9 INCH AXIOM:  Commitment to learning

“In life you should always be committed to learning.  When you are green, you are growing . . . Once you are ripe, you start to rot!”

A few weeks ago I completed the curriculum for the Inbound Marketing University (IMU).  The course consisted of 12 one hour webinars, a review and an exam.

It was fun putting on my student hat again.  The folks at Hubspot and their partners in IMU put together a star studded faculty.  

I received notice last week that I passed the exam with high marks and I am now certified as a inbound marketing professional.  Hubspot sent me a link to download my PDF certificate and I also have a cool badge which I’ll showcase on the blog.

I’m intrigued by inbound marketing or as I referred to it in a post a few months ago as PULL MARKETING. This image is by far my favorite image on my blog.  A huge hat tip to Gary Larson.

Today’s  Lagniappe (a little something extra) –  Hubspot

I have to give a huge attaboy to Hubspot.  If you are going to own the inbound marketing space, then you better be exemplary in terms of optimizing your site, owning relevant keywords, pumping out relevant linkworthy content (blog/podcast/white papers), generating boatloads of leads via landing pages and most importantly qualifying and nurturing those leads.  

Hubspot kicks butt on all of the above.  Probably the thing I was most impressed with was their Website Grader (click here to check it out and get your website grade).

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Following in the footsteps of Rand Fishkin and Guy Kawasaki, I decided to come up with my own list of don’ts.

There is no shortage of don’ts when it comes to SEO copywriting. It seems this niche got off to a rough start many years ago when early comers somehow misconstrued the core principles of the trade. Allow me to elaborate on how not to write SEO copy.

1. Don’t shove as many keyphrases into the copy as humanly possible.

It’s not about the sheer volume of search terms you include. Yes, Google and other engines should be able to follow what the page is about. Yes, engines are looking to match a searcher’s query with search engine optimized content on your web pages, but which pages land at the top is decided through a series of calculations far more complex than any simple ratio. When you overload copy with keyphrases you sacrifice quality and user experience.

2. Don’t lose site of balance.

If SEO copywriting isn’t about the percentage of keywords within the copy, then what is it about? Balance. You have two audiences with SEO copywriting: the search engines and your site visitors. But surprisingly, the balance doesn’t come with serving both masters well. The balance comes in how much you cater to the engines. You see, your site visitors always come first.

However, if you write with too little focus on the engines, you won’t see good rankings. If you put too much focus on the engines, you’ll start to lose your target audience. Balance… always balance.

3. Don’t let someone else choose the keywords.

If keyword research isn’t a service you offer, an SEO firm, keyword specialist or some other professional that your client hires will have to conduct the research. Don’t just accept keyphrases these folks toss your way. Ask to see the entire list with recommendations as to which terms would be best strategically. Then you, as the professional writer, can decide which will also work best within the copy.

4. Don’t sacrifice flow for numbers.

This is a follow-up to number three and is a major issue with bad SEO copywriting. SEOs or clients sometimes insist on using hacked-up search phrases that simply don’t work in a normal sentence. An example? “Candies samples free.” Many copywriters will just grin and bear it, sacrificing quality and flow for the sake of competitive values or other numbers. The result is often some obnoxious sentence like, “If you’re looking for candies samples free, you’ve come to the right place!” Forcing a phrase into the copy at all costs never turns out well.

5. Don’t use keyphrases that don’t apply to the page.

If you operate a site about wedding receptions, don’t try to force a search term about wedding dresses into the copy just because it pulls a lot of traffic. (A) Unless you sell, alter or design wedding dresses, it won’t be applicable. (B) Even if you manage to get the page ranked well for the phrase [wedding dresses], once the visitor clicks to your site and realizes you have nothing to do with wedding dresses, they will leave. It’s a waste of time and effort and it creates a poor user experience.

6. Don’t use misspellings and correct spellings on the same page.

I fully understand that the misspellings of keyphrases can be valuable search terms. However, to mix correct spellings and misspellings within the same page of copy looks like you’ve got a bunch of typos in the content. It’s just not professional. Some writers will go for the old, “We rent limousines (sometimes spelled limosenes) for the most affordable prices in town.” I don’t care for that approach. It’s just not natural. Would you ever see brochure or newspaper copy that reads that way? I think not.

7. Don’t use keyphrases the exact same way every time.

This is how we end up with horrible SEO copy that sounds like a 4th grader wrote it. (See #4.) There are lots of ways to use keywords in copy, not just one. In order to sound natural, you have to get creative with your keyphrase use. One way is to break up phrases using punctuation. Since search engines don’t pay attention to basic punctuation marks, you can easily write something using the search term [real estate Hawaii] that reads like this: “Currently there is an impressive selection of available real estate. Hawaii listings can be…” See? “Real estate” is at the end of the first sentence and “Hawaii” is at the beginning of the second sentence. The engines ignore the period so there’s no problem.

8. Don’t use all types of search phrases for every situation.

There are many ways in which this “don’t” applies. One quick example is that of an ecommerce site. It wouldn’t be advisable to use specific, long-tail keyphrases on the home page of your site. They are much too specific in most cases and are better suited for individual product pages. Broader terms are typically best for an ecommerce home page. If you don’t understand the best applications for the various types of keywords, you’re likely to have lackluster results.

9. Don’t neglect ALT tags/image attributes.

These tags are the ones associated with images on your pages and they carry a good deal of weight especially if the image is used as a link. The ALT text counts the same as anchor text in a text-based link. Depending on a few different factors, ALT text may be a good place for those misspellings mentioned in #6.

10. Don’t forget the chain of protocol.

There’s a method to the SEO copywriting madness. The idea is not to get as many different keyphrases onto a page as possible. Just the opposite, in fact. Rather than having 12 different search terms used only one time each, you need to use two to four keyphrases (depending on the length of your copy) per page. The title, META tags, ALT tags, other coding elements and on-page copy need to support each other as far as keyphrase use goes. Your goal is to let the engines know that you have original, relevant content about a narrow topic.

Unless you have an exceptional number of back links built up, just mentioning [dark chocolate], [chocolate strawberries], [chocolate chip cookies], [chocolate cake], [chocolate desserts], [organic chocolate] and [chocolate cheesecake] once each on a web page isn’t likely to do a lot of good. Instead, pick two or three terms which are closely related and use them several times each along with mentioning them in your tags.

When you avoid making common mistakes, you’ll find your SEO copywriting flows much better, is more natural-sounding and ranks higher, too.

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Here are some key points, from the Getting Found webinars (GF202, GF301, and GF401), which I recently attended at Inbound Marketing University, coordinated by HubSpot. Make sure to check out these excellent resources on inbound marketing, available through HubSpot Inbound Marketing’s Presentations on SlideShare and the Inbound Marketing Wiki. HubSpot has also set up a related LinkedIn Group: Inbound Marketers – For Marketing Professionals.)

Class 4: Successful Business Uses for Facebook and LinkedIn (GF202), Professor: Elyse Tager (Silicon Valley American Marketing Association)

• How You Can Use LinkedIn: Homepage, Profile (importance, add apps, build in keywords), Company pages (profile and search), Build and Maintain a meaningful network, Join Groups, Ask/answer questions, Show up in Service Provider (request recommendations), and Polls.
• Your LinkedIn Profile contains a Summary (who are you, what do you do, and an elevator pitch that you want to optimize), Education (use for connections), Interests (may be too personal for business use – you decide), Security Settings (decide how open and visible you want to be), and a place for adding applications ( for credibility – depth).
• A LinkedIn Company Profile includes a description (with keywords, an elevator pitch, and logo) and employee information. All are searchable within LI and outside.
• On Facebook: Start by building a personal profile, with basic info, contact information, and education.
• With your privacy settings, control who can see how much of your profile, who can search for you, and how much they can see. You can also control what of your activity is visible on your wall and newsfeed.
• Facebook for business includes Fan pages, groups, events, ads, and metrics.
• Tips for setting up a Facebook Business Page: “Be sure to sign up as your first fan. Have 2 admins – in case one disappears. Update frequently. Add FB page to your email address – promote shamelessly, FB badge on blog. Create a beefy page – videos, blog posts, discussions, and photos.”

Class 5: Viral Marketing and World Wide Raves (GF301) Professor: David Meerman Scott (author of New Rules of Marketing & PR and World Wide Rave)

• A “World Wide Rave” is when people around the world are “talking about you, your company, and your products.”
• Rules of the Rave: 1. Nobody cares about your products (except you). People do care about solving their own problems. 2. No coercion required. 3. Lose control. 4. Put down roots. 5. Create triggers that encourage people to share. 6. Point the world to your (virtual) doorstep.  
• Publish content around buyer personas, instead of around your product. Buyer personas represent what you want you want buyers to believe about your brand. As an example, Scott described web sites for hotel chains, which could be so much more effective, if developers organized content around buyer personas, instead of around the product. For example, a hotel web site’s organization and content might reflect each of these different personas: business person, corporate travel manager, family on vacation, and couple planning a wedding. Blogs on the hotel web sites could reinforce these various personas. Scott mentioned HubSpot’s user persona for an Internet Marketing Manager, as “Internet Ian.”  
• Let customers speak in their own language, not yours. Avoid corporate Gobbledygook (overused words and phrases), which is a symptom of not understanding your buyer personas. See the Gobbledygook Grader, available via HubSpot, to detect and revise Gobbledygook phrases. Keep in mind that visual Gobbledygook exists, too. (Pictures of happy, smiling corporate people, around the conference table, for example, which become visual cliches.)

Class 6: Advanced SEO Tactics: On Beyond Keyword Research (GF401) Professor: Rand Fishkin (SEOmoz)

• “Links, as they pertain to both the domain and the individual page, are vastly superior in importance to the page’s content.”
• What determines high search rankings: According to data, using Alt Text tags to describe images, having a keyword in the URL, and placing keywords closer to the left resulted in a higher search ranking.
• The data did not support a high correlation between using keywords in H1 Tags and search rankings, as much as expected.
• For high search ranking, substantive, unique Content is very important. Data suggests that W3C Validation and the code to text ratio are not very important. Static URLs are somewhat better than dynamic.
• Subdomains likely “DO NOT inherit all of the ranking benefits of the Root Domain, but neither are they completely separate entities.”
• Nofollowing a link no longer passes more juice through the remaining live links.
• The new methodology for sculpting page rank is to use iFrames to block access to links you do not want Google to see.
• Recommended Reading: www.seomoz.org/blog, www.searchengineland.com, www.seobook.com/blog, www.seroundtable.com, www.mattcutts.com/blog, www.distilled.co.uk/blog, and www.searchenginejournal.com.

 Related Links

• Inbound Marketing University: Kudos to HubSpot
• Inbound Marketing University: Stats of Note
• Inbound Marketing University: Getting Found (GF101, GF102, and GF 201) 
• Inbound Marketing University: Converting Leads (CV101, CV201, and CV301)
• Inbound Marketing University: Analyzing Site Traffic (AZ401)

Before I started reading Rand Fishkin’s Beginner’s Guide to SEO, not knowing how search engines worked made learning SEO unnecessarily difficult for me. When I gained just a little knowledge of search engines, many difficulties melted away. Download his guide to learn more.

Fishkin breaks down search engine optimization into four steps: crawling the web, indexing web pages, processing queries, and finally, ranking results.

1. Search engines visit web pages–called crawling the web–with the goal of indexing these web pages in a database containing billions of other pages.
2. The search engine stores every indexed web page in a database that can search for, and retrieve, millions of web pages in FRACTIONS OF A SECOND. The intellectual power behind a search engine database boggles my mind. I think it’s nuts, but that’s just me.
3. Every time a person queries a search engine, the search engine pulls out every web page from its database containing the appropriate keywords.
4. Having pulled out each web page, the search engine uses an algorithm to rank each page from most relevant to the query to the least. Here, SEO enters the picture.

At the end of the day, SEO is about communication. A website’s optimized keywords tells search engines, “this is who I am. Spread the word.”  Like having brand equity, a good online business has keyword equity. The stronger a business’ keyword brand, the better its search engine ranking for those keywords. Just like having a strong brand attracts more customers, so does having high ranking keywords attract more visitors.

What other questions do you have about search engines? What do you think is essential to understanding search engines? Did you like this post and want to know more about search engines? Leave a comment and let me know, thanks!

I’ve recently noticed two examples of websites that were established by specific organizations using separate campaign identities (and URLs) rather than the parent organization’s website URL and identity.  Both are really cool campaigns — the Sacramento Tree Foundation has staked out its goal of planting 5 million trees, while CARES has established the ambitious goal of eradicating new HIV infections in 5 years:

Here’s the Sac Tree Foundation campaign, greenprintonline

And here’s the CARES campaign, areyouthedifference

I could think of pros and cons associated with separate websites, but I decided to reach out to Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz.  (My Monday post included an excerpt from one of Rand’s recent posts on SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog.)  Busy as he is, Rand weighed in.

The verdict:  from a search perspective, go with a subfolder (e.g. www.sactree.com/greenprintonline) rather than a separate microsite (http://greenprintonline).

Rand pointed me to two recent posts on SEOmoz’s blog describing the distinctions between subdomains, subfolders and microsites in this post, and this post.

Here are the pros and cons I saw when thinking about the use of microsites:

Pros

Flexibility – the sponsoring organizations may have limited flexibility to modify their main site; it may be easier to build a functional microsite, with links

Enables a national organization to set up a tool that can be used/modified by a local organization

If the organization has limited brand recognition and appeal, could attract new interest

Possibly could be used as a transition to a new brand

Enables collaborative effort with more than one non-profit (less arguing about who “owns” benefits of halo)

Cons

If you click through a link from the main site, it could take a whole lot of clicks to find the information (wears out patience of user)

Challenge of managing two sites instead of one for resource-constrained organization

Could muddy image of main brand

Split traffic

Some could wonder who the sponsor really is; lacks credible image of established NFP

At breakfast recently, I batted around the idea of a website that could serve as a clearinghouse for information about human service agencies affected by the potentially humongous Sacramento County budget cuts – kind of a virtual coalition.  I’ve thought about the same thing as a way of pooling information about the incidence and effects of hunger in the area.  That still might be a good idea, but I’d recommend against establishing campaign microsites if there is only one sponsoring non-profit.

PS The Sacramento Tree Foundation also includes a subfolder/page on its main website.

I’d be very interested in any experience that you want to report – pro or con – with cause-related microsites.

Since starting The Philanthrophile back in October, I’ve been doing a lot of reading, thinking and writing about social media… along with the rest of the world.  Social media is hot, steamy hot.  While I think it’s important and MUST be a part of the tactical mix, it shouldn’t be top priority for a small non-profit.  Presuming that your organization has its mission and strategy figured out (hint:  that comes first), and knows what outcomes it is trying to achieve…

Da da da daaaaah!  (Marine Corps band trumpets here)  Your website should be top priority.

Why?  Social media doesn’t yet compare with the power – and numbers – of search.   We now Google for everything, even the stuff that might just as easily be found in the contacts section of Outlook. 

As Rand Fishkin, CEO and co-founder of SEOmoz posted today on the SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog:

Social media is great for:

• Connecting with your users (assuming they’re already on social media platforms and talking about you)
• Building another channel for communication, branding & messaging
• Appealing to early adopters
• Wasting time on non-business essential communication

But it can’t do what search/SEO does:

• Answer a direct need precisely when it’s requested in a scalable fashion
• Gain visibility from virtually all Internet users with an interest in your brand/product/sector/content at once

if you’re ignoring other important fundamentals of online marketing, like:

• Building a website with a unique value proposition
• Create amazingly useful content that people want to share
• Conduct effective email marketing
• Find ways to scalably acquire new users & retain existing ones

A website is home base, the platform for your marketing and communications efforts.   Here’s another blog post worth checking out from the Non-profit Tech Blog that puts websites into a “Maslow’s hierarchy” of needs.  Note that Customer Relationship Management (e.g. database/campaign management) and social media are ranked as less important than websites.  NEXT:  HOW TO TIPS FOR EVALUATING AND POSSIBLY RE-VAMPING YOUR WEBSITE, AND THEN:  ARE MICROSITES A GOOD IDEA FOR NON-PROFITS (AND WHAT ARE THEY, ANYWAY?)

"Brandon" Fishkin

I’ve got ideas.  Lots of them.  They come out of my butt constantly and I’m not talking about …

Anyhoo, that’s why this is my 109th reiteration of starting over.  This time, I’m going to blog about the adventure (back into) online marketing.  You see, I know this stuff.  I know it pretty well.  I’ve been able to generate quite a bit of traffic to a blog here.  However, I don’t have enough time or haven’t consistently done anything with it to really drive traffic like the blogs here on WordPress.com’ s Blogs of the Day. 

If I did, I’m thinking I may have been possibly Brad Fallon (with more black hair of course) or Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz fame, but maybe without the beard.  Well, today I’m not.  However, I’m considering since I spend so much stinking time on the computer and love to watch traffic grow on my websites, I’m going to take a deep dive back into it, document it & maybe it might help some of you?  Maybe I can make one of those cheesy “I’m going to make you rich” websites and make you hate me?!?

If there is one thing I cannot stand about fellow SEO’ers, it’s the newbies that think they know it all. Ya know, the ones that change a few title tags and do some keyword research thinking they have Google all figured out. Oh ignorant SEO’er, you’re so silly!

The fact of the matter is that no matter who you are or how long you’ve been doing Search Engine Optimization, there is always room for growth and expansion in your practice. Think of it this way: everyone knows the search engines are always getting smarter and faster so any person in the SEO field that fails to keep up and continue to grow alongside the big 3 will soon be obsolete. There are a few people who we can all look to with their tried-and-true techniques such as Rand Fishkin, Eric Ward, and even Danny Sulivan. These and a few others are very knowledgeable in the field of SEO and they understand the importance of continued growth for success on the internet.

Now by all means, I’m no SEO expert because I know I have a looooooooong way to go to get to where I want to be as an internet marketer. But I did manage to get my site to rank for a few strong keywords such as diabetic sandals and diabetic ambulator shoes to keep me going down my path for SEO knowledge. That felt like a pretty nice accomplishment too. Anyway, the point I’m trying to get to is that if you’re in the field of SEO, don’t act like a know-it-all. It’s annoying and it makes you look _______________ (those that share my pain can fill in the blank). I’ve come to the conclusion that for SEO and me, the more I know, the more I need to learn.

Como tenía una reunión a primera hora y el tráfico de Madrid estaba imposible (¡a pesar de los esfuerzos de la Vespa!) no he conseguido llegar a tiempo a la ponencia de Danny Sullivan. Eso sí, para la de Rand Fishkin estaba “como un clavo”.

Al grano. De lo que ha comentado Rand Fishkin en las dos ponencias en las que ha participado destacaría lo siguiente:

• Se ha hablado sobre la multitud de patentes que las compañías relacionadas con el mundo de las búsquedas están registrando. Nos ha hablado, por ejemplo, de una tecnología patentada por Microsoft que permite tener en cuenta la “segmentación visual” del sitio. A pesar de que muchas de estas tecnologías son demasiado caras de implementar, y es probable que nunca se lleguen a utilizar, da una idea del interés de la industria en crear nuevos productos y mejoras relacionados con las búsquedas en Internet.
• Ha hablado de la importancia de fijarse o “perseguir” a los representantes de los distintos motores de búsqueda. Aunque parece que ya no es tan importante como antes ha dicho algo que me ha parecido interesante: “no es tan importante lo que dicen sino como lo dicen”.
• El “sexto sentido” en el SEO. Durante toda la ponencia ha hablado del valor de la intuición o un “sexto sentido” por parte de los consultores SEO. La verdad es que creo que esto se resumen en: experiencia y sentido común… pero aceptaremos “sexto sentido”.
• La importancia de la Comunidad. A pesar de que hay dinero y contratos en juego la comunidad SEO suele ser muy abierta y comparte muchísima información. En realidad, creo que esto es aplicable a muchas de las Comunidades de expertos que tiene que ver con Internet y es clave en el éxito del medio. Nunca antes había existido tanta información compartida. En el caso de los buscadores, esto implica una necesidad continua de mejora.

Una de las partes más interesantes es cuando se ha hablado de lo que él considera como “elementos principales” del algoritmo (algunas de los puntos no necesitan comentarios):

• Uso de palabras clave en el contenido.
• Etiqueta de título. Si la palabra clave principal aparece como primera en el título mejor que mejor. En el taller de SEO de la tarde ha habido cierta discrepancia sobre esto. A veces, el valor de la “marca” puede ser fundamental a la hora de hacer “click” por parte de un usuario. Está claro que en eso hay que diferenciar entre lo que ayuda a que estemos un puesto más arriba y aquello que determina que el usuario haga click en nuestro sitio (aunque esté el tercero).
• El H1… importantísimo. En el taller vespertino se ha hablado de que los H2, H3, H4 también son importantes. Resumen: aplicar estándares web es importante.
• Texto de enlace relacionado con la URL a la que enlaza (algo sabíamos…).
• Si tienes dos enlaces en tu página que enlazan al mismo lugar, Google solo tendrá en cuenta el primero.
• Meta Description. No nos “sube / baja” pero es decisivo para que el usuario decida donde hacer click.
• ALT en imágenes con enlace. Funciona como “Anchor Text” pero lo cierto es que un enlace de texto parece tener más peso.
• Texto en negrita. No me ha quedado demasiado claro si simplemente ayuda a nivel de usabilidad y click de usuario o si también tiene que ver en el posicionamiento.
• Análisis semántico. Desde que google se dedica a hacer diccionarios de términos equivalentes todos teníamos claro que se estaba empezando a analizar el contenido de forma mucho más compleja.
• Autoridad / Confianza del dominio: antigüedad, número de dominios registrados por el mismo usuarios, historial de registros, tiempo de registro… Muy interesante la confirmación de algo que hasta ahora no tenía del todo claro: existen “trust domains”. Estos dominios pertenecientes a universidades, organismos gubernamentales, etc… aportan enlaces de un valor mucho mayor que otros. Lo que no tengo nada claro es que aporte lo mismo un .GOV norteamericano que cualquier enlace desde el sitio web de un ministerio español.
• Dominios largos y con muchos guiones: Google sospechará de ellos.
• Volumen de búsqueda por marca. Si todos los días 1000000 de personas buscan información sobre una marca… esta es relevante y su sitio web también. Esto garantiza una buena posición en los buscadores.

Mañana os comentaré más cosillas…

Asisto al SMX Madrid 2008, que tendrá lugar el próximo 20 y 21 de mayo . El año pasado asistí al Congreso de Ojobuscador, y aunque no dijeron nada nuevo, estuvo interesante, además tuve ocasión de conocer personalmente a uno de los grandes del mundo seo Español. En esta ocasión que van a asistir los gurus del mundo seo de habla inglesa, como Rand Fishkin y Danny Sullivan quizás me transmitan algo de mi desconocimiento sobre este tema…

¿Alguno de vosotros va a asistir al evento SMX Madrid 2008?

Rand Fishkin recently posted on the seomoz blog about the biggest threats to Google’s market share. Although his post was titled “The 4 Biggest Threats Google Faces”, he actually listed five threats (and numbered them 1 – 5).

Proficiently stating the obvious, Rand began by pointing out that Google is threatened by players already in the search engine market (Yahoo!, Microsoft, etc.). Continuing down the same track, he next observed that the threat to Google could come from outside the current search engine market. The first three paragraphs of his post were spent establishing that the threat to Google’s supremacy could come from… anyone.

Of the four scenarios presented by Rand that could threaten Google, number five was the most interesting. Could Google ever be overwhelmed by spam to the point that users would find its content irrelevant? SEOs everywhere outsmart Google every day, but there is more than a tinge of arrogance in believing that they will ever get so far ahead of Google engineers that the situation will be unrepairable. In fact, most SEOs would admit that they are always a step behind Google engineers, and that the only mode of survival is a balanced approach to search engine optimization for the benefit of useful, functional websites. SEOs are behind. Black hats become white hats every day.

So who could possibly threaten Google’s supremacy? Despite the general perception, Google is far from invincible. I believe the answer is “what”, not “who” will threaten Google. There are plenty of weaknesses that could be exploited by startups and potential competitors, a few of which are glaringly obvious. I’ll just look at one:

There is a ton of great content that Google cannot index. Google can’t index flash, javascript, or the content of videos. Google cannot even index the content of images except using alt tags and the surrounding text. Thousands of great websites are undervalued because Google cannot index this content. Google’s technology has a bigger impact on the webmaster toolkit than any other factor, because content is useless without visitors. We all know that Google has people working these problems, but imagine a search engine emerged that could index and describe these forms of content. Who wouldn’t use it? Video, flash, and javascript appeal more to the visual nature of our society, and the entire web would change if it were easier to find these sites. That seems the biggest and most obvious threat to Google’s supremacy.

Dave Naylor (Daven) says “We all know Google doesn’t know how to count” and he’s right.

Debra Mastaler wants Google to use its official communication channel and I think most of us can identify with her.

Todd Malicoat: ”I’m proud to work with Aaron Wall and Scott Smith“. Mazal Tov, Todd. We’re proud of you too.

Jim Boykin talks about his internet marketing ninjas training program and I’m a little bit sad of the fact that everyhing turns to be commercial at the end (if not in the middle of the way). I would surely miss the free SEO tools of We Build Pages.

Rand Fishkin offers SEOmoz’s website stats for 2007 and I must say that SEO-beginners can learn alot of what interesting factors should be looked at in a website stat from scanning SEOmoz stat’s titles plus I wonder if the the list of SEOmoz’s top referring domains is the real one…

Michael Gray mentions that long URLs are problematic for social media and I want to thank him ’cause I didn’t know 225 is the limit number I should keep in mind.

Aaron Wall writes about optimizing automated communication strategies and I get to recall once again why the seo-book is one book I can read again and again and again. Aaron writes so well and with so much honesty you can’t do anything but falling in love with him one more time.

Ya se la opinión de algunos de vosotros sobre los vídeos que incluyo en este blog, y la respeto, pero este vídeo que trata sobre los consejos que nos dan los más expertos dentro del mundo seo, tales como Rand Fishkin de Seomoz, Brian Mark de Toolbarn, David Brown de Seo Top Consultants y Eric Enge de Stone Temple Consulting merece la pena, aunque algunos ya los sepamos no viene mal recordarlos…

Video en Webpronews

Algunos de los consejos que nos dan los expertos seo:

Introduce tu sitio web o blog en la siguiente herramienta para comprobar como ve un buscador nustro sitio. Es la mejor manera de comprobar que es lo que estamos haciendo bien y que es lo que estamos haciendo mal para poder mejorarlo.

http://www.seoworkers.com/tools/analyzer.html

Nos recomiendan utilizar esta herramienta que nos dice la dificultad que tiene la keyword o keyword phrases para posicionarlas, la cual nos indica el porcentaje de dificultad, cuanto más alto es el porcentaje, será mas díficil.

http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/keyword-difficulty/

A tener en cuenta:

El contenido es el rey (opinión que comparto),si se puede actualizar a diario mejor, ya que a los mótores de búsqueda les gusta .

Recuerda que la creación de redes sociales es el camino hacia el futuro en lo que respecta a SEO y dirigir el tráfico hacia sus sitios.

No he podido incluir el vídeo en el blog ya que la plataforma wordpress tiene ciertas limitaciones…lo he incluido en mi otro blog de posicionamiento pero es incomparable en cuanto a tráfico se refiere, quizás sea el motivo que me impida animarme a migrar de aqui…pero tarde o temprano lo tendré que hacer.