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Archive for June, 2009

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Posted by great scott!

This week, Rand is joined by one of our in-house data geniuses, Ben Hendrickson, to talk more about some of our recently released correlation data to support guidelines for SEO best practices.

While correlation doesn’t always equal causation, it’s still very interesting to look at the attributes and features high ranking sites tend to have in common.  Comparing this data to known and accepted SEO practices can help to reinforce widely held notions or give us some insight into how the algorithms are changing; both important areas of analysis for successful online marketers.

SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday – Correlation, Causation & SEO from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.

Want to learn even more about what Ben discovered in our data correlation analysis?  He’ll be presenting his detailed findings at our SEO Training Series Seminar right here in Seattle, August 24th & 25th.

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In 1993, when Jeff Taylor founded job search site Monster.com, his brand appeared where his audiences lived. Monster advertised during the Super Bowl, had a crop circle ad outside Chicago’s O’Hare Airport and flew promotional blimps.

In 2005, when Jeff launched community site Eons.com, he moved where today’s crowds live: on social networking sites.

A recent HubSpot TV guest, Jeff shared advice about the power of Web 2.0 and engaging crowds online in the video clips below.

Balance Brand and Metrics

Jeff suggests using a combination of metrics and brand to be successful in online marketing. In the past, Jeff ran his brand marketing campaigns using traditional advertising and Web 1.0. “We didn’t actually have all this deep, trenchy measurement that we have today,” he said. Now, companies have access to tools and analytics that make marketing, as Mike Volpe said, “more scientific.”

Jeff’s Eons.com clearly demonstrates this new trend for a more analytical approach in marketing. Soon after its launch, Eons was growing by 100,000 leads per month. “Keep on going. It is working,” Jeff would have responded to this data in his old life. But today he considers other measurement factors that play a central role in his marketing. “The traffic, actually, is growing quickly but the engagement is going down at the same rate,” he observed.

On Web 2.0 traffic alone is not equal to leads. Marketers need to provide value in order to get results. “There is a big difference between 1.0 and 2.0 in terms of how you grow your business,” Jeff said. He believes that there should be a combination between metrics and brand in order for businesses to be successful in marketing.

Engage the Baby Boomers

Find a way to reach out to the Baby Boomer generation as its representatives are increasingly spending their time online. “The reality is that baby boomers are hot on the Web right now,” Jeff said. According to his 2005 research, baby boomers up to the age of 65 are actively involved in online activities. In recent years, Jeff noted, his generation has experienced “a huge engagement” in what the Web has to offer.

For instance, baby boomers have been finding and bringing value into the blogosphere and the social mediasphere. Jeff attributed this involvement in web journals and blogs to the good writing skills of his generation. It is not surprising then, that baby boomers also caught up on social networking sites like Twitter. Their involvement in writing, Jeff believes, “is perfect for 140 characters.”

Raise the Conversation Levels

Conduct careful research about hiring companies to enhance your communication with potential employers. “Today you are one click away from a massive amount of information about a company,” Jeff said. And you need to be equipped with knowledge accordingly. “It is in the job seeker’s best interest to be an expert in the company that they are interviewing with,” he said.

Companies, on the other hand, should be fully aware of who their job candidates are. Personal blogs, professional LinkedIn profiles and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter provide great opportunities to meet potential employees. “We need to know a lot more about each other and raise the level of the conversations,” Jeff said.

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Posted by great scott!

It’s that time again and we’re happy to announce the 2009 SEOmoz PRO Training Series: Tips, Tricks & Tactics seminar is now on sale. Last year, we sold out within hours. This year – with a line-up including Todd Malicoat, David Mihm and Vanessa Fox – tickets will go even quicker.

The PRO Training Series: Tips, Tricks & Tactics seminar isn’t a conference. There won’t be any sales pitches or waffle – just clear, actionable advice on the latest tips, tricks and tactics that advanced SEOs are using.

And after a hard day’s work, you’ll get to network with the speakers and other attendees. We strictly limit the number of places to 220, so this is an incredible opportunity to network with people like Ben Jesson and Dharmesh Shah.

The Details:

Where: Seattle, WA
When: August 24th and 25th
How Much: $899  ($599 for PRO Members)

You want killer, actionable content? We’ve got it! 15 awesome modules covering every facet of organic online marketing, including content creation, site architecture, competitive intelligence and more, such as:

• Ken Jurina, "First You Get the Keywords, Then You Get the Money"
• David Mihm and Matt Brown, "Sustain Verticality for 3 Rounds"
• Tom Critchlow, "The Pacman Chunck of the Piechart: Getting Links"
• Dharmesh Shah, "Good vs. Great: Why Some Startups Make the Leap and Others Don’t"
• Todd Malicoat, "Social Investments that Bring Real ROI"
• Vanessa Fox, "Staying Inside Search Engine Guidelines & Dealing with Penalties"
• Ben Jesson, "Conversion Rate Optimization"
• Conrad Saam, "Building a Killer Web Marketing Team"
• And many more, including Rand and some of your favorite Mozzers

As you can see, we’ve cherry-picked some of the best SEOs in the business to deliver two days jam-packed with priceless hints and secrets to elevate your SEO game.

Rave Reviews About Last Year’s Seminar

An excellent high level seminar with substantial advanced tactics. Having attended numerous SEO conferences, this had a much greater ROI.
-Greg Patterson, President, Mojo Juice Inc.

Chock full of detailed strategies, theories and practical explanations of very advanced search optimization methodologies. It was worth every penny (and more, but don’t tell Rand I said so!).
-Marty Martin, Director of Web Strategies, Leisure Publishing Co.

Better than any other SEO conference I’ve attended and the price was less.
-Mike Perez, President, High Ranking Websites, Inc.

Top 5 Reasons You CANNOT MISS OUT:

1. We’ll be presenting never before seen data from SEOmoz’s internal SERPs analysis projects. If you liked the material from my SMX Advanced presentation, you’ll love this.
2. The founder of Hubspot, Dharmesh Shah, will speak about how to build a great startup. If you’ve never seen Dharmesh present before, you’re in for an incredible treat.
3. Ben Jesson’s Conversion rate optimization tips session will bring you more ROI than you can imagine. Ben & his company, Conversion Rate Experts, have helped SEOmoz add more than $1 million to our bottom line this year just from tweaks and tuneups to our landing pages and marketing messages – they’re the best in the business.
4. It costs only $899 ($599 for PRO Members) to attend! That’s 2-3X less expensive than other shows, and we guarantee you’re going to walk away with an incredible amount of knowledge and phenomenal networking opportunities.
5. After hours events are built in! Both Monday and Tuesday night will feature classic SEOmoz networking events with food, drinks, bowling, pool tables and more.

There are only 220 seats available this year and in 2008, we practically sold out in just 72 hours so don’t miss out – Sign Up Now.

But wait! There’s more! Due to the amazing success of our training seminars, we’ll be holding a second event on October 19th and 20th in London, UK, in partnership with the folks from Distilled. Moz colleague and Rand’s slidedeck archnemesis, Will Critchlow, has helped craft an incredible lineup of speakers and sessions (and they’re fighting a re-match of their infamous Presentation Face-Off from SMX London). If you are based in the UK or Europe (or anywhere else around the world, and simply have a penchant for airplane food), don’t miss out on our "Across the Bloody Pond" Edition of the PRO Training Series.

Remember: these seminars sell out every year so reserve your seat to the Seattle or London edition of the 2009 PRO Training Series: Tips, Tricks & Tactics while they’re still available!

Special DVD Pre-Order Offer

When you register for either seminar you’ll get a special offer to Pre-Order the DVD version of the SEOmoz PRO Training Series: Tips, Tricks & Tools at a ridiculously low attendees-only price. Watch for your offer during checkout.

Can’t make it to either seminar? We still love you. Even though you won’t get all of the awesome networking, parties and opportunities to ask the experts your specific questions, we’ll still let you Pre-Order the DVD version at an incredible early bird price! For just $249 ($149 for PRO Members), that’s 50% off the retail price,  you’ll reserve your copy of the DVD edition of the PRO Training Series: Tips, Tricks & Tools at the lowest possible price and guarantee the earliest delivery as soon as it’s available (early November estimate) 

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You’re already using LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. You even have 1,000+ followers on Twitter, 500 contacts on LinkedIn and 2,500 friends on Facebook.

What? You’re not closing new deals every day? 

Networking online requires similar skills as networking in the real world. It’s pretty easy to collect a bunch of friends or followers on social networking sites, just like it’s easy to go and hand out 100  business cards at a networking event. 

If you’re using social media and you’re not getting business results from it, maybe you’re doing it wrong. Here are three common mistakes that any business networker should be able to relate to:

You Only Talk About Yourself. 

If you’ve been to a chamber of commerce networking event, you’ve seen these guys. They show up with a nice suit, some cologne, a stack of business cards and they start introducing themselves to anyone who’ll listen. They don’t ask questions, they don’t bother to find out what others do, and most egregiously, they don’t bother to find out whether you have a need for what they do. They simply start talking about what they do and why they’re the best.  Then, they shove their card in your pocket and move on to the next victim. 

I’m pretty sure I don’t have to make the connection here. Be sure to send this link to anyone who’s throwing up all over their Twitter stream. 

You Don’t Have Contact Information on Your Business Cards ( Which You Printed on Free VistaPrint Stock)

I’ve been there. I know how hard it is to bootstrap a company. It’s really tempting to get those free business cards from VistaPrint and save $50.  In fact, I’m pretty sure I ordered my first box that way until a cohort of mine smacked me around a bit. 

The online equivalent of the VistaPrint business card is the free blogger blog or the GoDaddy $10/month website. These things wreak of “I just started my biz. I don’t have any clients. I can’t really afford to get a website.”

Even more importantly, though, these websites don’t have what it takes to turn the traffic you attract from social media into sales leads for you. Having a website without compelling offers, landing pages and calls to action is the offline equivalent of handing out business cards that don’t say what you do and don’t have any contact information on them. 

You Never Ask for Their Business Card or Ask if You Should Follow Up.

Newbies at networking events will swap business cards like handshakes. Some people measure their networking event success by how many business cards they swapped. But, a seasoned networker knows that it’s not quantity, but quality. I learned most of what I know about real world networking from Rick Roberge, Mark Paskell and Jason Kallio. These guys taught me to ask questions and find out whether people had any problems that I could solve, and then ask people if they’d want to talk about that over coffee or a phone call. If I couldn’t directly help someone, they also taught me to connect them with someone who could.

Both of these practices will work online too. Ask good questions and pay attention to what other people are saying. Proactively follow up after you connect with people and try to be a resource for whatever issues they’re struggling with, whether you can sell them something to fix those issues, or not. If you focus on helping people, people will want to find out how they can help you.

Photo: oooh.oooh

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What is Twitter? Is it a social network or a content distribution platform? CEO of Twitter Evan Williams doesn’t seem to think it’s a social network.

A social network is a piece of technology that facilitates communication through existing social connections. You can share messages, photos and events with your friends, people you already know. Facebook is designed for “strong” connections, people you actually know well in real life.

A content distribution platform is a system that provides users with relevant information and links, and that gives content publishers a way to get their content to interested consumers. TV is probably the most obvious example, but RSS is a web-based version.

Twitter as a Distribution Platform

The argument for Twitter as a content distribution platform is obvious. With media companies like CNN posting their links to over a million users, tweeting is certainly an effective way for publishers to disseminate their content.

Twitter as a Social Network

The argument for Twitter as a social network is also quite obvious. Twitter emphasizes “weak” connections or people you know only a little from real life or even purely online friends and allows you to keep track of what they’re doing and engage in conversations.

And the Data? 

The data we uncovered in the second version of the State of the Twittersphere shows both sides of this debate. On one hand, many accounts on Twitter either have no followers or have never posted a tweet, meaning that many users are simply following their favorite celebrities or media outlets to get content.

On the other hand, over 30% of all tweets are replies. This means that when people do start actually using the service, they are using it to converse with their “weak” connections. Active users are leveraging the social network aspect of Twitter.

What do you think? Is Twitter best used as a social network or a content distribution platform?

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