually a happy medium. Most sites have plenty of phrases that are somewhere between long tail and highly competitive. Those are the ones you definitely want to target.

4. Your SEO company tells you it's ALL about links (or ALL about content).

SEO isn't ALL about anything. It's about lots of things all added together to make the perfect combination for your site. A linking campaign alone will never be as effective if you neglect your on-page content, and vice versa. Be sure that your SEO company looks at your site from all angles and makes sure all your bases are covered. Otherwise, they're probably a quack!

5. Your SEO company tells you that you need a linking campaign even though you already have tons of links and are a well-established popular site in your niche.

Not every site needs every SEO service out there. Just becauseyour SEO company likes to sell link-building doesn't mean you actually need it for your site. Why should you pay for something you don't need? The same thing goes for sites that already have great, well-written, optimized content. If you've got that, perhaps you just need a linking campaign to help boost your traffic and sales. Don't allow an SEO quack to fix what isn't actually broken.

6. Your SEO company is almost surely 99% quackish if they tell you that they can rank your brand-new site in Google for keywords that will bring you traffic within a few months.

In fact, if they claim they can do it in less than 9 months, they’re either inexperienced or lying. Google has an aging delay that is most certainly related to the age of the site, as well as a certain trust factor. It is only the very rare and wonderful site that can get around this delay. But if your site is like most, you're going to have to look to the long term for your Google results, regardless of what the quacks might try to convince you of.

7. Your SEO company never mentions that they may very well need to redo your site architecture so that your important pages are prominently featured within your site navigation.

In this case it's very possible you're dealing with an inexperienced, quack SEO. This is usually something that is not a quick fix, so most quacks are reluctant to discuss it with you (if they even know it's important). But if your site architecture is not search-engine-ready, everything else you do will have much less impact.

8. Your SEO company can't provide you with any quality references.

This one pretty much goes without saying, but do be sure to get references, and do be sure to actually call them. Yeah, a reference may very well turn out to be their cousin, but you should be able to get some feel for the company you're choosing if you can at least talk to some references.

9. Your SEO company tells you that you have to have a DMOZ listing or your site will never be able to get high rankings.

Sure, a DMOZ listing is great, but it's a link just like any other. Submit and forget about it. If you don't get in, it's no big deal -- there are plenty of other links you can get instead.

10. Your SEO company's site mentions that they'll get you high rankings in AltaVista, Fast, Inktomi, Lycos, Excite, HotBot and the like. If it does, you are 100% positively dealing with a quack! 'Nuff said!

Jill Whalen of High Rankings® is an internationally recognized search engine optimization consultant and host of the free weekly High Rankings® Advisor search engine marketing newsletter. Jill's handbook, "The Nitty-gritty of Writing for the Search Engines" teaches business owners how and where to place relevant keyword phrases on their Web sites so that they make sense to users and gain high rankings in the major search engines.

Jill specializes in search engine optimization, SEO consultations, site analysis reports, SEM seminars and is the co-founder of Search Engine Marketing New England (SEMNE) a local networking organization.

Internet Marketing 101 - Find Keywords!

2007-02-14T09:31:00.000-05:00

The very first step any business should take when trying to improve search engine rankings is keyword research.

Start with identifying the keywords that you want your site to rank well for in the search engines. Make this list as broad as you can, and do not limit it to single words - think about phrases people might use when they are ready to buy your products or services.

Once you have your list of words, research those words for popularity, competition, etc. by using one of the free (or paid) keyword research services.

My favorite is KeywordDiscovery.com Keyword Research Tool

Keyword Discovery offers an incredible amount of information about search terms, trends, and competition. Also - and this is important - keyword research gives you variations on words and phrases that people are searching on that you may never have thought of!

After doing your research you should have an even larger list of keywords than when you started. The next step is to analyze your site, keyword popularity and competition and make some decisions on which words you want to target your site for.

Search Engine Marketing New England

2007-02-07T08:19:00.000-05:00

If you're located in the New England area, I highly recommend checking out Jill Whalen's latest venture, SEMNE.org. From the mission statement:

SEMNE’s mission is to provide networking and educational opportunities for search marketers in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine, while having a little fun along the way.

I have been a long time subscriber of Jill's High Rankings newsletter - chock full of useful, down-to-earth, no-hype information about how to get better search engine rankings. I joined SEMNE.org as soon as I saw the announcement about it.

Will Google's Real Inbound Link Stats Please Stand Up?

2007-02-06T07:52:00.000-05:00

For anyone interested in their website's rankings in Google, I am sure you've heard about working to get incoming links to your site - links from other relevant sites to yours is one of the primary ways that Google and other search engines determine how important your site is.

For a long while now the link: operator in the search field (eg. link:www.askjoanne.com) has not shown "real" results of Google recognized links.

Today on the Official Google Blog, I saw this post: Who links to your site? Google has added a section to Google Webmaster Tools That shows you exactly how many sites are linking to yours and when the link was last found.

To give you an example of the difference in the two tools, if I type link:www.askjoanne.com into the Google search bar, the results return 11 inbound links to my site. When I check out my site in the Webmaster Tools link area, it shows 242 inbounc links to my site.

So, if you want to know Google's real inbound link stats on your website, checkout the webmaster tools.

Blogging for fun and profit

2007-02-05T08:52:00.000-05:00

The other day I wrote briefly about a book I got from the library called Blog Marketing. Well, I've finished reading it and am about to start again! It's not only about how and why to start your own business blog, but it's also about how blogging is changing the face of web publishing. Blogging opens conversations with your clients and customers, it allows you to quickly find out what people are saying in the blogosphere about you, your company and your products.

And besides all that, it's fun and interesting and ever changing. You can "monetize" your blog by running ads on it, or making recommendations of books, products or services.

Try it, you might like it. I recommend www.blogger.com as the fastest and easiest way to get started.

Delicious Tags influence SEO?

2007-02-02T16:42:00.000-05:00

Do tags from deli.cio.us make a difference in a website's rankings? To be perfectly honest, I don't know. Do I suspect that it might make a difference, yes. Why? Because it's all about trust - and there is a certain trust value in going to a site that's been linked to by thousands of people. Even if it turns out not to be the right place for me, there must be some value in the fact that so many people chose to bookmark a site. I find that the really fun stuff on the web can easily be found by doing a search on deli.cio.us.

And anyway, having a personal bookmark database at your beck and call from any computer on the web, is a pretty handy way to store the sites you'd like to return to.

Blog Marketing and The Long Tail

2007-02-01T08:13:00.000-05:00

In a world of fast information on the internet, does anyone read business books anymore? I rarely do, but this week I was at the library looking on the New Non-Fiction shelf and I found these two books: Blog Marketing and The Long Tail.

What did I like about them? Well, Blog Marketing encouraged me to get back to blogging - I had been very enthused in the beginning, but then felt that I ran out of things to say. And sometimes that is true, but Jeremy Wright suggests blogging or "cruising" blog posts for about 15 minutes a day and that helped me to realize that it doesn't have to be a big deal "new job" but that it can just be something I do for short periods of time each day to keep the flow going.

The Long Tail is a very interesting book about how the internet is changing the face of business. It used to be that everyone tried to capture the "hits" - sell the most of that "everyone" wanted to buy. But now with the ease of storing and indexing digital media, businesses are finding that the long tail... the non-hits are the ones that consistently continue to sell even after the hits have come and gone. It's about keeping more information available to people because not everyone wants to buy the hits.

Anyway, that's my blog-post for the day... a couple of good internet business books I found while browsing through the library this week.

Link Building Strategies

2007-01-31T15:19:00.000-05:00

Gone are the days of the link farm - where indiscrimate linking between any site would help give sites a boost in the search engine rankings.

As always, the goal of the search engines is to provide relevant results. Filtering non-relevant links, or as Google calls them "unnatural links" is one way that the search engine algorithms are making sure that the top search results are relevant.

When building links - think first of how you do your networking currently. With your Chamber of Commerce, with your professional association, with people and businesses that are a natural fit or are related to yours. This is the way you should approach link building too.

Approach sites and businesses that are closely related to yours by industry, business type and or location. Ask them to link to your website.

Linking, like networking, is an on-going practice. Keep your Eyes on the Web™ and watch for opportunities.

New Kid on the eMail Marketing Block

2006-08-05T11:32:00.000-04:00

http://www.intellicontact.com/

Just got a referral to this group from a colleague. I haven't completely checked it out yet, but the pricing looks good, and it has a neat feature of sequential autoresponder capability. Many email marketing programs do not include this.

Why is it important? It's an easy way to send out a series of messages. Messages that can help move people from being strangers to friends to customers.

More on this soon as I investigate all the other features. They offer a 15 day free trial.

Do You Squidoo?

2006-05-25T20:58:00.000-04:00

Have you heard of Squidoo?

Squidoo is like a search portal where you can find handbuilt "lenses" on an endless number of topics. Their tag-line is "everyone's and expert on something" and the lenses prove it. If you're searching for something on the net, the lenses can give you a good starting place for your research with links to other websites, practical advice from lensmasters, links to products, news feeds, maps and more.

You can join thousands of people making their own "lenses" on their favorite stuff and ideas. It's fast, fun and free.

I have created about 20 lenses so far and the list is growing! If you have a topic you know alot about, or are very interested in and willing to do some research - think about creating a lens filled with relevant information and make the internet a friendlier place to search.

If you need help getting set up, please feel free to contact me.

Stamps from your computer

2006-05-25T19:37:00.000-04:00

Have you heard of Stamps.com? I just got a call from them about a one month free trial, so I decided to give it a try. You download some software, verify your printer and then you can print postage right from your printer onto the envelopes you are mailing. They'll even send you a free digital postage meter for trying the service.

I used it for the first time today. Very easy to download and install. Setting up the printer was a breeze. They even input the zip+4 for an address I only had the regular zip for.

Give it a try... imagine never having to go to the postoffice to send your mail or never running out of stamps.

Ask Joanne's eNewsletter Archives

2006-05-23T19:47:00.000-04:00

I use Dada Mail for my newsletters - it's an open source program that you can download a free version of. It comes pre-installed with my webhosting at Westhost.

Here is an archive of recent past newsletters: