Show archive of January 2010
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Link Marketing in 2010 with Eric Ward
January 27, 2010
Links are crucial to the Web economy today, conducting traffic, visibility, and trust to sites and pages. On today’s show, Bruce, Susan and Virginia start by considering link marketing, not only as it contributes to SEO, but also as it fits into overarching marketing goals. Bruce looks at what makes a quality link, with converting traffic being key, and explains the need to look at links from a holistic point of view rather than an SEO-minded one. Links are just one factor for Universalized, personalized search engine rankings, and balance and synergy are effective underlying marketing strategies.
Eric Ward, a link marketing specialist with a reputation as Link Moses, joins Virginia to talk about link building in 2010. Eric explains his recommended approach for link marketing this year. He talks about the effect of personalization and whether or not that changes the link marketing approach. He also contributes his two cents to the results of a recent survey collected on the Bruce Clay, Inc. blog. Survey participants felt that link buying was not very important while creating link magnet content was important. Tune in to the show to find out what Eric thought about the results.
Then Susan, Virginia and SEO analyst Maryann Robbins talks about the SEO community’s priorities, based on the results of the informal survey on the blog. Optimized site architecture, new audience targeting and link buying were at the bottom of the list, while optimizing for local search, link building through strong content, and on-site optimization led the pack in SEO priorities. -
Conversion Optimization & Content Development with Bryan Eisenberg
January 20, 2010
This month, world news has intersected with the search engine marketing industry more than usual. Bruce Clay, Susan and Virginia start off the show by reviewing recent search headlines with far-reaching implications for Internet marketers. A devastating earthquake in Haiti last week catalyzed a global effort to provide relief and rescue to the rubble-stacked nation. Relief organizations were able to raise funds with unprecedented success by allowing people to make donations through text messages and by spreading the word through social media channels. In other news, Google and the Chinese government have been publically at odds this week after Google announced it had been attacked and robbed of intellectual property, with the Chinese government being the primary suspect. Google has said that it will pull its services from the country if it can not come to an agreement about censorship.
Then Bryan Eisenberg, best-selling author of several books on Internet marketing and number five on Invesp.net’s list of the most influential online marketers of 2009, talks to Virginia about his recommendations for Internet marketing in the new year. Bryan shares his prediction for the marketing skills that will be crucial in the coming year, as well as his observations of the increasing mainstream recognition of conversion optimization. If you like what you hear from Bryan, be sure to check out his new conversion optimization certification program with Market Motive as well as his keynote presentation at SES London next month, 21 Secrets of Top Converting Web Sites.
As Bryan sees it, the copywriter is going to be an irreplaceable part of any marketing team over the next decade. Susan, Virginia and SEO analyst Maryann Robbins take a look at ways to brainstorm new content ideas as well as ways to identify content holes on a site. Maryann suggests repurposing correspondence with customers when answering frequently asked questions. Virginia likes to expand upon the company story in order to convey personality and connect with the audience. Susan recommends including basic or introductory content that helps researchers and those new to the product or service. -
The New Community Rules with Tamar Weinberg
January 13, 2010
With Bruce presenting SEOToolSet Training this week, Susan, Virginia and Bradley host a show focused on speed on the Web. From Google’s recent push for site speed to the speed and dexterity required of communicating on the real-time, social Web, speed is becoming an increasingly important factor for Internet marketers and businesses online. Read Internet marketer Eric Enge post Will Google make page speed a ranking factor? for an overview of the many areas where Google has been promoting the need for speed, including the tools the search engine has provided to webmasters to help make Web sites faster.
Tamar Weinberg, a writer and consultant specializing in social media marketing, then talks to Virginia about her book The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web. Tamar’s lauded book guides readers to develop a social media marketing strategy and then details the specific tools and platforms. She explains that the etiquette of social media marketing is just like social etiquette offline, and she also talks about the role of content and customer service within social media marketing. Her final recommendation is that businesses enter the social media space as soon as possible, though the effort can be gradual and cautious if bureaucracy and red tape stand in the way.
Susan and Bradley join Virginia in exploring the contents of The New Community Rules, focusing in on the appendix The Ultimate Social Media Etiquette Handbook. Originally published by Tamar on her blog, Techipedia.com, the popular post was included in her book because it accurately and succinctly stands as a social media marketer’s rule book for marketing through social media platforms. Community rules for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, social news sites, FriendFeed, YouTube, StumbleUpon, blogs and blog comments are all included in this definitive guide. -
Looking Forward to the Year in Search 2010
January 6, 2010
Bruce Clay’s annual SEO preview features impressively accurate predictions for the year ahead. Bruce’s predictions for Internet marketing in 2010 will be published in the January edition of the SEOToolSet Newsletter. On today’s episode of SEM Synergy, Bruce gives a sneak peak of his 2010 predictions. Bruce expects to see the online sector leading the way to economic recovery in March.
Update: Bruce’s predictions for SEO in 2010 are now available.
Then Paula Allen, Susan Esparza and Virginia Nussey look at the 2010 digital marketing trends compiled by Last Exit. Some trends excite the hosts, while others terrify them. Will social media come to replace e-mail? Will social media become integrated around the Web? Are info graphics the big thing in 2010? Time will tell.
The co-hosts wrap up the show with advice on fighting for and setting an SEO budget for the new year. One of the first steps is getting executive-level buy-in. By doing showing the potential for return on investment and by pulling in as much data as is available, the need for a company to invest in SEO can be made clear and compelling. Company data about the benefit of current PPC marketing can also help to demonstrate the advantages of search engine marketing.