The Train Has Left The Station June 11, 2009
Posted by Gary in Business Models.add a comment
More and more we hear metaphors for “it’s too late”, for example, “the train has left the station”,”the ship has left the dock”, “the genie is out of the bottle”, “the horse has left the barn”, etc. And, frequently, these are applied to all things “Internet”.
Most companies have recognized that their “cheese has been moved” and have made or are making adjustments to their business model or sales channels to leverage the Internet. But, more often than you would imagine, there are people and companies who really don’t believe the Internet has forever changed their business.
Gord Hotchkiss, one of smartest people in the search marketing industry, posted an article this morning entitled, “Get It or Die: Online Is Your Core Business”. His story describes what it means to fully comprehend this life changing event. Good reading for anyone who thinks making accommodations to adapt is the same as embracing and capitalizing on a new way of working.
Writing Great Web Content April 16, 2009
Posted by Gary in Search Engine Optimization.add a comment
If you’re in the West Los Angeles area on Saturday (April 18), stop by Barnes and Noble, 3rd Street Promenade, in Santa Monica at 3pm to meet Jon Wuebben. He’s signing copies of his new book, “Content Rich: Writing your Way to Wealth on the Web”. I’ve worked with Jon, and he’s a real pro that knows how to get results.
Marketing Opportunities in a Bad Economy April 2, 2009
Posted by Gary in PPC - Pay Per Click Advertising.add a comment
Current economic conditions have caused less savvy marketers to “go dark”, canceling advertising and promotion until better times appear. Experienced marketers know that it’s imperative to remain visible during bad times. They also know that it’s possible to make incremental gains in share-of-voice when their competitors retrench. If you’re not using Search Marketing, now is a great time to start.
Google recently surveyed 8,675 U.S. consumers about their current buying patterns: 53% said they now use search engines more often to research their purchases. This means there is an opportunity for Search Marketers to expand keyword buys to include “research” and “consideration” terms.
Google’s research also confirmed that people are spending more time online searching for “deals”: 53% of consumers said they now spend more time online searching for the latest promotions and discounts, while 46% spend more time searching for coupons. This means there’s an opportunity for search marketers to leverage promotional language in search ads and an opportunity to build incremental business from coupons. If you aren’t taking advantage of Google Map local listings and coupons (via Google Local Business Center), you should drop what you’re doing and sign-up now! It’s FREE!!
Leverage every opportunity you can find. That’s just Smart Business!
Moving at the Speed of Light! March 6, 2009
Posted by Gary in Uncategorized.add a comment
The world moves faster and faster everyday. Technology has been the key to creating new efficiencies and eliminating many wastes in both time and money. It’s had a tremendous impact on productivity, touching almost every category and industry.
Each day we have more and more data on which to make decisions. Most of these decisions aren’t critical or life threatening. But some are!
Acting on important data, making judgments and decisions about life changing issues isn’t easy. And, because technology gives us information faster, we have to be ready to make those judgments and decisions, FASTER. If you’re looking at a potential disaster, you’ve got to do your best to solve the situation quickly, avoiding a “train wreck”. It seems like there are more and more of these kinds of situations lately.
I was thinking back to the incredible actions by US Airways Captain Sullenberger a few weeks ago, who made the life-saving decision to land his aircraft in the Hudson. Flying can be very unforgiving. Things happen quickly and multiple dynamics and systems are required to keep a passenger aircraft safely in the air. I know this from personal experience as a pilot.
I hate to think what might have happened if someone less experienced had been in command that fateful day. Captain Sully’s tenure as a seasoned professional probably made the difference. Weighing all of the options and especially the considerable risk of a water landing, Captain Sullenberger appeared to have made the decision based on experience, understanding and judgment that were the by-product of a career of on-the-job training leading up to the heralding event. Captain Sullenberger’s intuition and perspective let him analyze the data making the right decision at “the speed of light”.
This is the kind of perspective and experience that we could use more of in our everyday life. We’ve got an economy that is spiralling downward. A health-care system that’s not providing adequate care and an energy policy that is frankly running out of energy! We need some people like Captain Sullenberger to assess these situations and make some critical decisions quickly to keep us from crashing and to help put us on the road to progress. Where are the Captain Sully clones in economics, health care and energy?
I know you’re out there. We need you! The world is moving so quickly. We don’t have time to waste.
Clear Disclosure of Sponsorship Is Critical March 3, 2009
Posted by Gary in Search Engine Optimization.1 comment so far
There seems to be some ambiguity among marketers and webmasters concerning paid links and whether or not they should affect search engine rankings. If you care about Google, and you should since in almost all cases Google is your largest target audience, you should know Google’s policy on paid links as outlined by Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s webspam team…
Clear disclosure of sponsorship is critical, and that includes disclosure for search engines. If a link in a paid post would affect search engines, that link should not pass PageRank (e.g. by using the nofollow attribute). Google — and other search engines — do take action which can include demoting sites that sell links that pass PageRank, for example.
Being familiar with Google’s user guidelines and policies is important for marketers and search professionals who follow best practices and are helping to contribute to the quality and growth of search as a marketing and information tool. It can also keep you out of trouble!
50 Reasons Why Marketers Should Embrace Online Video February 13, 2009
Posted by Gary in Search Engine Optimization.2 comments
According Forrester Research, “On the keywords for which Google offers video results, any given video in the index stands about a 50 times better chance of appearing on the first page of results than any given text page in the index”. That’s pretty compelling evidence to support the use of online video for your product or service.
Lots of marketers are starting to post videos, but they most don’t pay attention to the factors that will get them included in the search results for their important keywords. Nate Elliot of Forrester says, “Less than 20% of marketers tell us they insert keywords into the filenames of the videos on their site, and even fewer use more advanced tactics like writing keyword-rich captions and annotations, or creating online video libraries.”
There’s a big opportunity for those willing to learn a little bit about search engine optimization (SEO) and more specifically, SEO for video. As more people get smarter about video SEO, it won’t be as easy to get results.
Reducing “Noise” on the Web February 13, 2009
Posted by Gary in Search Engine Optimization.add a comment
The big three search engines will embrace a new web standard to reduce duplicate content on the web (more details in today’s New York Times). Google has been a leader in this effort for years, evidenced by their very helpful Webmaster Central Tools. Google’s goal has been and continues to be providing their users with a better search experience… helping people what they are looking for in a minimum amount of time. Now that Microsoft and Yahoo are following their lead, searchers will have fewer pages to sift through and more relevant results! This is good news for search.
How We Perceive The World February 12, 2009
Posted by Gary in Uncategorized.add a comment
Half-empty or half-full? What’s your take on the world? You might think it doesn’t matter, that the world has too much momentum for you to make a difference.
At least one company recognizes that how we think about things can open up opportunities. Take a look at the recent commercial for Kaplan University:
Forward thinking, hopeful, using the technology of the present to shape the success of our future. Finding a new way in a jungle of worn-out ideas.
I hope more of those who influence our lives everyday, in government and private industry, will begin to look at the world “half-full” and not “half-empty”. Once we believe in the possible it changes everything.
The Rationale for Search! February 8, 2009
Posted by Gary in Search Engine Optimization.add a comment
Gord Hotchkiss is someone I follow regularly because I think he’s really smart. Not only is he a very smart marketing professional, but he’s an expert in Search and is constantly researching the how’s and why’s of consumer behavior. And, he’s a very good writer to boot!
Yesterday, he wrote a piece describing the seven habits unique to search that make it as close to recession proof as possible. The article is entitled, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Advertising“. He gives a good explanation of why there has been minimal contraction in search spending during the current economic downturn. After reading it, I felt it was one of the best explanations of why every business should make search a key part of their marketing arsenal.
If you haven’t started a search program at your business, now’s the perfect time to do it. Don’t wait!
The Power of Twitter January 23, 2009
Posted by Gary in Search Engine Optimization.add a comment
If anyone has doubts about the power of Twitter, read Todd Friesen’s SearchInsider blog post this morning, “The Tweet Life“. A lot of people have trouble understanding why Twitter is so important. To understand it, you need to see how people use it. Todd gives a great explanation and provides some nice examples.
