Craig Rentmeester's Blog

Search Gets Bit by the Real-Time Web Bug

Check it out here (search phrase: SEO), and read the full story here.

Executive Summary: Google is displaying real-time data feeds from Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

Takeaways

1. Be careful who you bash.

2. The SEO game has just officially gone social.

6 Things to Do Before Hiring an Internet Marketing Firm

People hire internet marketing firms and contractors for many different reasons. Some see competitors ranking highly and think they're doing a ton of business online because of it. Others
want more traffic. Others want to start selling products online.

The problem is that many companies don't do the leg work up front to help a specialist be successful quickly.

Below is my list of 6 Things to Do Before Hiring an Internet Marketing Firm.

If you take these steps, you're more likely to see success with the firm you choose.

1. Fire your Hit Counter & Install Google Analytics.

Sure there other analytics packages that more in depth. But, Google Analytics is free and will provide some much needed visitor data for your prospective vendors to analyze. It's also easy to install -- just copy and paste one line of pre-written code on each page.

2. Have a Ballpark Budget and Expected Results.

A good customer is forthcoming about how much they're comfortable spending and what they expect in return. 

It sets clear expectations for a proposal and allows an Internet Marketing Firm to provide a sound, reasonable action plan.

3. Figure out Your Break Even Point or Cost per Conversion Targets for Your Products.

If your products cost $50 and you make $25 per sale. Your break even point is $25. So, you can spend $25 per sale on marketing. Anything more, and you're losing money. Anything less and you're profiting.

This helps an internet marketer, such as myself, make accurate estimates about expected results by looking at industry data such as Cost Per Clicks and Conversion Rates. Also, it sets an reasonable benchmark for success.

4. Have Estimates on the Lifetime Values of Customers.

If your business is like most, a majority of your business comes from repeat customers, you should have an idea on how much a new customer is worth over the long run. Customer retention rates, average transaction sizes and purchase frequency rates work well for this type of pre-project analysis.

This data can help justify losing a bit of money on initial transactions to acquire new customers, if you know they'll be loyal and profitable in the future. I remember Robert Scoble saying a Kraft Foods executive spent about $40 per new customer.

5. Have a timeline.

Let the vendor know when you're going to make your decision and when you want to see a return. Again, this provides clear expectations.

6. Have Future Plans in Mind.

If you have a vision for how you want to scale your internet marketing or web site functionality, an internet marketing firm can write code with that in mind, saving you time and money in the future.

If you have these six things in line, a good internet marketing firm should be able to create a successful plan of action for your company.

Do You Need an Internet Marketer?

If you're interested in hiring an internet marketing firm, contact me to get an evaluation and proposal. I help small businesses get more traffic for leads, sales and customer loyalty.

Link: Google Caffeine

Google is re-working its search engine with a work-in-progress called Caffeine.

You can preview it here.

Notice, the preview does not have any AdWords ads, which would surely be included in a launch version. 

In my quick tests of Caffeine, the results weren't much different, with LinkedIn pages appearing higher than normal. Other than that, most rankings were changed very little (1 spot), if at all.

Tip of the Hat for the Notice: LifeHacker , Techtree

How to Get Listed in Google Shopping Results?

This question has come up a lot lately.

Answer: Google Base

Steps to Take
Create a data feed in XML or TXT format.

Your product listings will remain active for up to 31 days. After that, just re-upload your feed and your products will be published again.

Hint: Click on the links above to learn more.

A Call for Transparency in Blog Commenting

"Great article", says Making Money Online.

"Loved your interesting story about whales", says Whale Expert AK.

No one starts a blog without expecting some level of two-way dialogue to naturally happen. In fact, that's why most people start blogs -- to share their ideas.

Then, through powerful search algorithms, social recommendations and a necessary dash of self promotion to get the former started, there ideas begin to be heard.

Then, once their ideas begin to be heard, some commenters  see opportunity to steal traffic, redirect eyeballs and turn a profit.

The last part of the equation is fine with me, as long as there is value in the comments, and transparent motives.

What amateur traffic stealers and link builders don't understand is that, like most things of value, there are mechanisms built in protect the innocent and defeat the selfish. In the case of blog commenting, that mechanism is the nofollow link placed inside of virtually link that is attached to a blog commenter's name.

You've been notified.

Unless you're expecting quality referral traffic from the link you attach to your name, or bullshit keyword phrase for that matter, it's not worth the effort to try to get around the system.

Why not?

Because it's automated on every popular bloggin platform.

Another reason. OK. Any blogger that allows comments and is worried about their reputation is notified when their blog receives a comment, and is able to unpublish it.

Social media is rewarding when it's used correctly, even if you're not a heavy content creator.

Link: Great article on Link Building

Check out this great article from Search Engine Watch on using search tools to help you uncover places to build links.

Link: Google's SEO Starter Guide

Here is a link to Google's SEO Starter Guide.

It covers many of the factors discussed in my on-page SEO book, called We Have a Web site. Now What?

Some unique things that I covered are how to properly optimize PDFs (Page 16), and a helpful list of non-Google sponsored SEO resources.  (page 17)

Link: 2008 Ad Age Search Marketing Fact Pack

Here is a link to the 2008 Ad Age Search Marketing Fact Pack.

Here are some of the key things I noticed when looking through the data.

Keyword Data

As the Internet continues to gain content, search queries continue to get more and more specific.

See slide 14 for the percentage data breakdown of search queries by word count. 

Growth in Revenue at the 25 Largest Search Marketing Companies

SEM services continue to show growth. The five largest SEM service companies were up an average of 21.6 percent.

See slide 32.

Budget Shifts from Print to Web

32% of respondents of a SEMPO survey said they were shifting marketing dollars from print magazine advertising to SEM.

See slide 26.

No Surprise, Google Still Dominates

Google grew market share yet again. It now has 63% market share for search (up 6.5% YOY using August 07-08 data).   (63.1% market share in October 2008 according to ComScore)

See slide 11.

When Investing in Online Marketing in 2009

It's annual planning season. The hot topic in a lot of companies right now is sure to be 'How can we reduce or maintain our marketing budget in 2009 while still achieving sales growth".

The conversation then turns to the Internet. Let's redesign our web site to be more user friendly, ramp up search marketing, pay hourly for a freelance SEO specialist to get us the top spot on Google for a generic term for a product we sell, and decrease our print advertising spending.

Not all bad ideas.

I'd say most companies could see a descent return on investment from any one of those things.

The big thing to take to allocate toward any one of those items listed above is not money.

It's time.

SEO consultants provide great foundations for success. Typically, they analyze the most immediate areas of concern and address them.

• Site architecture. 
• Keyword-focused content.
• Title tags.
• Page descriptions.
• Alt tags.
• Geographic targeting.

But, the thing they have that you can't afford is time.

• Time to build links to important pages.
• Time to test new content, and analyze results. 
• Time to create link-worthy content.

Before you start throwing additional money at online marketing in 2009, realize that you should consider training, hiring or assigning someone at your company to handle the responsibility that comes with online marketing.

It's not as easy as hiring a graphic designer to lay out a new brochure.

The flexibility that makes the internet a great place for marketing also makes it a time-consuming venture.

But, for those with the time, it can be worth it.

Good SEO Read for Small Business Marketers

Here is a link to an article from Search Engine Watch that discusses 25 best practices in web design for small businesses.

One useful tip that I overlooked previously was targeting locally known names -- such as Twin Cities, SoHo, DIA, LAX, Orange County, etc. --- in addition to city-based locations.

The What, Where and How of SEO

When I look at web sites, which is quite often, I tend to look for how well their content is optimized -- from an on-page perspective, of course. Even when I am just trying to take in the content, I can't help but notice title tags, directory and file names in the URL, and meta descriptions of content found via search.

The Problem

The problem I notice with many companies whose sites don't rank well, is that they feel the need to brand every title tag, either with the company name or a combination of the product/service name and their company name.

 

I understand the urge.

 

Marketers have been taught that building a brand is everything, and the more opportunities for customers to interact with your brand the better.

 

In the SEO game -- which is one the primary battlegrounds for new customers -- branding, especially in title tags, isn't nearly as critical as in an print ad, radio ad, yellow page listing, etc.

 

It's about targeting specific keywords.

 

And, if you're keywords aren't in your company name -- or URL for that matter -- which is often the case, you're doing a disservice to your SEO efforts.

The Solution

SEO is about the what, where and how of your company.

 

People that care about the who already know you. And that's fine. You have their traffic, though -- so for SEO purposes don't focus on them.

 

The what and where are easy. Focus on those first.

 

What do you do?

Where are you located?

 

The how is more difficult, because you can go in any number of directions, but it only matters if the way describe it fits in with the way buyers search within that market. 

 

How do you go about providing your products/services?

How are your products made?

How are you different from companies that provide the same type of goods?

How long have been in business?

How often does your inventory change?

 

The Takeaway

I am not saying companies should lose all branding, but only dedicated the home page or the URL to the company name. It works the best this way because when people talk about your company generally, they're more likely to provide an anchor-text-filled link to your home page.

How I Quickly Built an e-commerce Site

As I mentioned in my previous post, the goal of this post is to inspire you to take a calculated risk and build a Web site you've thought about, but ‘haven’t found the time to build’. This post is describing a recent project I took on with my Dad.

Background

We needed a quick and dirty e-commerce site to showcase 50-60 scooter parts that my Dad has available for sale that fit various brands of scooters, primarily made by Dayang, Honda and Yamaha. 

Below you’ll learn about how I got started, the tools I used, and how I influenced search engine rankings by implementing proper on-page SEO items.

Please forgive my grammar, as I am writing this piece for speed as well. I'm hoping to edit it later on.

 

Built for Speed

Since this project wasn’t billable, and it’s not planned to be a long-term business, I tried to cut corners when possible. Also, scooters and mopeds are seasonal by nature, so finishing the site to allow for earlier rankings eased my fears about using shortcuts.

Buying a Good Domain

I bought the domain at the end of March for this site. Before buying it, I used five tools to help me compare search data. 

The five tools I used were:

1. Google’s Traffic Estimator

2. Adwords Keyword Tool

3. Free Keyword Research from Trellian

4. Keyword Difficulty from SEOChat

5. Keyword Difficulty Tool from seologs

To be able to compare the data quick and effectively, I set up an Excel spreadsheet with search data in columns and the corresponding search term in rows from the five data sources. I recommend this for both SEO research and keyword-based campaign research. It allows me to scan quickly for keyword opportunities. 

Using this data, and keeping in mind commonalities of the Web site content I was going to publish, I decided on MopedandScooterParts.com, which I was surprised was available.

Creating Content

To start, I got pictures of each part using a digital camera, with each part featured on a white bed sheet for easy editing in Photoshop. 

With the images, I also received corresponding descriptions and prices for each part.

Once I had this information, I had 80-90 percent of the Web site content. Now, it just need to be coded.

 

Payments

To save time, I decided to use PayPal for the shopping cart function. For this site, the transaction fees are reasonable (1.9% of the sale price + .20 cents per transaction).

 

Hosting

I already had Web hosting through Dreamhost, which is cheap, at $97 per year. (dreamhost affiliate link). Also, since I had the hosting package, Dreamhost allowed me to purchase a domain for free for the first year ($10 savings).

 

Software Used

I used Photoshop for deleting background noise from images of the parts for sale, and Dreamweaver for HTML/CSS coding.

I also used Dreamhost’s built-in HTML editor for minor HTML tweaks along the way.

 

Web site Building tools Used

I used CSSEZ to help me create a base model for the CSS stylesheet. It was tweaked slightly, but about 80% of the work creating the CSS was done in a WYSIWYG environment versus a coding environment, which allowed me to work much faster. (see CSSEZ version and the final version).Contrary to what this site states, these CSS you create can be used without WordPress or MoveableType.

I used HTML Playground for a reference when I forgot some HTML/CSS lingo. 

I used XML Sitemaps to help me create a quick and dirty sitemap in HTML and XML. It took some minor tweaking to the code to make the HTML Sitemap respectable. This tool saved me a ton of time, though.

I used FormLogix web forms since I don’t know MySQL, but wanted to grow an e-mail newsletter subscription list. Now, it seems that FormLogix puts Google Ads on pages where its forms are used, which is lame and a deterrent. When I created mine, they didn't do this.
 

How the site ranks

Right now, the site ranks in positions 1-3 on both Yahoo! and Google for phrases including the word Dayang and the name of a specific part we have for sale, which is roughly 60-70 percent of the content. (sample search 1, sample search 2, sample search 3).

 

How Did I Achieve Strong Search Rankings?

Right now, the site doesn’t have many in-bound links, which certainly is not helping it for difficult keyword phrases. However, one thing working in my favor on this project is that there aren’t many online content providers for after-market Dayang Scooter Parts.
 

Also, each page of the site has a strong focus on targeted keywords. Keywords for each page are included in the: 

• Page Title
• Directory Name (so they appear in the URL)
• Header Tags
• The site description and Domain contain targeted keywords
• Meta Data (descriptions and keywords)
• Anchor Text
• Image File Names, Alternate Tags and Titles

 

Other Tools

Google Analytics – monitor site traffic, usage, referring sites, etc.

Google Webmaster – monitor search rankings, inbound links found by Google, upload a sitemap, etc.

Yahoo! Site Explorer – to check competitor’s links and my links.

 

Some More Things to Consider when Building or Redesigning a Web site

1. Information Architecture – This didn’t really apply for this site because there was only going to be around 60 pages. However, breaking content into clear classifications that allow for search engine indexability and navigation is critically important with larger sites (250+ pages).
2. Link structure – This also wasn’t that important due to the limited number of pages. Since no one item is extremely preferable to sell than another, I tried to keep the link architecture as evenly weighted as possible. However, if you want to rank in a competitive market and you don’t emphasize the pages you’re hoping to rank via extra internal links, you’ll have trouble.
3. CSS vs. tables. – If you use a Web design firm and they build your site using nested tables, you’ll have bigger maintenance bills, more search engine concerns and slower load times.  
   

Future Plans

In case you’re interested with how I plan to proceed going forward, I listed a few measures I plan to take below.

I plan to build a Squidoo page about Dayang scooters, because there is not a lot information about them. Squidoo has a high PageRank, and providing relevant content will help us pick up some link juice. Hopefully the lens will pickup and refer some traffic as well.

I hope that we can post PDF versions of various scooter owners’ manuals.

I will be analyzing existing competitors Web sites for opportunities to pick up links from the same sources. 

Depending on the time it takes to implement, I may add a Google Checkout option in combination with an AdWords account. For now, we’ll see how PayPal works out.

If you have any questions about something I left out, please e-mail me.  

For additional site-building and SEO Help

Download my on-page SEO e-book to help you improve your Web site’s rankings.

Great Riff on SEO Shortcomings by Web Design and IT Professionals

Here's an interesting rant from Mark Jackson at Search Engine Watch.

I have been thinking this for a while and agree with his points about web design and IT professionals short-changing companies when it comes to doing 'SEO' work.

Language and Control

It's been heavily talked about in magazines, TV programs and blogs for years, to varying degrees and with varying intentions.

Yes, customers are in control.

In the broadcast era of marketing, customers decided whether or not to pay attention to your message.

Then, the Internet came along, put print and TV on the ropes, and gave customers new avenues to express their opinions, along with a wider selection of free content delivered in many forms.

Online, customers are always in control. From product reviews, to blog posts, to the search terms they enter to find products they're looking for.  Not only can customers determine whether or not your prospects buy your products, but your prospects can pass you by without even knowing you exist, unless you play by their rules and cater to the wants that they communicate.

The key to marketing in the digital era is to research how your target audience describes the products and services they use. Then,  create content related to that instead of trying to have your audience begin using the language your company uses to describe itself. 

The best thing about online marketing is that the playing field is (relatively) even online. Companies small and big can use the same research tactics and create great content.

Benefits of using a Blog as your E-newsletter

A rather new concept is using a blog like an e-newsletter.

I love the approach from a marketing and an SEO standpoint.

• Rather than sending PDFs or E-blasts via e-mail to subscribers, a blog offers dynamic content that maintains the same look over time.
• A blog instead of an e-newsletter makes subscriber management much easier.
• Its easy to transmit and easy for customers to subscribe in a way that works with their existing habits (live bookmarks, posts via e-mail, feed readers, etc.)
• From an SEO standpoint, the blog approach provides an opportunity for more content on your site and more inbound links.
• You can archive posts, allowing for customers to revisit old items.
  
• It provides an opportunity to distribute press releases when they're timely vs. lumping them together in a monthly newsletter.

The one drawback I can think of is not getting each subscriber's contact information. However, users are in control, whether you like it or not. If you provide continuous value, they'll want to do business with you.

I am going to be pushing for this approach at my company.

Do you have any other drawbacks or benefits of using a blog as an e-newsletter?

Also, I'll be on vacation this week. This will be my last post for a while.