Online Marketing Infographic
Posted by Daren in internet marketing, PPC, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, small business internet marketing, social media on March 27, 2011
Thanks to Unbounce.com for the freedom to embed this great infographic that covers so much of online marketing including SEO, PPC, social media marketing, and more:
Business Blogging Tips
Posted by Daren in blogging, small business internet marketing, social media on March 24, 2011
Here’s a great article on Mashable about business blogging, with brief words of advice from different successful bloggers.
Interestingly, two of them suggested that you might want to write for other blogs versus starting your own. This allows you to write- which any prospective blogger obviously wants to do- without the need for the commitment and the pressure that comes from doing your own blog.
Several of the others hit on various aspects of passion- the need to be an expert, adding real value, the need for other networking, solving real problems of real readers, writing for an extended period of time with no payback in readership (the two month rule) and tracking down other related experts for their input.
i won’t tell you how many of their tips I have broken (and am breaking) but I think you will find their input useful in your blogging life.
11 Pro Tips for Better Business Blogging
Blogging isn’t easy — and certainly not for individuals who don’t have the capacity or desire to commit their minds and time to a long-term cause. In an age where everyone and their mother has access to Blogger, Tumblr, Posterous or other flavor-of-the-year services, getting your blog to be well-trafficked, highly syndicated and massively popular is no easy task.
Google Panda Survival Tips
Posted by Daren in google, Search Engine Optimization, search engines, SEO, small business internet marketing on March 20, 2011
We, like many other internet marketers and small businesses that rely on online traffic are still trying to figure out what has happened and what is going to happen to our search results as a result of the February 24 Google update.
I’ve been following one of our U.S. client’s rankings via a proxy so I can see the results as they show up in the business location. This is critical since up here in Canada where I’m located they are ranking in the top 3 for all three keywords we are optimizing them for. And they did have similar rankings in their location. However, even before the Panda update we saw some slippage- nothing major, just a few spots- and then a few more spots with Panda.
Now, it wasn’t a cataclysmic slide. However, when someone is paying you to promote their site and they go backwards in the serps, well, it ain’t a happy day.
What is especially concerning to us is that two blogs we built on our own keyword based domains, have climbed steadily and now outrank our client’s site! Yet we’ve done almost nothing to boost those sites except build them and write original content on the pages.
Our blogs are WordPress, and the client’s site is inside a proprietary, industry specific portal, which was awful to try to optimize for SEO. so our conclusion at this point is that the problems our client’s site is having may be as much due to its site structure as to any change in the algorithm. Unfortunately, they are locked into a contract for another year or so, at which point I hope I can convince them to move to WordPress!
Anyway, amidst all the random speculation about the update online, I found a pretty good article from Mark Nunney on the Wordtracker website about doing soem analysis of your U.S. search results to try to anticipate how your searches in other countries will be affected once the rollout of the update goes global.
Google Panda update survival guide | Wordtracker Read the rest of this entry »
Pure Spam
Just got an email about the exciting book “Transportation, Logistics and the Law” 2nd Edition.
According to the email, “
Based on the author’s 50 years of experience, this is the only text covering the laws, regulations and court decisions governing transportation and logistics under one cover.”
Wow- pretty compelling eh? It gets better:
“What does it cover?
1. Laws and regulations affecting shippers and carriers in a “de-regulated environment”
2. Federal regulations governing brokers and surface freight forwarders and how they are legally different from brokers
3. Laws and Treaties affecting air and ocean carriers, ocean freight forwarders and NVOCC’s
4. Shippers and carriers duties and exposures to lawsuits
5. Bills of lading and individually negotiated contracts
6. Terms of sale, FOB origin and destination and Incoterms
7. Responsibility for freight charges, the 180 day rule, and the 18 month statute
8. Loss and damage claims, limitations of liability, and an overview of claims filing
9. Warsaw Convention and Carriage of Goods by Sea Act (COGSA)
10. Cargo insurance and cargo liability insurance”
The most interesting part of the whole email was at the bottom:
“You’re receiving this email because you may be interested in this book.”
So, just to be clear, I’m receiving this email because you think I may be one of the seven people in the world who might actually be interested in the book? I hate to break it to you, but I’m not what you would consider your ideal lead for this topic. Read the rest of this entry »
Post Panda Link Building
Posted by Daren in google, Search Engine Optimization, search engines, SEO on March 13, 2011
Like many others involved in SEO, I have been reading stacks of articles and forums and blogs trying to make sense of the Google changes of late February. There are conflicting reports on what exactly changed, though it is clear that the target was low quality content. The other thing that seems clear is that larget business and media sites are benefiting.
However, what isn’t so clear is what smaller businesses and website owners should be changing in response to the update. That’s because for every seeming observation of “this is what Google is doing” there are exceptions: some sites with crappy content still seem to rank high; some sites (many sites actually) with “low quality links” are still doing fine. One of the most actionable bits of content I’ve come across was this comment on a Search Engine Watch blog post from a Jeff Snyder. Bottom line: Get your original content out there in any way you can. Good tip. Thanks Jeff.
Google Panda Update: Say Goodbye to Low-Quality Link Building – Search Engine Watch (SEW) Read the rest of this entry »
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