Should I set my inner child free?

Quite Out of Character For Me…

After twenty years of freelance consulting I arbitrarily, and quite uncharacteristically decided to accept an offer from a major publisher–a very flattering offer I might add–to go and manage their local publishing operation in the Middle East, which is, as I’m quite sure you know, a major emerging market for many fields these days.

Talk About Diving In Head First!

Although it wasn’t exactly far for me to go–no relocation was necessary–it was a drastic change from my usual pace: not quite working in my pajamas every day, but certainly enjoying the extreme latitude that working from my cozy leather recliner afforded me. Now I must snap out of bed at a respectable hour every morning, slug down a cup of something hot and get myself showered, dressed to face the world, and out of the door in time to negotiate the short drive to the office. I’d almost forgotten what rush-hour traffic was all about, since consultants rarely venture out at those certain hours of the day. They’re at perfect liberty not to!

The Good–And the Not-So-Good!

In some ways working in a brand-new, high-tech, corporate office has been a ball. I often wondered, as an SEO consultant working from home, how I’d get on in a real-live-office after all these years. And no, I’m not going to tell you how long it’s been since my last full-time job. There are some things one should simply to keep to oneself.

Anyway, I found out that I’d do just fine. I admit that I have a huge advantage over many who must battle it out in the corporate jungle every day: my surroundings are pleasant and my co-workers are, for the most part, a delightful bunch.

But I miss my SEO work. I sorely miss writing every day. Writing is an art that, if you have it in you, you just gotta do it. It’s as simple as that. Believe me, non-fiction writing is no less creative than great works of fiction. It takes all the creativity a writer’s got to write well and to entertain an audience.

My marriage is suffering since now our respective schedules keep us totally apart for much of the week. I am no longer at liberty to rush to the aid of any of my adult children should they run into difficulty; something that truly saddens me. Let’s not even begin to mention my dearest friends, who have been so patient while I’m away exploring a world I’d thought I was done with forever.

The real trouble though, is that I miss the unfettered creativity of working as a consultant. Not just that. My inner child is pining. In fact she’s fairly wasting away. I can no longer switch as the mood takes me from serious and focused, to silly and game-for-a-laugh. Some days it’s as much as I can do to prevent Miss Inner Child from romping forth in the corporate setting, linking the laser printer up to the coffee machine, and parachuting gleefully to a damp landing in the fountain on the ground floor…all the while screaming ‘free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I’m free at last.

So this is what I want to know. What do you think I should do? Do you think I should keep going and anticipate the promotion that’s almost certain after I pull off the next few successful projects? Or should I do what I dream about most nights, and let my inner child escape the bonds of the corporate world? Should I return to my old self-employed stomping ground, despite the fact that it might be difficult to get the SEO gigs coming in at the required pace again? If you leave a comment it’d be great to discuss this wouldn’t it?

Keep your SEO clients in the picture-manage their exectations!

Set Realistic Deliverables!

SEO is one of those areas where, typically, deliverables can be open to interpretation, perception and yes, question. If SEO consultants don’t manage client expectations well, this can lead to dissappointment and bad feeling that may even end with the client jettisoning all SEO efforts as a ‘waste of time.’

This is a pity. Due to mismanaged expectations many companies confine themselves to, at best, mediocre success online because they weren’t given the information they needed initially that would have given them the encouragement to give the process time.

Create a Deliverables Timetable

First and foremost, SEO is not a process where you just snap your fingers and the results are there, plain to see. So as an SEO you have obligations to help your client envision how things will develop: and you need to take care of it at the outset.

1. Before you even think of approaching a client, design a monitoring system. Most decent web hosting companies nowadays include analytics, but it’s best to never rely on anyone else. Take the analytics available to you for the period before your work begins, and keep it for later reference. Than get yourself an account with a good traffic monitoring application such as Mint. This will allow you to do two things: reassure your client periodically that you are progressing in the right direction, and enable you to make decisions about how your strategy is delivering.
2. When you discuss your SEO strategy initially with your client, do not gloss over deliverables. It is vital that you get expectations down in black and white at the outset, before you do a thing. Make sure you are clear about the changes your client can expect to see, and try and give at least rough time estimates. SEO is not a speedy process, and if a client is expecting to see magical results from the first week, by week two disillusionment is going to be setting in, making unlikely that you’ll proceed together.
3. Be sure that you not only track results, but that you point out to your client on a regular basis how traffic is improving and how the benefits of SEO are slow to become apparent, but that the positive results begin to manifest dramatically after the ‘tipping point’ has been reached. <strong>Be sure to own your results-or someone else will!</strong>
4. If increased traffic does not manifest in the way that you both envisioned, it is essential that you schedule a meeting and discuss realistic expectations, and ways that you can improve on results.
5. Set up a way to interract with your client, if not on a daily basis, at least a couple of times a week. Lack of communication is always a major factor in client dissatisfaction. While you may or may not want to invite clients to join you on your regular Twitter account, you might find that a second account just for clients will help you to keep them all happy and satisfied, by feeding relevant articles, clients successes and anything else that will help to give them that warm and fuzzy feeling. Think of other social media channels that might serve your purpose here. All the while you’re talking to clients, you are allaying their fears and encouraging confidence. Long periods of silence give way to suspicion and doubt and this should be avoided at all costs.

A while back I read an interesting comment over at SEOmoz after watching Rand Fishkin’s Whiteboard Friday: it roughly, and rightly, stated that SEOs are tired of following Google’s latest algo change.

In his video, Rand asserts that all we’ll need to worry about in the future are the facts that backlinks will always count as votes of confidence and good content will always provide a satisfactory user experience. All true.

But what about the role of social media in the future of SEO?

Rand says that he doesn’t think that social is going to be as big as some are saying it will. I disagree. To justify his position he mentions that Twitter and FaceBook are easy systems to game. That’s true at the moment. But people are also learning that marketing through these social media without gaming them can actually be more successful than the unethical approach.

The face of search is changing and we detected a radical shift at least a year ago.

There’s even a new search engine called Leapfish that includes results on social media sites as well as traditional search engine results.

Interestingly a couple of years back when I asked Rand if he thought that Google included data on site traffic in the ranking algo, he said that he didn’t think so. That’s changed and now he says that Google will increasingly incorporate usage metrics to gauge the value of websites, to the extent that good traffic could even make up for not-so-good backlinks.

Rand also speculates that verticals will replace Google for some categories of search, such as Craigslist for apartments search, Kayak for travel search etc (those are his examples).

I would also venture that the comments over at Ad Age regarding Google’s treatment of SEOs and marketing people in general have served to create a general malaise over Google too. In plain language we’re all sick of Google moving the goal posts, insulting us, and outright calling us criminals when all we’re doing is providing a much-needed online service.

Is Google biting the hand that feeds it?

To read between the lines of Google algo changes and updates, you might be forgiven for thinking that today’s online marketers (including SEOs of course) are just mutations of yesterdays spammers and porno-peddlers. Naturally we’re all rankling at that–who wouldn’t. So in effect, Google sees itself as big enough and mighty enough to alienate a huge sector of the online community with impunity–and no compunction whatever.

So aside from the fact that most of us see Google’s monopoly as a huge danger, particularly with the development of ‘the cloud,’ (How the cloud can be a danger to us is a subject I’ll be covering in a post shortly), we will also be anxious to adopt the first real alternative to the Google empire simply because of the bad feeling that Google itself has created.

I started writing this post several months back. Since then many online marketers of all stripes have  joined the growing crowd who see Twitter as playing an increasingly important role in online search and more. Already, as I predicted in a guest post over at Search Engine People back in March, users are looking to Twitter for instant gratification. Just a few minutes ago, I found myself searching Twitter for Google Wave invites (Ironic I know). You can see the result when I searched Google here. While this is the result I got for a Twitter Search for Google Wave invites.

As you can see, if you’re looking for a Google Wave invite, Twitter is the place to go! Those results just prove what I’ve been saying for months. Twitter poses a serious threat to Google as The New Search Venue. In fact, if I were a Google exec, I’d be much more worried about Twitter than Bing or any  possible search engine combination.

SEO for Competitive Analysis

Ever heard that you need a plan to get ahead? It’s sometimes exceedingly tricky to formulate a plan though isn’t it? Luckily, in online business it’s really easy to formulate a plan to get ahead in your niche–whatever that is.

Finding Your Niche Competition

First you need to identify those websites that are ahead of you in the search results for your chosen keywords. You can do this by doing a search on Google, Yahoo and Bing (and whatever other search engine you’re interested in) for the words and phrases you want to be searched for. Take a look at the top 10 results for each one. Check what other keywords/phrases these sites are using because you can often come up with some interesting new search terms you hadn’t thought of by doing this.

Comparative Analysis

Then you do a comparative analysis on each of the top three, and you’re away. You will have an itemized roadmap that will take you exactly where you want to go, and you will be able to implement it at your leisure-whenever you have a few minutes to spare.

Let’s take a closer look at the criteria:

1. Search terms (we’ve already covered that)
2. Title tags (what you see in the top, left-hand corner of your screen for each page). This is arguably the most important item of optimization. It dictates a large part of how the search engines see you. If you have fabulous content, but your title tags say ‘welcome to (your name)’ you will be sunk. Don’t miss the opportunity to put to or three of your major keywords in here, starting with the most important.
3. Your article/post title should also include at least one of your major keywords.
4. Look at the images your competition is using. Learn from this, and try to get bigger, more interesting images onto your pages, not forgetting that there is a balance: make the images too big and you’ll make your pages slow to load. Oh, and don’t forget the alt-text because this does matter for a number of reasons.
5. Make sure that your web content is far and away more readable, and more informative than that of the competition.

It will help if you arrange your results in a table for at-a-glance assessment.

Avoid putting all your eggs in one basket…

Don’t rely too heavily on a competitive analysis though. Nowadays off-page activity can have a major impact on your ultimate traffic and visibility results. Social media is a must. Don’t overlook Twitter, in particular, as a tool for networking, getting the word out, and even getting valuable links for your website.

Matt Cutts is a nice guy

…must we all keep hanging on his every word? He is, for sure, a very helpful, and very friendly guy. But just look at what he does for a living will you? Now before I go on, let me stress that this is not a personal attack against Matt: He’s a nice guy with an exquisitely difficult job. But the facts remain. I got thinking about this subject after a reader commented on my recent post on duplicate content issues over at Search Engine Journal, It seems that Matt said something to the effect that we don’t need to worry about duplicate content issues at SMX Advanced. I personally didn’t see footage of that, but I can tell you that I, and many of my SEO colleagues see evidence that we do need to worry about duplicate content every day. Simply put, Matt Cutts is Google’s front man. Many times, Matt has given us hints that he can’t tell us all we want to know, in this statement he made on AimClear Blog:

It’s sort of like the credit card companies, you can’t really tell all the penalties you really have without giving it away for the spammers

Now why would anyone think that Matt would be prepared to give away all Google’s secrets? He’d be fired straight away if he did. Take an objective look at this excellent You&A with Matt Cutts. See? It’s more-or-less common knowledge that Matt Cutts can’t just come right out with it. We know it and he knows it. Now if you’re rather follow what Matt says to the letter, that fine. But we have years of collective experience and we think we’re entitled to differ with what Matt says when it’s necessary for the sake of our commitment to great SEO.
]]> http://www.wellwrittenwords.com/matt-cutts-is-a-really-nice-guy-but/feed/ 10 http://www.wellwrittenwords.com/do-you-realize-what-kind-of-an-seo-youre-dealing-with/ http://www.wellwrittenwords.com/do-you-realize-what-kind-of-an-seo-youre-dealing-with/#comments Thu, 21 May 2009 17:23:59 +0000 Patricia Skinner http://www.wellwrittenwords.com/?p=601

Nope, not a cliffhanger!

Some of you may have wondered if I’ve slipped over the edge of a cliff somewhere. It’s been so long since I posted.  Or perhaps you were wondering if I’d given it all up and gone to live in Katmandu?

Let me reassure you that I’m still here, and still battling. Ever felt out of control and overwhelmed? Well that has been me for the past month. I have been indulging in a little introspection as to why recent events reduced me to a pile of rubble. Before I go on let me bore you with the main points of our family news for April and May:

• 3 semi-serious car accidents–thank God only whiplash, bruising and scrapes sustained by a deployed airbag were the result, but much mangled metal.
• 1 broken ankle (me–I fell again).
• 1 serious concussion (my son when he slipped on the University steps banking his head).
• A run-in with a failing antivirus application necessitating yet another laptop reconfig. (AV is one of the big-boys but I’m not mentioning it here lest I end up with a lawsuit on my hands (if you really want to know ask me on Twitter (skinner).

OK I know all this, while inconvenient, is not really enough to send me into a tailspin. So why have I dropped all my balls (metaphorically speaking) in the past few weeks?

Because I’m a raving control freak that’s why. I hate it when stuff happens unexpectedly to mess up my schedule. And while we’re on the subject of me, I’m a chocoholic as well as a crank you wouldn’t want to run into in the wee hours of the morning.

There. My secrets are all out. Now you know exactly who you’re dealing with. I hope you’ll continue to read my blog though, or I might stalk you.

Seriously, I realize this is why I’m drawn to SEO; it’s all quite predictable once you master the basics. In reality there are no big surprises unless there are huge gaps in your knowledge on search engine optimization.

Oh, and if you’re interested I have migrated to Kaspersky for antivirus protection.

PS: I’m working on setting up this WordPress blog on wallpaper. Whaddya think?

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

So let’s get to it.

1. I predict that the beginning of Google’s downfall has, in fact, already started, and will begin to be detectable around the middle of 2009. It will take a few months for word of this to get around, and another few months for most people to grasp the fairly astounding implications.
2. Expect to spend a lot more time considering your niche because this will be of increased importance. Even more so than it has been in recent years. The Internet is huge and the only way that search engines can serve their visitors well is to break it all down into bite-sized chunks.
3. To this end, expect to see fewer and fewer webpages optimized for single-word search terms. Could it be that the time has come when long-tail search is actually more important than even two-word search terms? We shall see…
4. I feel that we will see more and more niches that actually are an ‘intersection’ between two niches: If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, then Karl Long might clarify it for you. But in any case, you should definitely read The Medici Effect (free download alert) because this concept is going to come into its own in 2009.
5. The time has gone where a marketer could just throw up a site and scare up some traffic. Social media is the way of the future. Online marketers will rely more and more on social media marketing for

Online branding
advertising
traffic
and even market research/product creation

6. We won’t see much evidence of the so-called economic slump online. Here’s just one survey that shows that only 25 percent of online marketers plan to cut their advertising budget in 2009:
7. Branding is going to be a lot more about who you network with and how they see you, than how many advertising bucks you’ve invested. This has already started to manifest: a famous case was the Motrin ad that was pulled because of the response from moms on Twitter. Here’s another site that talks about how important it is to network in order to grow your business.

It will be interesting to look back at the end of 2009 to see how close this list was, and to also take a look at some other marketing predictions for 2009. Do hope you’ll join me in December for that.

Where to find your title tags

All I can say is, whatever floats your boat.

This post is loosely in response to Jamie Harrop’s comment on my guest post over at his blog. Jamie disagrees with me, so no offense at what follows Jamie.

There’s always more than one way to do anything. When you get advice, the person giving it can only tell you what they think is best from their perspective.

The <title></title> tags for your web pages are of supreme importance to your ranking and which searches you come up for. You need well-thought-out tags that are different for every page in order to get the best results–which is more traffic to your website. If you get it wrong you might even be penalized (like having the same title tag for every page of your website).

From an SEO point of view it makes a lot more sense to put the phrase or search term that your potential visitors are going to type into a search box when they’re looking for whatever it is that you’re selling. Quite simply, names, or your ‘brand,’ while they are important, will not figure into the equation at the search stage. Of course, once a visitor lands on your website you want to do everything you can to get them to remember your name or your brand. But that’s once they’ve arrived. Would you lure a fish onto your line by tying a frying pan onto your rod? Using your name to get new visitors is about as effective.

So, if you’re still determined to put your name in your title tags, without a search term before it, go ahead, Your competitor who listens to their SEO will most likely get more visitors than you do.