My SES New York 2009 Experience: SEO Adventures 3000 Miles from Home

I just got back from SES New York on Friday where I was very honored to have an opportunity to speak and to contribute to an outstanding session called "Meaningful SEO Metrics: Going Beyond the Numbers". Between myself and the other exceptional speakers including Cindy Krum, Founder and CEO of Rank-Mobile; Anne Kennedy, SES Advisory Board and Managing Partner and Founder of Beyond Ink; and Seth Besmertnik, CEO & Co-Founder of Conductor, Inc. I felt like we put on a very informative session and the feedback I got from audience members after the presentation was very encouraging. I will be presenting a separate blog post later in the week covering some of what I spoke about at the conference.

I was happy to have an opportunity to speak right after Guy Kawasaki's keynote speech which I thought was fairly well done and educational despite what some other people have suggested. I thought most people coming away from the keynote were energized and ready to learn more about SEO, SMO and everything in between. So I wasn't surprised that we had an almost capacity room of about 150 people.

After I was done speaking, I attended some of the sessions in the afternoon although I admit I skipped the session after I spoke to unwind and get some pizza. I have been to SES before so I wasn't particularly confident that the stock lunch menu would be to my liking (I was happily surprised that SES has definitely improved their food selection since last time I was there two years ago). Props to the SES New York organizers for taking care of the problem. However, I was more than happy to have some authentic slices of pie from Ray's Pizza around the corner from the Hilton where the conference was taking place.

While we are talking about the Hilton, let me say that the hotel is fantastic. The only complaint that I have (and it's a big one), is if your going to charge a $250 discounted nightly rate, don't try to weasel me for $15 extra a day for Wireless Internet. If nothing else, be smart enough to realize that at this conference its pretty much a given that almost everyone needs it. So bundle it in with the total package cost and let me be happily surprised that my laptop works as soon as I enter my room. That was a REALLY annoying part of the whole experience.

Overall though I had a great time. I thought that the sessions were really good for the most part. I thought Michael Gray had one of the better presentations that I saw, and was impressed with the amount of tactical advice that he gave people that could be implemented immediately. I am a big fan of sessions that teach people how to do things, rather than those whose speakers pontificate about high level subjects that make for interesting coffee conversations, but don't really help you make money.

For example, in the session titled "Universal and Blended Search: An Update", the people that were from agencies did an ok job discussing some tactical elements of Universal Search. But the search engine representatives seemed like they were giving a commercial about all their Universal Search properties. There was no real tactical advice and it felt like that they were all trying to convince people that their search engine was cooler than the other guys (and it wasn't hard to figure out how to spend advertising money with them... *lol*). Ironically, Google, who invented the phrase Universal Search, was not part of the panel. Thankfully for them. So that was a little disappointing.

But the session on video search was outstanding. It was probably the best session I went to (or at least tied with the "feed" session that Michael Gray was part of). It's amazing how the popularity of video has turned YouTube into the second biggest search engine in America. And goes to show you how important video content is to SEO.

I also learned a lot more about social media, especially with regard to how cool targeting ads can be with FaceBook. Actually there is a lot of cool stuff happening at FaceBook. If you haven't set up a page for your business on FaceBook, now would be a good time. Between the social media capabilities, the viral possibles, and the potential SEO benefits, a FaceBook page for your business should be a priority for your online marketing efforts.

It wasn't all business in New York (although mostly it was). The first night, Monday, I went to sleep early so that I could be well rested for speaking. Plus the 6 hour flight is always draining. The second night we went around the corner to a little New York bar filled with other SES attendees and talked a little SEO over a couple Heinekens. The last night I went to Dave and Busters in Time Square which was definitely the highlight of the trip. I got to hang out with my friend Heather and we were thoroughly entertained by the wisdom of Bruce Clay. Bruce is a fun guy to talk SEO with. His experience and his passion about the subject of SEO are almost unmatched in the industry. We both laughed when I reminded him that I met him six years ago. Time Flys.

So I had a great time, but after three days of intense SEO and meeting all kinds of amazing people (like Jefferey Eisenberg for example), I was VERY happy to get home (although not so happy with the extra hour of waiting for our plane to take off... *lol*). One fantastic thing about living in San Diego is your never really sad to come home. It's not paradise, but its pretty darn close.

And it sure is a lot warmer here than New York :)

Stay tuned later this week for my blog post about my session and some of the SEO tips that I spoke about. Have a great week!

Catfish

MSN Search Engine is out of Touch with Reality

Steve Ballmer, chief executive for Microsoft, said today that MSN is in an advantageous position in search because they have the freedom to experiment while Google has to "play it safe" based on the size of their organization and the success of their business model.

Earth to Steve, your search engine is not competitive to Google's because that's all they do is experiment with new search technology. And they hire the smartest people to do it. It was Google that was the first to push Universal Search, which was a huge change to the way people searched for things. It was Google that came out with Webmaster Tools that enabled site owners to better understand how the search engine was indexing their site. It was Google that first used a quality score to influence PPC results. It was Google that came out with the Big Daddy update that solved a lot of canonicalization problems that MSNs engine still chokes on.

MSN/Live Search to my knowledge hasn't done much to innovate search. Thier MSN live experiment was a huge failure. They had a directory and then closed it. They still can't figure out redirects as well as Google or even Yahoo. The fact that their results are so influenced by on page factors makes them more susceptible to spam, scrappers and other black hat SEO techniques. They never have organic search engines at conferences to help Webmasters but they definately have advertising reps if you wanna spend money. The whole culture that MSN portrays is an organization that can't move because its so big that the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. Google on the other hand projects a young, innovative culture that "gets it".

If MSN is ever going to become competitive in this space, they need to get a grasp on how far behind they are and spend more time actually creating search technology innovations that resonate with users. Rather than having their chief executive officer say things like "Our search does not need to be all things to all people." I mean what does that say? We only care about some people? It's certainly not a winning philosophy when your trying to compete with Google and you have the resources that Microsoft does.

My other recommendation to Microsoft... buy Twitter. At least then you would own something that people actually cared about.

That's my MSN rant for a Friday. Hope to see everyone at SES New York next week. I will be speaking in the first session after Guy's opening keynote presentation. The session is entitled "Meaningful SEO Metrics: Going Beyond the Numbers". See ya in NYC!

The views and opinions stated by the authors of blog post is of the author alone. These statements may not necessarily be the statements of BusinessOnLine (BusinessOL.com) or any of it's employees.

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The Right Techniques & Attitudes for Local SEO

Building Your Local Reputation Online

Step 3: Participate in Online Local Community

As mentioned in our previous blog post about blog comment strategy, participating in online community that is relevant to your business and industry is a key way to increase your online visibility.

Blog comment strategy was discussed as a way to build relevant links to your site and to increase visitors within a targeted industry.

In local search optimization, your participation does not have to lead to obtaining a link, but it should lead to increasing your business name’s relevancy to your local information such as your address, local phone number, city, or any other neighborhood area names. The ideal local business profile would be the following, as demonstrated on this local ABC Chennel 7’s special Valentine’s Day coverage web page:

Your Business Title
Street Address
City, State Zip Code
(Local Area Code) Phone Number
Link to Your Website

Obtaining your local information on other websites doesn’t have to wait till another Valentine’s Day coverage of local broadcast station website. You can start with free online local directory that offer reviews and generate good traffic, such as Yelp.

The key to obtaining local references is to make sure those sites are crawled by Google for local content. Since local references do not get a link back, if a local directory site is not on the list to be crawled by Google for local content, your efforts to build local relevancy for local SEO won’t be so effective.

One of the ways to check is to look through “Web Pages” tab when you search for a relevant local keyword in Google Maps.



In the example above, you can tell SignOnSanDiego.com is one of the San Diego local sites that are crawled to find local business information, by looking at the Web Pages tab.

One thing you need to keep in mind in building your local relevancy through an off-page SEO campaign is that you should not just pick the local listing ranked at #1 and try to obtain all the local references that company has. Your company is unique from any other local companies, and it should be reflected in your local reference portfolio. You should have a unique combination of keywords and service areas, and optimizing for those local keywords to reach your targeted local audience should naturally lead to having a unique local reference portfolio. Besides, if you just follow them, you will never get ahead of them.

To be unique and outstanding, your local reference portfolio shouldn’t be just about Internet Yellow Pages or few major local directories. Be active in your online local community to find more local resources your locals visitor to find local information and contribute helpful content about your industry, and your local references should naturally grow with the trust you gain within the community.

Overall, optimizing for local search engines offers an opportunity to turn online traffic into your offline visitors, and in the process of local search optimization, you will get plenty of chances to create buzz about your business and gain trust as an industry expert within your online local community.

If you haven’t read about Local Keyword Discovery and Exploring Google Maps Features for Local Business Listings, check them out.

Does Google Need SEO? You Might Be Suprised!

One of my colleagues today looked up the word Search Engine in Google. The results were very surprising. Google ranks #6 in Google for the word search engine. Does that mean that they really consider themselves the #6 best site for users for that term? How is Altavista considered #1? When is the last time you used Altavista? LOL.



So if your listening Matt Cutts, I thought I would help you guys out with a couple SEO tips:

1. That title you have on your homepage that says "Google" isn't really that keyword focused. You might try changing it to:
   
   "Google Search Engine - Find Information on the Web including Images, Video and More"
   
   I admit I haven't done any extensive keyword research for Google before making this tag so it might need to be slightly tweaked based on the best keywords. You guys being Google should know what your most important keywords are though. Of course you guys being Google should know better than to rank yourselves #6 for the phrase "search engine" ;)



2. Description tag. Um, here is what Google's SERP description is:
   
   Shopping Groups Books Scholar Finance Blogs · YouTube Calendar Photos Documents Reader Sites · even more » · iGoogle | Sign in. Google. Advanced Search ...
   
   That doesn't exactly conform to your best practices for writing Meta descriptions. According to this link, Google itself has a poor Meta description tag (actually it has none). And even though that description tag won't help Google rank any better in Google, it will help in MSN and Yahoo. You would think that Google would be leading by example with this kind of stuff.



3. Change some internal links. Link that logo you have in the search box on the upper right hand side of the Webmaster Blog with an alt tag that says "Google Search Engine" or at least "Google Search". I am sure you guys have enough internal link opportunities to figure it out...

So all sarcasm and poking fun at Google aside, this kind of result doesn't exactly inspire confidence that Google's algo is perfect (or even close). It also goes to show you that some of the biggest brands still need SEO ;)

Exploring Google Maps Features for Local Business Listings

BusinessOnLine Local Search Wednesday Series: Part 2

Step 2: Registering Your Business for Google Local Business Center

Last week, I began this series by stressing the importance of local keyword research. This week, let's talk about how to use those local keywords when you add your business listing in Google Local Business Center.

Claiming your business listing in local search engines is one of the most crucial steps to take, in order for your company to appear on Google Maps results. Adding your business in Google Local Business Center (LBC) is like having your business indexed by Google, and your listing will be in the Google's local business database to be used for geo-targeted queries.

Another reason you should claim your business in Local Business Center (LBC) is that if you do not claim your business listing, your listing can be stolen by your competitors or any random people, also called Google Maps Hijacking. They can edit however they want. But, once you claim your business listing, Google will send you postcard notifications when someone attempts to change your phone number, to prevent your listing from being stolen or displaying wrong information.

One of the most important features to utilize in LBC is the category. The key here is to use the keywords you discovered during your local keyword research as your categories. If you know that your local customers are using a particular search term to find your listing, don't be afraid to create a new category.



Having that keyword in your category or in your business title will make a difference in your rankings for that keyword. However, you should not change your business title just to include your keyword, and so, category is THE place to list your important keywords. You can choose multiple categories, but use them wisely as you might risk diluting the focus of your keywords.

You should also work on the description of your company. Do not copy and paste from your website's description or from your About Us page. Think about what your local customers are seeking when they are searching for local keywords. For example, if you are a car dealer, and #1 reason for locals to choose a local car dealership is service packages, then tell them about the value of having a lifetime oil change package from a local dealership.

Once you're done with providing essential information such as your phone number and address as well as the categories and description, all the rest features are there to help users get additional information, and from business owners' perspective, to help your business listing standout from other listings at a glance.

Here are two features that take a second to use, yet makes a big difference in attracting locals' eyes.

1. Photos: Uploading photos of your business in LBC will increase your listing's visibility by having your picture displayed right under your thumbnail along with the text results.
   
   


2. Business Hours: Once you provide your business hours, your “more info” page will display a big table of open hours. Knowing the hours will also help locals plan their visits before you close.
   
   
   
   

Other features that would help serving your local customers include parking availability, brands carried, and prices for major services or products you offer. You can post additional information by using custom attribute tags.

You can also post a coupon through LBC. Posting a coupon through LBC will encourage searchers to choose your business over others and help track your ROI for local marketing.

Lastly, now Google Maps give an option to search videos within the mapped area. If you have a promotional videos or branded educational videos, don't forget to post them through LBC. It will be another way to increase your brand recognition.



With your local business listing posted with local-keyword focused materials, now the real marketing begins. Next week's Local Search Wednesday series will discuss how to obtain local relevancy by targeting off-page local information online.

This blog post is a part of the BusinessOnLine's Local Wednesday series. If you have not read the previous one about How to Get Your Business Listed in Local Search Engines, read about it or you can go to the next one that is about The Right Techniques & Attitudes for Local SEO. I really appreciate your feedback in the previous blog post and if you have any other new questions, I will try to get them answered in the next post.

Eliminate Potential Google Duplicate Content Penalty with SEO Tag "REL=Canonical"

Upon further review of the new tag rel=canonical, that is used to let search engines know what URL you want indexed for any given page of your site, I can't find any reason why you wouldn't want to make it a standard part of every Web page on your site. This tag proactively handles a number of potential duplicate content issues.

*special note about "duplicate content penalties": Some people feel that it is very important to be clear that a duplicate content "penalty" is not really a penalty. Google is not punishing your site for having a Web page that has the same content as another Web page. But what it is happening is, if your page is not the original version of the content, it is highly likely that your page will be put into the supplemental index which makes it less likely to rank well for competitive terms. So in effect, it's the same end result of incurring a penalty but in fact there has been no "penalty." For some reason this game of semantics is very important to some members of the SEO community, so I wanted to make sure I was clear with everyone that I know the phrase "duplicate content penalty" is not entirely accurate, but it is how most people view the situation.

Having said that, here are some of the issues that the rel=canonical tag can help with:

1. Capitalization: The search engines treat each unique URL string as a separate entity. So any variation in a URL, no matter how slight, creates a new URL in the eyes of the search engine. This includes differences in capitalization, although Google specifically has been much better at figuring this out on its own since the "Big Daddy" update. So for example, when an engine indexes these URLs:
   http://www.businessol.com/seo-blog/ and http://www.businessol.com/Seo-Blog/ it sees two different URLs for the same content.
   
   This happens often because Webmasters are not standardized in the way that they link to 3rd party websites. Some Webmasters and blogs capitalize letters in URLs out of coding practices or habit.
   
   In the old days, Google would have not been able by itself to figure out that these two URLs are the same page. And therefore one of these two URLs (most likely the one with the least amount of Page Rank) would have been put into supplemental results and the links that pointed to it would essentially be lost (because now they point to a page in the supplemental results that isn't going to rank for much and they are not helping the other URL that is listed in Google). But nowadays, Google is pretty good about figuring this stuff out although not perfect. And the other engines are not very good at this kind of thing. So by including the Rel=Canonical tag on every page of the site, you make it easy for all the engines to consolidate URLs that have capitalization problems.


2. Dynamic URL Strings: Whether its tracking codes like www.domain.com?tracking-code or CMS systems that generate multiple URLs for the same page, the issues with these pages are the same as the issues for capitalization. But now instead of an elaborate 301 redirect strategy or costly adjustments to your backend system, this simple tag solves the problem.


3. Other Canonical Issues: Some other issues that Google already does fairly well but that can still cause problems include www versus non www version of the Web site (domain.com versus www.domain.com), session IDs and also linking using IP addresses. This tag if correctly implemented, should fix all of these problems.

Given the number of potential issues that this tag can correct, it should be added to every page of your site. If your site is dynamic, this should be a pretty easy addition.