Blogging

What are the most popular Web 2.0 applications? Exactly how helpful is online video as as search marketing tool? Which social media sites are the most valuable? How can you use StumbleUpon for SEO link building? Where can you find free tools to help monitor buzz about your company across blogs, Twitter on online forums?

Read on to discover all of this and more in some of the best blog posts and articles on social media and Web 2.0 so far in 2008.

The 100 top Web apps for 2008 by Webware

The top 100 web applications as chosen by Webware readers, across 10 categories including browsing (e.g. Google Reader, Opera and Firefox), audio (e.g. last.fm, emusic and Pandora) and communication (e.g. Gmail, Skype and AIM).

Video Links: The Best Lures in the SEO Tackle Box? by E-Commerce Times

Writer Peter Hamilton makes the case that online video is useful not only for producing a short-term boost in traffic but also, through blended search, for SEO efforts. He includes some highly compelling figures for support: “MarketingExperiments Journal investigated whether viral video content could actually produce click results. It pulled in more than 80,000 views in only one month by producing and posting 28 amateur-style videos for the Web. After two months, that number grew to 300,000 with no further work or investment.”

Mythbusting: Why Video Should Be A Core Search Marketing Tool by Search Engine Land

Another post about the SEO value of video, this one from Glenn Pingul, VP of marketing for online advertising company Mixpo. Glenn pokes holes in nine myths about online video, small business and search marketing to bolster his contention that “video has the promise to not only alter the rules of search engine marketing but also online marketing in such a way that can tip things in the favor of SMBs.”

SAI 25: The World’s Most Valuable Digital Startups by Silicon Alley Insider

Billed as an iterative list of the most value private digital companies that “changes as facts and markets change,” this site shows the rankings of the top 25 online startups as well as 25 more top contenders. Some rankings are surprising (Webkinz is worth more than LinkedIn?), some are disturbing (the Huffington Compost is worth as much as Twitter?) and many are controversial, as indicated by the comments here.

StumbleUpon Traffic IS Worth Something: Links by Conversation Marketing

The brilliant Ian Lurie uses hard data from personal experience to show that “there’s a clear connection between Stumblefests and link growth.” StumbeUpon isn’t just great for producing low-quality traffic surges, it also produces more high-quality links over time, which is of course great for SEO. Unfortunately, Ian was recently banned by StumbleUpon, so use this service very carefully.

Building Your Blog With StumbleUpon by ProBlogger

This guest post provides detailed instructions on how to maximize your influence, exposure and blog traffic through the use of this popular social bookmarking site. Be warned that it takes some work, but the results may well be worth it. As far as I know, this author hasn’t been banned by StumbleUpon (yet).

Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile by SEO Chat

Inspired by sources such as Guy Kawasaki’s LinkedIn Profile Extreme Makeover, writer Terri Wells provides step-bu-step instructions for overhauling your LinkedIn profile to get the maximum social networking, SEO and reputation management benefit from it.

Is Your Site Social Media Friendly? by Search Engine Land

Internet marketing consultant Brent Csutoras provides eight tips (and creative use of clip art) to “make sure your site is designed and performs in a way that is suitable for social media,” including the use of a modern design template, avoiding pop-ups or other annoying roadblocks, a clear call to action and avoidance of “spam words.”

Who’s In Your Audience or Community? by Search Marketing Gurus

Contending that “An online marketing strategy includes SEO, PPC, Social Media and even Word of Mouth. With that in mind, there are more segments (beyond those identified in Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Beroff) of an audience to take into account when you begin to strategize,” Li Evans engagingly identifies eight other types of users your online programs need to consider, including Brand Evangelists, Promoters and Got To Have It Nows (but watch out for Trolls).

Seven Buzz Monitoring Sites To Watch by Search Insider

What’s hot in your industry? Who’s talking about you (and what are they saying)? To help you find out, David Berkowitz provides a guide to seven of the best buzz monitoring sites, including Twitter search tool Twist, keyword demographics from Quantcast, and blog search engines Trendpedia and BlogPulse.

Previous posts in this series:

Best of 2008 (So Far) - SEO Guidance, Part 1
Best of 2008 (So Far) - SEO Guidance, Part 2
Best of 2008 (So Far) - Search Engine Marketing, Part 1
Best of 2008 (So Far) - Cool Web Tools, Part 1
Best of 2008 (So Far) - Social Media Optimization, Part 1
Best of 2008 (So Far) - Blogging for Business, Part 1
Best of 2008 (So Far) - Web Marketing Research, Part 1
Best of 2008 (So Far) - Website Design, Part 1
Best of 2008 (So Far) - SEO Link Building
Best of 2008 (So Far) - Search Engine Marketing, Part 2

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Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

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Best of 2008 (So Far) - Social Media Optimization, Part 2

In an ideal world, SEO would be taken into consideration from the earliest stages of a new website design process, and “baked in” to the site from the start.

(Okay, I take that back; in an ideal world we’d all have movie star looks, be in Olympic athlete condition, and have the net worth of Larry Page, so none of us would worry about arcane things like SEO. But I digress.)

In the real world, however, SEOs are often called in to optimize an existing site, after all of the URLs are created, the navigation is already in place and all of the content is written. While that obviously reduces flexibility and makes certain steps impossible, the site’s search performance can still be improved using this 12-step process.

1. Compile an initial keyword list

This involves two independent activities. First, generate a list of keywords based on the content of each page. Second, ask key individuals in the company (sales, top executives, etc.) for their lists of key search phrases. It’s not unusual to turn up several important 2-4 word key phrases that don’t even appear on the website!

2. Expand, verify and prioritize target keyword list

Use SEO keyword tools to expand your initial list of key words and phrases from step one, then prioritize the list based on search term popularity as well as value to the business. In other words, ask two questions for every key phrase: 1) how popular is this term among searchers? and 2) how likely is it that a searcher using this phrase is looking for what we have to sell?

3. Match keywords to pages

Once the keyword list is established, search terms should be mapped to specific pages. Each page can support, ideally, one “core” key phrase as well as 2-3 long tail variants. So, for example, a page optimized for a high-volume two-word phrase like “blue thingamabobs” could also be the target page for “screaming blue thingamabobs,” “blue thingamabobs sales” and “screaming blue thingamabobs sales.”

An excellent way to start matching keywords to phrases is to use Google Advanced Search. Enter your key phrase in the box for “this exact wording or phrase:” and your domain (in the form company.com) in the “Search within a site or domain:” box. If no good matches are found, you may need to rewrite an existing page to target the key phrase or even create an entirely new page.

4. Review URLs / Modify content and meta tags

Modifying URLs on an existing site is much more painful than using a search-friendly URL in the initial design, but can be worth the effort if the initial URLs were chosen with no regard for SEO. For example, if you sell call recording software, then a URL like call-recording-software.html is much more likely to get you ranked highly by the search engines than is a URL such as products.html.

In addition to URLs, perform other on-page SEO work to optimize each page for its corresponding set of target key phrases by optimizing title tags, on-page headings (h1, h2 etc. tags), use of key phrases in bold and italic, and a target keyword density of 1.5% to 4%.

5. Perform initial SEO check (baseline)

With on-site SEO tasks completed, it’s time to perform a baseline SEO check. This is like the “before” photo in a weight loss ad. Run you final list of key terms through an automated tool such as the SEO Chat keyword position tool or the SEOBook Rank Checker tool. The results probably won’t be pretty, but they are important, so save this check and back it up.

6. Re-submit site to search engines / Create and register Google site map

It’s true that unless you somehow have managed to create a site that absolutely no one links to, there is no need to manually submit your site to the search engines; they’ll find it (eventually). However, this step doesn’t hurt, it can get your re-indexed more quickly, and it only takes five minutes to hand-submit a site to Google, Yahoo and MSN, so there’s no real reason not to do this.

Next, create and submit an XML site map for Google. Again, there’s no guarantee this step will improve your search engine positioning, but it will help Google to index more of the pages on your site.

7. Identify sites for linking: by keywords and competitors

Perform searches for your top key terms as well as competitor names. Compile a list of sites for link-building efforts based on these searches.

8. Build external links

External links are a critical component of SEO. In addition to getting your site linked from appropriate directories and social media sites, undertake an effort to get your site linked on sites that show up well for searches on your key search phrases (such as blogs, publications, portal sites and specialized directories) as well as on sites where your competitors are listed. Here are several more tactics for SEO link building.

9. 30-day SEO check and report

These on-site and off-site SEO efforts should begin to show results within 2-3 weeks, but give it a month to be safe. After 30 days, run an updated search position check. Normally, this will show a mix of significant improvement in search engine position on some terms, more moderate improvement on others. The results will indicate for which terms additional efforts are needed.

10. Ongoing content edits

Based on the results of the 30-day SEO check, make additional content edits to improve search engine positioning for your “challenging” terms. These include title tag modifications, image alt tags and image file names, internal in-text links, on-page headings and page content.

11. Ongoing link building

Link building is a process; over time, you’ll discover new sites and blogs to approach for links, develop new link bait content (articles, podcasts, video etc.), and establish new relationships that can facilitate links.

Make sure to maximize the link-building value of your PR efforts as well by writing SEO press releases with keyword text links. (Here are more press release SEO tips for writing search optimized press releases.) Use Interactive PR practices to get your news linked from blogs and social bookmarking sites.

12. Monthly SEO checks / Ongoing reporting, analysis and optimizing

Monitor and analyze the results of your SEO efforts on a monthly basis, so you can bask in your successes and focus continuing efforts where needed. Review critical website analytics each month such as sources of traffic, top-performing keywords and navigation paths through your site. SEO isn’t just about driving more traffic, it’s ultimately about producing ROI, so focus efforts on getting visitors to take a desired action (purchase a product, sign up for a free trial, download a white paper, or whatever). If, for example, you’ve written a keyword-rich article on “Exciting New Applications for Screaming Blue Thingamabobs” that’s drawing a lot of organic search traffic, maximize the benefit of the page by linking to relevant white papers, demos and other materials on your site.

There you have it. If you’re relatively new to SEO, I hope you find these 12 steps helpful. If you’re an SEO pro, feel free to improve on this list by leaving a comment.

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Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

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12 Steps to Successful SEO

Your boss (or client) wants to see what kind of results you’ve been getting from that latest search marketing program. Want a cooler, easier way to show them the data? This may be your answer.
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Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

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And Now for Something Completely Different - Business Intelligence Widgets

I’ve been participating in an alpha test of a new social press release creation tool called PitchEngine (public beta coming soon). In the words of PitchEngine creator Jason Kintzler, “PitchEngine shakes up the PR industry making it possible for PR pros, brands, and agencies to build and share digital, social media releases with their contacts for free. Our PitchEngine SMR (social media release) takes the press release to the next level, eliminating the need for antiquated email attachments, word documents, image CDs, and more.”

Although the tool has a few minor glitches at this point (the number of characters permitted for subheads and the “quick pitch” is way too small, the feature for adding Resources and Related Links is touchy, and hyperlinks have to be recreated after cut-and-paste from Word), overall it’s very slick and easy to use. I created a social media release for version 10 of the Quick View Plus desktop file viewing utility (a VERY useful application BTW) from Avantstar, and other than a little manual effort on the links, the process was quick and easy. Reporting capabilities will be added soon.

PitchEngine provides an intuitive interface for creating the release; adding images, video and audio files; applying tags; and including social networking links for press contacts. It’s a slick tool that includes some nice touches, such as automatically creating a shortened URL for use with Twitter. You can keep with the latest developments on the PitchEngine blog.

*****

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Original post:
PitchEngine Simplifies Social PR

Google Street View has been given approval to drive on the other side of the street on the other side of the pond.

The company’s controversial photo-mapping tool has gotten the green light from the U.K.’s privacy watchdog group. Street View uses special vehicles with panoramic cameras to snap pictures of streets. It then uses the digital images as part of its online mapping service, so that people can see what locations look like.

Privacy groups in the U.K. have criticized the tool, saying it could violate privacy and data protection laws. These privacy advocates have been worried that people or other identifying markers, such as vehicle license plates, could be used to identify and track individuals in the Google pictures.

But the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), an independent agency in the U.K. that is charged with helping protect personal information, said it is “satisfied” that Google has enough safeguards in the tool to prevent it from harming anyone’s privacy, the BBC reported Thursday.

Specifically, the ICO said in a statement that it believes safeguards such as blurring faces and license plates on cars is enough to allay fears about breaching privacy.

“Although it is possible that in certain limited circumstances an image may allow the identification of an individual, it is clear that Google (is) keen to capture images of streets and not individuals,” the agency said in a statement.

Google first launched Street View in mid-2007 in the U.S. It immediately faced criticism from privacy advocates in the U.S. and abroad.

A husband and wife in Pittsburgh are suing Google for showing an image of their house, which is accessed only by a private road.

Google maintains its position that the photos are not an invasion of privacy. The company even provides people with an option to flag photos for removal that they deem inappropriate.

Despite the privacy concerns, Google has managed to expand the Street View service throughout the world. And it was used to track the Tour de France earlier this month. The BBC reported that Google’s Street View cars have been spotted throughout the U.K. snapping pictures, but the company hasn’t said yet when it will add the photos to its mapping service in that country.

Source:
Google Street View is approved for the U.K.