A client of mine, ChordBuddy, was recently featured on Shark Tank. I went to Google Analytics’ real time feature and began a screen record as the show opened. Here is the result:
Keyword Research in 3 Minutes
If you don’t do keyword research for your search engine optimization campaign then you might as well be firing blindly, with one arm tied behind your back, while watching a slow-moving train-wreak and listening to “Ice, Ice, baby…” Don’t be that person, do keyword research. Here’s a 3 minute primer:
Google’s Netflix Moment?
Everyone remembers the moment when Netflix got a little too big for their britches.
“Hey everyone! We’re jacking up your rates. Now give us some love!”
-Netflix
Then they followed it up with this epic announcement:
“Hey guys, sorry about that rate thing. We really didn’t have a choice because the cost of content is skyrocketing. But check out this new Qwickster thing!”
-Netflix
If you’ve watched the stock price over the past several months and the disappearance of their profits you know they have certainly paid a price for their stupidity. As I watch Google’s recent decisions it’s as if I’m watching a slow moving freight-train headed for a cliff. It’s a Netflix moment, but in super-slow-mo.
I recently commented that Google was getting an little too big for their britches. Here is more proof: Google is now going after sites with too many ads above the folds of their web pages by penalizing their search rankings. You’d think before such an announcement they’d at least take a look in the mirror:
On your standard, run-of-the-mill SERP page, there are ads everywhere. Even in the non-ad area, half the links above the fold are to Place pages which are Google product. You can even see blue markers in the map at the top-right of the page that are ads. Don’t get me wrong, I hate ad-heavy sites as well. And increasingly, I’m disliking Google’s ad-too-heavy search engine result pages. Of the 73 things I counted that you can click on, only 17 were either not ads or not links to other Google products or pages. That’s less than 25% of non-Google content on a SERP. That, my friends, is the only reason Google’s stock price has increased over the past several years.
Google, it’s time you looked at yourself in the mirror. If you don’t you’re going to end up like Netflix. It was the techy, early-adopters that made you. When they move on to the next shiny new object, it’ll be the same group that unmakes you.
Are you creating signals or are you creating noise?
If you run a social media campaign you probably feel like most of the time you are talking to yourself because no one is listening. Have you ever considered that your campaign may not be so much different from that person you know that does nothing but talk about themselves? Think about it this way, if all you do is talk and never listen then you probably aren’t making a connection with anyone. If you aren’t making a connection then you aren’t creating a signal and all your doing is creating noise. And the Internet is rife with noise.
If you go, right now, to a group on LinkedIn that you are a member of you can see what I am talking about. Plenty of people making noise, plenty of people posting links to their blog posts and offering to trade “Likes” on Facebook. Go look at some of the small business pages you “Like” on Facebook. Is anyone posting to them besides the small business themselves? More likely, the page is filled with randomly posted promotions, links, and other noise.
I’m not writing this post, typing away on my Mac, with my hands entirely clean myself. If you checked out my page on Facebook you’ll see a lot of noise there as well. At least I don’t advertise myself as someone that does social marketing. I’m not very good at it and I don’t pretend to be. I don’t play a social media expert on T.V. and I didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night either. But social signals (not social noise) are playing a much more important part of SEO.
One of my goals in 2012 is to learn how to create more signals and much less noise. I hope you will join me.
Adjusting Title Tags for Increased Search Rankings
There are title tags on every web page. Here is some background information on how they work and a quick tip to boost your search rankings.
SEO For New Websites, What Your Web Developer Won’t Tell You
Everyone is concerned about their website’s ability to rank well in Google. So when you have a new website developed, does it arrive optimized for search engines? Your web developer says “yes.” But here is what they didn’t tell you…
Beware of Vanity Metrics: What The Lean Startup taught me about running a better SEO business.
I have reviewed website statistics with clients on numerous occasions. I wish I could say presenting those stats has always been helpful, but after reading The Lean Startup by Eric Ries, I’m not sure I can make that case. Read full entry
32 Things I’ve Learned in 32 Years
Perhaps a little off-topic from my regular posts, but I saw a similar post on Hacker News and loved the idea so much I decided to take my own stab at it. So here it is, in no particular order, the 32 biggest things I’ve learned in my 32 years.
1. Nothing lasts forever
You might think this is cliche, but then you hear so many people on T.V. stating that, “we have entered a new era so this shall continue forever.” Remember the booming housing market a few years back? Or the “new economy” of the late ’90s? The only thing that will last forever is change. The great economy of the 90′s ended. So did the housing market. I guess we can take that as hope for our current economic condition. Even this shall pass.
2. Your family should be your greatest accomplishment
When the end is before you, you won’t wish you had spent more time working each day. You’ll never think about that deal you didn’t do or all the bad moves you’ve made in business and your career. While all that may seem important now, at the end of the line if you can’t say that your family is your greatest accomplishment you’ll be filled with regret in your final moments. Read full entry
Widgetized Twenty Eleven Child Theme
I recently wrote a blog post about how to widgetize the menu of the Twenty Eleven WordPress theme. My method was to create a child theme rather than to customize the Twenty Eleven theme, itself. To save you some time, I’ve zipped up the child theme I created and made it available for download. Enjoy!
Widgetize the menu for the Twenty Eleven WordPress theme
File this one under the “this is almost so simple I can’t believe I’m writing a blog post for this” category, nonetheless it could help a few people and I didn’t see this mentioned anywhere else on the Internet.
If you have installed WordPress’s newish Twenty Eleven theme you may have noticed that it doesn’t support a widgetized menu by default. If you have a project that requires a widgetized menu you’ll have to customize it yourself. But don’t fret, because that is what this blog post will show you how to do. Read full entry
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