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  • 5 For Friday — Links, Stories & Posts For Your Weekend

    How Small Businesses Can Use Google Plus — Expand2Web

    While Facebook is an excellent resource for small business social media engagement, Google+ is an up-and-comer that as of yet doesn’t allow business profiles. However, hope is on the way: winter of 2011 will yield the first allowed G+ commercial accounts, so if you’re a media-savvy business owner now’s the time to start formulating your strategy. Expand2Web’s Daniela Baker has the scoop on what you should be thinking about in the upcoming months to optimize your establishment’s chances on Google’s mean streets.

    Friday Five: Optimizing Content & Visibility with SlideShare — Edelman Digital

    In their own Friday Five tradition, the wizards at Edelman share their tips & tricks for using SlideShare, a cutting-edge “YouTube for documents” that offers a platform for information sharing and discussion.

    Facebook Debuts Smart Lists: Is Google+ in Trouble? — Search Engine Journal

    The G+/FB war continues with Facebook’s institution of “smart lists,” algorithmic sorting that automatically categorizes one’s friends into set groups. In addition to introducing the automatic methods of sorting, the ‘book is also pushing a lesser-known feature that allows one to manually separate out groups for maximum ease of social sharing. Combined with the updated privacy settings of last week, seems like Facebook is gearing up to address Google+’s emphasis on user privacy and share filtering.

    Why not updating your Core, Themes & Plugins is Stupid — Yoast

    We’re all guilty of it: when the upgrade alert appears on anything from our music players to website modules, it’s tempting to say “not now” and ignore the problem in favor of more immediate concerns. Joost de Valk has a blog up at Yoast warning of the perils of ignoring vital core, theme and plugin updates.

    50 Can’t-Fail Techniques for Finding Great Blog Topics — Copyblogger

    Finding it hard to crank out blog after blog to keep your site full of fresh content? Use these fifty useful prompts to generate dynamic, juicy topics that will keep the entries coming.

  • Google Absorbs Zagat in Their Quest for World Domination

    Google has had a busy year. The launch of “Facebook killer” Google+ surely had many of their available hands busy, but apparently not too busy to keep working on acquisitions: It was announced today that Google has purchased Zagat, the well-known publisher of restaurant and business ratings.

    Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Local, Maps and Location Services for Google, shared in a Google blog post that she was “thrilled” to announce the acquisition. She says: “Moving forward, Zagat will be a cornerstone of our local offering—delighting people with their impressive array of reviews, ratings and insights, while enabling people everywhere to find extraordinary (and ordinary) experiences around the corner and around the world.”

    Mayer also mentions that Google search and Google Maps will now be integrated into Zagat, making it an even more powerful tool.

    Google clearly hopes to capitalize on the expertise of Zagat, which has been in the business of gathering and processing user-generated content for 32 years, long before Yelp! (and even the internet itself). Google has already tried to purchase Yelp! in the past, but this seems like a better bet by far, as Zagat carries the reputation of their name and pedigree and seem like a better match for what Google wants to achieve.

    If Google was to consider the same route OpenTable is promoting and combine it with Zagat, they could be looking at one of the most powerful user generated tools out there — and one sure to elicit a powerful reaction from users. Yelp! allows me to look up user ratings and find an address on a restaurant, but what if I could also make a reservation from my phone, without having to wait on hold on a busy Friday night? It’s genius, and not only that, it’s what tech-savvy users are coming to expect.

    What do you expect from Google’s latest acquisition? Do you think that Zagat will become bigger and better thanks to this buyout?

     

  • 3 PPC Keyword Research Strategies to Break Free From Organic

    ppc keyword research strategies
    Battle for the Planets? The Difference is more Power Rangers.

    Organic and paid search are both, at the core, about the search queries. These queries are, of course, sought by optimizing for or bidding on certain keywords. These keywords, found using keyword research tools such as Google’s or Wordstream’s and then turned into a comprehensive list using your favorite keyword expansion tool.

    Organic keyword research focuses on traffic, looking for quality descriptors for the products, service, or content offered to the visitor. These descriptors are filtered for the search phrases that are the best fitting and for “low-hanging fruit,” ones with low competition and high value to the business.

    However, strategies for paid research must be different, because the mediums are used in a different way. In addition to search traffic, competition and metrics that might be overlooked or generalized, like average CPC, must be included in the research. Furthermore, these three additional discovery strategies can help create a more robust keyword profile.

    Three Keyword Discovery Strategies

    General

    Unlike in organic search, general keywords play a central role. Organic keywords, especially for businesses, tend to be of the general pattern *geographic area* *keyword*. However, because a paid search campaign can geotarget its ads, any search using the non-geomodified keyword from the targeted area would also trigger the ad. Thus, someone in Montana searching {window cleaner} will see ads targeted to Montana Window Cleaner.

    General keywords focusing on the domain name and business name are also useful for brand marketing. There is a bit of a debate over whether PPC clicks cannibalize organic clicks for this kind of keyword. A few theories and strategies have arisen, with of course the best answer being “What’s best for you,” though problems can arise with attribution.

    Long-Tail

    Long-tail keywords, searches like {cost of criminal lawyer} or {home security free installation}, while relatively low traffic, are specific searches that strengthen the depth of the research. This way, deep searches you wouldn’t optimize for organic search can be explored and taken advantage of. These deep searches are largely of two types, researching and buying. Phrases like {cost of …}, {buy …},  or client-specific long-tail terms like car models can be used to serve ads leveraging the search intent of the viewer.

    Match Types

    The three match types are Broad, [Exact], and “Phrase.” These three types are even more important to the research than for organic search, as it can affect CPC.

    Broad keywords would trigger on longer-tail searches, synonyms, common misspellings, and word reversals. The broad keyword Criminal Lawyer would show ads on the queries {criminal law}, {attorney for criminal case}, or {criminal lawyer new orleans}.

    To save on CPC, [Exact] keywords will run ads on the keywords only in that order, so [criminal lawyer] would trigger on the searches {cost of criminal lawyer} but not {lawyer for criminal case}.

    “Phrase” Keywords display ads solely on the phrase entered. The keyword “criminal lawyer new orleans” would show solely on that term, and none others. This one is less necessary for PPC research.

    Facebook and Display

    The final addendum for any PPC keyword research is that you have to take into account for display ads, whether through Adsense or social media platforms. These ads, though not for paid search, are the bread and butter for retargeting and remarketing or brand awareness. Approaching this match types as keywords may not yield much, but treating broad keywords as categories or thinking laterally and approaching the keywords from demographics and related interests could solidify a bland targeting spectrum.

    With the “reimagining” of Keyword Research strategies focused around these three concepts (and one quick point), your ROI will skyrocket from the CTR and quality score increases that come with a well-curated keyword list. What tricks have you used to get the most out of your keywords?

  • 5 For Friday — Links, Stories & Posts For Your Weekend

    Rethinking Deals After Facebook and Yelp Pullbacks — BIA/Kelsey

    Hot on the heels of the Facebook and Yelp deal eliminations, Peter Krasilovsky offers this nuanced and insightful view of the situation — as well as the suggestion that the trend may have already peaked.

    Twitter, YouTube, Facebook And Foursquare: Social Media Marketing By The Numbers [INFOGRAPHIC] — Media Bistro AllTwitter

    This Mashable infographic displays the numbers on some of the most successful social media marketing campaigns, from clicks and retweets to subscribers and fans.

    9 Reasons Why Your Content Is Not Shared on Social Networks: New Research — Social Media Examiner

    Having trouble getting your content to stick out in a tumultuous sea of data? Interested in getting it out there via the social sphere, or in understanding why some pieces get shared but not others? Phil Mershon of Social Media Examiner is on the case with this handy list of nine reasons why your audience may not be publicizing your product and what to do about it.

    Optimize The Google +1 Button — Blind Five Year Old

    After Google’s rehaul of the +1 button for increased shareability on Google+, it seems like a logical conclusion that the feature will now be more or less a Like button in functionality (if not in form). AJ Kohn of Blind Five Year Old leads the charge in optimization endeavors using this new feature on a self-hosted WordPress blog with an eye on speed, placement, snippet richness and more.

    Condensing & Repositioning SEO Copy with Jquery Sliders — Graywolf’s SEO

    Breaking content up into digestible chunks that are still content-rich and won’t penalize your optimization or conversion rates is as easy as pie with Michael Gray’s guide to Jquery sliders.

  • Google-Groupon Faceoff: Google Daily Deals Enter The Arena As Other Social Media Backs Off

    Just four months after jumping into the daily deals pool, Facebook abandoned its efforts with regard to small business space (at least those not related to check-in services). Given that the business in question had to have a Facebook profile and only about 15% of the average business’ fans are located in the same city as the business itself, it makes sense that the social media giant would turn its focus toward more profitable venues — eliminating its Groupon competitor while reducing its lame-duck Foursquare competitor to a sideline project. Hot on the heels of this news, however, comes the announcement from local-focused entity Yelp that their daily deal program will be severely scaled back, and that “we’ll continue to email out any amazing Deals we find; rest assured when it comes to quality vs quantity, we’ll choose quality every time.”

    Well, there are worse places to get your deals.
    Well, there are worse places to get your deals.

    While Yelp isn’t on the same scale as the ‘book as far as user base or diversification of services, it is by nature a very local presence, making the small-biz deal model a seemingly natural fit. However, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman has stated concerns with the “deep discount” approach that has provided an extremely negative experience for many small-scale businesses, leaving nobody happy in the end via use of an unsustainable model — albeit one with considerable consumer response. However, despite the reputational backlash growing from the business end, Groupon has reported record profits and its name has even been bandied about as the fastest-growing company ever. While long-term results are as of yet unproven and more merchant-friendly policies seem inevitably necessary to keep the brand afloat, it’s certainly hard to argue with the numbers at the moment.

    So why, with other social web presences getting washed out of the pool by Groupon’s leviathan-scale belly flop, is Google dipping a toe in? The search behemoth has established a deals program in Portland, OR and seems to be looking to expand, given its recent display of a New York-based deal on admission to the Museum of Natural History. I guess the saying goes that if you can’t beat ’em, attempt to acquire them for $6 billion and if that doesn’t work, well, go back to trying to beat them.

    Part of this is almost certainly to do with timing, as Groupon recently filed for an IPO that could happen as soon as next month, launching it as a publicly-traded company and opening up an entire new world of earning potential. Its unprecedented fast-track growth also offers significant incentive to mount a counter-campaign and nip the competition in the bud before it grows to Death Star-like proportions. El Goog is facing an uphill battle, given that it’s moving against some pretty entrenched competitors — but at the company’s current scale it wouldn’t have much trouble deploying a nuclear bomb to swat a fly. There’s no clear path to adoption for users (certainly nothing as convenient and reliable as an email plunking into one’s mailbox every morning) and no real incentive to sign on when faced with the plethora of other, more popular options, at least for the moment. However, the sheer number of eyeballs (particularly if location-targeted deals are to be featured on Google’s famously minimalist home page) is a force to be reckoned with in and of itself. (In fact, a Piper Jaffray analyst estimated the Nexus One placement on the Google home page to be worth between $4 and $5 million if it were a bought-and-paid-for ad.)

    The Google brand, for better or for worse, has a lot of leverage with consumers and products that gain popularity tend to stick around for the long haul. The company also seems to have wider ambitions with its deal models, tying the Offers brand up with Google Wallet and check-ins, as well as developing Google Offer ads and coupons that can be displayed along regular PPC content. While Groupon is currently mobile-accessible, the all-in-one convenience of Google Wallet could be a strong selling point to those who want all their resources and grabs in one place. It’s clear that with the resources at their fingertips the success of Google’s deals platform isn’t contingent simply upon the “daily deals” Groupon-like aspect; however, it remains to be seen whether the attempt at diversification will pay off or Groupon’s 115 million users will stay true to the service that’s provided staggering discounts for its duration as an entity.

  • Savvy Online Business Builders: The New Snake Oil Salesmen

    A Look at the Growing Trend of Internet Marketing Con-men

    We’ve all seen these people at conferences, pimping out their extra shiny business cards and talking like late-night infomercials – the online business strategists and social media experts. They claim to have the secrets to creating a successful online brand and promise “more profitable business now” if only you are willing to hear the pitch. They use buzz words like “online reputation score” and “viral marketing” to excite business owners into trusting their expertise and ultimately signing up for expensive year long contracts but never promise actual results.

    I hate these type of people.

    They prey on ignorance, offering fly-by-night schemes which promise efficient ways to generate more revenue at a low-cost for small businesses. Of course that low-cost is for the online expert’s one-size fits all advice.

    Advice that seems to always involve action plans centered around mediums that have no measurable results *cough* Twitter *cough*. These experts rarely provide their clients’ with monthly performance reports – just monthly invoices. And clients would be hard pressed to get details on how that “low-cost” investment has translated into online business.

    Who should you trust with your web presence? I’ve got a few questions you should ask before you sign on the dotted line.

    Top 5 Questions To Ask An Online Expert To Avoid A Scam*

    1. What makes you an expert?
    2. Do you have experience in my industry?
    3. Can I see some examples of your success stories?
    4. What should I expect in terms of results? In what timeframe?
    5. How do you measure your success?

    Be sure to remember question #5 – online business experts who fail to measure qualified results, such as # of leads, improved rankings, or increase in traffic, are to be avoided.

    If they can’t prove their worth with data, they aren’t worth hiring.

    In the end, someone who promises to rapidly grow your business with inspirational coaching and Twitter spamming is probably not an expert. So when you are looking for help with your web presence, find someone who sets quantifiable goals to measure success. An Internet expert should not be determined by how convincing his words are, but rather how his contribution to your business generated revenue and results.

    *Adapted from Google‘s useful questions to ask an SEO

  • Search Influence Named to Inc. 500 List — Get the Scoop!

    As we’ve announced, Search Influence was recently included on the 2011 Inc. 500 list of the fastest-growing private companies, and we couldn’t be prouder!Silicon Bayou News was nice enough to give us an in-depth writeup, and you can read it right here! We also get a shoutout in their recent week in review column.

  • 5 For Friday — Links, Stories & Posts For Your Weekend

    Top 10 Actually Useful Tweets about Hurricane Irene — Social Times

    While Twitter by its very nature lends itself to split-second buzz and instant information sharing, sometimes that buzz is neither constructive nor informative. If you’re in the predicted path of Hurricane Irene, here’s a collection of up-to-the-minute resources (in tweet form, no less) with a wide variety of useful information with regard to pet care, keeping track of precious possessions and the locations of local resources and shelters. Keep dry and stay safe, folks — and make sure all your bases are covered with these useful resources.

    Facebook’s Massive Kitchen Sink Update: Photo Tag Approvals And So Much More — TechCrunch

    The long national nightmare is over and the ‘book has finally implemented something that users have been calling for since its inception: users are now allowed to approve photo tags before updates are posted to said users’ profiles. This is just one part of Facebook’s kitchen-sink approach to “Mak[ing] It Easier to Share with Who You Want,” a new suite a features that pushes a common-sense approach to privacy via explicitly displaying whether posted statuses, pictures, et cetera are public or visible at varying levels of the users’ friends. Additionally, Facebook Places has been all but eliminated, with a lack of emphasis on Foursquare-esque checkin services and more attention given to location-based deals.

    Google+ Now Lets You Ignore or Block People — Search Engine Watch

    Social networks of all stripes are revamping their security policies this week as Google+ announces the new capability for users to ignore or block people. Ignoring will render all of the ignorer’s posts, notifications and Circles activity invisible to the ignorer without notification; blocking takes it a step further by removing the person from your extended circles and preventing interactions between the two of you via post. Additionally, it’s also now possible to see all photos one has been tagged in via one link, as well as a handful of other minor updates.

    UK to Twitter, Facebook & RIM: We Won’t Ban Social Media — Mashable

    With the buzz around social media revolution at an all-time high thanks to the still-ongoing events of the Arab Spring and other political upheavals such as the London riots, many are speculating that social media crackdowns are in the future for many. However, British officials are making it clear that they will not take the path of censorship.

    Search Google Maps By Talking — Search Engine Roundtable

    Google has announced that voice search is coming to Google Maps. Users will now be able to get directions by speaking their location and destination into their phones. As someone who tends to get lost often and is all too guilty of frantically mobile-mapping in the car, this is going to be very useful for the mobile user base — safer, quicker and more effective than juggling phone and steering wheel.

    And as a bonus link…

    In case you didn’t hear our big news, here’s the NOLA.com piece on Search Influence being named in the Inc. Top 500. So nice we had to say it twice! Congratulations to the other

  • $500 million Google Pharmacy Ad Probe Settlement Should Have Little Effect

    Google Pharmacy Ad Probe
    Shutting down the ability for these sites to advertise online…

    As expected from page 21 of the May 10 quarterly report to the SEC, Google will pay for a Department of Justice investigation into the use of American ad space for illegal Canadian pharmaceuticals. Finding that from 2003 to 2009, Google “both allowed and helped” Canadian pharmacies that tried to sell to US patients, this DOJ settlement avoids criminal prosecution. It’s also one of the largest forfeitures in US history, according to Rhode Island U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha. Crimaldi argues that Google may see long-term reputation damage from the case, which butts heads with the mantra of “Don’t be Evil.”

    But is this backlash really going on? Google’s stock price was up $4.47 (.86%) on the day, despite Crimaldi’s piece coming out at 8am yesterday. Crimaldi predicted this by mentioning its miniscule amount compared to Google’s cash on hand; but not only this, the money has been paid for already. Google already mentioned it almost a year ago. The fallout for this may have already rippled the zeitgeist — May 10 began a 6-day slump, though not the nadir of a 3-month losing streak starting in April. Making comparisons even harder is the 5-day selloff that was likely a direct commentary on Standard and Poor’s downgrade of the company’s shares to “Sell.” S&P rated the stock a “Hold” yesterday, basically saying “the price is right.” Similarly, Robert W. Baird & Co. sees verticals like YouTube as undervalued, and sees the stock outperforming the market, even growing to $650 a share.

    Three salient points arise from this story. First, there is a lot of trust in Google. The business world sees one of the main thrusts of European antitrust investigation as a boon to the company: the vertical integration Google has enacted. Secondly, Google isn’t the Dad and Dad store it was, even as recently as last decade. Google’s revenue has exploded by 33% over the past fiscal year, in no small part due to the Adsense/Admeld deal. Finally, Google has often toed the line of what is or isn’t legal — for a less objectionable example, look at Google’s reticence to Chinese censorship laws.

    Google Pharmacy Ad Probe Lawyer
    Peter F. Neronha, sending "a clear message to… Google and to others that contribute to America's pill problem that they will be held to account."

    Most importantly is that this has already been planned for and dealt with. The submitted Form 10-Q says:

    In May 2011, in connection with a potential resolution of an investigation by the United States Department of Justice into the use of Google advertising by certain advertisers, we accrued $500 million for the three month period ended March 31, 2011. Although we cannot predict the ultimate outcome of this matter, we believe it will not have a material adverse effect on our business, consolidated financial position, results of operations, or cash flows.”

     

    Google still allows American pharmacies and pharmaceutical companies to advertise on Adwords and Adsense, though under much stricter rules. Clearly, neither Google nor its handlers are concerned about this, and neither should anyone with a vested interest in the company.

  • Influencer Profile: Jeff Ramos

    Search Influence Internet Marketing Associate Jeff RamosOriginally from the New Orleans area, Internet Marketing Associate Jeff Ramos lived in Atlanta for 7 years before taking a job at a high school in San Francisco coaching the Varsity Boys Soccer Team. He stayed in San Francisco for about a year before moving to Lake Tahoe and working for Heavenly Ski Resort. After dealing with 600 feet of snow, he decided that it wasn’t the place for him and moved back to his hometown — not to mention warmer weather. He’s loving every second of being in the city again and eating the great food New Orleans has to offer. His favorite foods here are shrimp po’boys (which he usually has about 4 a week) and crawfish.

    Tell us about yourself! Where’d you go to school? Are you a NOLA resident originally?

    I recently moved back after a little over a year in California. I spent this past winter in Lake Tahoe skiing and loved every second of it but I missed my family and had to be closer to home. I grew up in New Orleans and am glad to call it home again. I moved to Atlanta when I was a teenager and always knew I would be back.

    You’re one of our newer employees — how long ago did you start? How’s SI been so far?

    I’ve been here 2 months now and am enjoying the different challenges I am faced with each day. SI has been great so far, as I have learned different things everyday I have been here. The employees here have really made it an easy transition with all the help I have received.

    What do you find yourself doing around the office?

    A little bit of everything, whether it’s publishing content, performing QA or any other task that comes my way.

    I hear you do some coaching on the side — tell us about it!

    I have been coaching youth soccer for the past 8 years. I enjoy teaching and being involved with youth sports. Currently I am coaching 2 teams based with the Chicago Fire Organization of Louisiana.

    Anything you’d like to be spending more time on? In the ideal world, what would you be doing all day?

    I would like to spend more time on blogging and getting involved more in social media. In my ideal world I would love to be on top of a mountain skiing or sitting front row at Old Trafford rooting for Manchester United!

    Do you come from a marketing or Internet background? How do you use your skill set at SI?

    I had some experience before coming to Searchinfluence performing Quality Assurance on different websites and other random tasks to ensure the quality of our sites. Things are a little different at SI, but I am enjoying learning the ins and outs of SEO.