IS SEO Dead?

Dead? No. Evolving? You betcha.

Last week Google launched an upgrade to its search engine, adding social results for users signed in with their Google accounts. In addition to traditional website search results, searchers will start seeing results from their friends on Twitter, Blogger, Flickr, LinkedIn, etc.

Where's Facebook? Facebook won't give access to its social data as they want to compete with Google to be the leader of search in the coming years.  Because of this, Google has tried to work with just about every other social platform to make the search more social.

For a better understanding of these changes, check out this video from Google:

With this new take on search, rank is officially dead as a metric for companies to obsess over.  It doesn't matter if you rank high for a certain keyword -- Google is scaling personalized/social search.

What Does This Mean?

It means that everyone who searches on Google will see a different set of results, based location, search history and connections across major social media platforms.

It also means that companies need to be more active on social media.  The number of connections you have on different social media platforms now directly correlates to the number of people you can possibly reach through Google search results.

What Should You Do?

Stop worrying about whether or not you have enough relevent keywords crammed into each page on your Website.  Instead, focus your energy on creating rock solid content, and dispersing it through the different social media channels.

What do you think about Google's new search?

SEO and President’s Day!

After you read this blog, type the letters “PRE” into Google today, and see what pops up as suggestions. You will see President’s Day, and President’s Day 2011. Google’s suggestions change based on what people are currently searching for, and so it is a safe bet that if you do the same experiment in June, you will have a completely different list of suggestions.

What does that mean to you? It means that you need to be set up to capture all of this extra traffic, that’s what!

Create a custom landing page, with President’s Day specials. Make sure that the page is titled appropriately, and that your meta data and page content are geared towards capturing the attention of search engines on this holiday. Creating additional pages for each holiday is always a good idea, since it keeps your page fresh. Do not simply change the graphics on your homepage to suit the sale; chances are this will not get picked up by search engines.

If you run a lot of Google Adwords campaigns, add President’s Day into your description for this weekend. I am not suggesting completely changing all of the ads, but incorporate “President’s Day” into the text under your ad, as well as adding a couple of new keyword combinations.

Lastly, remember to answer your phones, and greet your customers appropriately. Every customer should be welcomed with a “Happy President’s Day”. Even if you do not do any special pricing in your line of business for this holiday, simply mentioning it implies that the customer is receiving a better deal. I know this last part has nothing to do with SEO, it’s just sound business advice.

And Happy President’s Day!

Social Media for the Little Guy

There are lots of books out there to learn how to build a social media site.  Unfortunately, the majority of them are written for large companies.  It seems like they all start with the same steps:

1. Go, and listen to what is already being said about your company on the social web.
2. Chart what people in your industry are saying about you. 
3. Create lists of the positive, negative, and neutral statements about your company by industry insiders and customers.

But what if there is no mention of your company? You do a Twitter or SocialMention.com search, and nothing comes up.  I can already hear small business saying, “No one’s talking about me; I guess have no place in social media,” and packing it in before they begin.

I would argue that much like David and Goliath, there are some advantages to being the small, unmentioned business.  Of course, if you don’t start your new presence the right way, you are sunk right from the start.  If you haven’t already read the “Starting Social Media from Scratch” series, please take the time to now.

For those that went and read the series, Welcome back.  Hope you found it educational. 

Continuing on…  As a small business, you have advantages that the larger companies do not.  First of all, you have a larger desire to handle customer service better.    You understand that every customer, happy or sad, is how you make money; you don’t think in terms of “Hourly wage”, or even “Salary”.  As a small business owner, there’s no such thing as “just doing your job”; you know that any loss of service directly corresponds to the loss of your money.

You have the ability to see every comment about your company, and to respond.  You aren’t going to have to sort through thousands a day, and try to figure out which issues to address first.  You can handle them one at a time.  You have the ability to go and start actual conversations with your page as your identity.  The small business has every advantage to build a loyal online gathering.  

Given the option as a user, I would rather comment on a smaller social media page, where I can ask a question and receive an answer, or leave a comment that will be addressed.  On a large, corporate social media site, filled with both happy comments and angry bashings, my question is more likely to be ignored, since the moderators are too busy putting out fires all over their page.

If you successfully start a social media campaign from scratch, as a “Little Guy” you have more advantages to make it a useful tool than a big lumbering corporation.  Just remember to stay social.

Increasing Facebook Fan Base Easily?

Red pens are fun.

There is an overwhelming amount of information floating out there in cyberspace regarding how to grow your Facebook page.  A lot of this information is extremely repetitive and mostly common sense.  Of course you want to promote your Facebook page via print material displayed at your location and in your printed ads.  Obviously, you are going to update your email signature to include the link to your Facebook page.  Everyone knows that they are going to send out an email to their email and Ezine subscribers, informing them that you are now on Facebook.  Are there any ideas out there that haven’t been mentioned by every marketing company on the planet?

Sure there are, but they require work, which is why they are not commonly mentioned…   Let’s look at a couple of the previously listed ideas first, and then we’ll begin to discuss the heavy lifting.

You can post on Twitter one hundred times a day, “Follow me on Facebook!!!” for a month straight and you aren’t going to gain any followers.  Email every customer you’ve ever collected, and inform them of your new status, and you may pick up a follower or two.  These commonly listed approaches to “Increase Your Facebook Fan base” typically show small results.  Why?  Because they go against the principles of “Social”.

Stop thinking that if you tell people to do something, or check out something, they are going to do it or check it.  Do you know how much money has gone into television marketing where a little lizard tells you that fifteen minutes can save you 15 percent?  According to SwiftEconomics, $800 million was spent just last year.  According to Geico they have 10 million policy holders.  That means I have pretty good odds if I bet you haven’t called yet.  Just being told what to do does not create action.

Forget your business page for a moment, and think about your personal Facebook account.  What was the last comment you made to another person?  It was probably congratulatory, consolatory, or humorous. I would assume there was no call to action or offer for savings.  I doubt anyone posted “I’m having car trouble.  First one to comment with a solution gets a free $5.00 gift certificate to Dunkin Donuts!” Or, in response to a “I’m having car troubles” posting by a friend, said “Go to Thisdealer.com right now to schedule your maintenance today!”

The point is, it’s a lot of work to treat your business like it is a person, and there are no easy solutions. You can't just “Add a link on your personal profile.”

 Want to increase your fans?  What types of pages would YOUR business be a fan of?  Go, and follow those sites.  Comment on their postings.  Do not advertise, simply add to the discussions.  If your Facebook page starts showing up on other Facebook pages, and is adding meaningful, interesting information, people will start to check you out.  That is how you build a following of people.  Although it is a lot more work, the concept is easy.  Listen to others, then speak, then respond again.  Eventually, people will start to talk to you, and follow you.  It takes a lot of work to start the avalanche, but once it’s going, it can snowball, as long as you stay involved.

Isn't Found Money Fun!

Earlier this week, I was looking to gather up enough change to buy a stamp, so I could pay the garbage collector, and I came up 12 cents short.  This is the only bill that I cannot pay online, and since I didn’t have a stamp left at the house, it was time to head down to the post office. I guess I could have broken a $20, or I could have bought the stamp with my debit card, but neither seemed like the way to go.  Instead, I just checked in the couch cushions and under the car seat, and found a quarter rolling around. Voilà! Problem solved by “Found Money”.

How often do you go out, searching for new money, instead of looking more closely at what you have? Of course you need creative advertisements to draw in new customers.  In addition, you need to market to your existing customer base, and provide additional services to the people you are already catering to.  This refocus on loyal customers can be that extra cash that is just lying around.

Examples of programs meant to increase spending from your existing customer base:

• Loyalty programs, such as punch cards or electronic club cards, provide free product with enough consecutive purchases or visits. 
• Customer Appreciation events, in which customers are invited to participate in special events or sales, with special savings for loyal customers only.
• Grouped product sales, like the Charter* Bundle or Two for $20(Applebee’s*), provide a greater value based on multiple products bought together at the same time, versus the a la carte sales model.
• Cross promotional sales that capture additional revenue for products that you regularly would not have sold. (e.g., selling Sunday newspapers at your coffee shop drive thru.)

“Found Money” is great.  Every once in a while, you put on a jacket you haven’t worn for months and stumble across an amount of money just by checking the pockets.  When you are able to capture extra sales from your existing customer base, you are finding that extra money, it’s just coming out of other people's pockets.