Let's say that you already have a website because if you didn't, I'd have to write a series of blog posts explaining how to do it or refer you to one of several tutorial sites that can help you build one from scratch. At some point you'll be pitched by an SEO vendor to improve your website's rankings with various search engines. WhiteHatSEO.org offers some guidance for "ethical" SEO practices in its member codex. Here are a few of their tips.
- Don't use shadow domains.
- Don't use doorway pages.
- Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase clients site's ranking or page rank.
- Don't use hidden text or hidden links.
- Don't employ cloaking or sneaky redirects, which is used to deceive users or present different content to search engines than it display to users.
- Don't send automated queries to search engines.
- Don't load pages with irrelevant words and phrases.
- Don't create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content.
This all good, but if you're a sole proprietor or a company looking at SEO for the first time, how would you know who was legit and who wasn't? And, given how diverse SEO methods are these days, which ones are the right ones to use? Is this a task that can be handled in-house or does it need to be outsourced?
Key SEO goals are intended to make sure that:
* Pages are indexed and a good site map exists
* Pages are well-structured with headers and subheaders, content-appropriate meta tags, etc.
* Descriptive page titles are used
* Keyword-rich inbound links are used
It looks a lot like a new spin on basic webmaster duties.
The easier you make it for a user who knows almost nothing about your business to find your website in the myriad of millions of sites, the better. Unlike the big yellow book from the telecom company that shows up every year to unreceptive household doorsteps, SEO allows you, the web domain owner, to be in control of advertising, product or service positioning relative to next best complements, and manage who visits and how. In that respect, SEO is more cost-effective than print advertisements. Opting for paid SEO is entirely up to your company's customer acquisition strategy.
At some point I'll follow-up with a post about black hat SEO and why ethics has nothing to do with whatever technique is used but how it is used that can get sites delisted from search engine indexes.
Remember: The only good SPAM is when its fried up with rice.
Related links:
White Hat SEO tips for bloggers
Questions to Ask a Paid Search Vendor
Questions to Ask SEO Consultants
Glossary:
White Hat
Shadow domains
Doorway pages
Link Farms
Here's a cheer for all the consumers out there. *Yay!* Finally, it seems that someone has been reading all the FTC complaints and companies will have to comply if they are to stay compliant with these new proposed operating rules with regard to how a customer unsubscribes from a list. I'm sure at least one of these scenarios has happened to you when you tried to subscribe from that bacn list.
The new rule provisions address four topics:
(1) an e-mail recipient cannot be required to pay a fee, provide information other than his or her e-mail address and opt-out preferences, or take any steps other than sending a reply e-mail message or visiting a single Internet Web page to opt out of receiving future e-mail from a sender;
(2) the definition of “sender” was modified to make it easier to determine which of multiple parties advertising in a single e-mail message is responsible for complying with the Act’s opt-out requirements;
(3) a “sender” of commercial e-mail can include an accurately-registered post office box or private mailbox established under United States Postal Service regulations to satisfy the Act’s requirement that a commercial e-mail display a “valid physical postal address”; and
(4) a definition of the term “person” was added to clarify that CAN-SPAM’s obligations are not limited to natural persons.
More details - http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/05/canspam.shtm
Think I'm taking about green initiatives or energy? Think again. These concepts can be applied to marketing programs.
A sustainable marketing program not only pays for itself, it does so regardless of the market economy--whether we're in a boom or recession. It shouldn't matter if you're a non-profit organization or you have deep pockets for marketing programs, the basis of company survival has always been a positive figure (that's a positive net profit for you sales revenue junkies) for the bottom line.
Renewable means that the marketing concepts of a successful campaign can be applied to another, or to other business units within the company.
Adaptable means that the metrics used for measurement in a marketing campaign can be used for different audiences (business or consumers) because the underlying data sets and the acquisition goals (get new customers, pitch new technology, affirm customer loyalty to product or service brand, etc) are the same.
This is otherwise known as the endless version number system. I remember starting to use Microsoft 2.0, before that it was WordPerfect 5.1, or worse Multimate 1.0. This is why the "2.0" brand that is associated and attached to web-based technologies and services is so laughable. Soon, someone will be saying they are a 3.0 company, and so on. This is herd mentality. Go with the flow. Run with the pack.
This is a concept developed by technologists for the business and not-so-savvy-about-tech community. It gives a quantitative number to such virtual products like social networking, blogs, wiki, SEO, CPC, tagged "indexes", etc. These all add value to some business models, but not in the proportions being inflated by today's online media outlets. This doesn't embrace innovation, IMHO.
True innovators would kick the "2.0" part of their sales pitch to the curb, announce that they've found a real number between 6 and 7, and market that to the masses.
Another user on LinkedIn.com had posted a question to the Q&A section about what defines a top online marketer.. The following was my response:
What makes a person unique in the marketing industry is their approach to any given internet/online (or offline) situation. There aren't any set techniques or methodologies that would work for all industries or organizations.
I'd say that at the very least, the person would have to be..
a) already at the top of their field in the industry and an SME (subject matter expert)
b) a process owner that is held accountable for profits or market share growth
c) a social networker who knows the business and can evangelize any product or service offering
d) someone who embraces disruptive technology ("Any new technology that is significantly cheaper than current, and/or is much higher performing, and/or has greater functionality, and/or is more convenient to use.")
Attitude and perception have a lot to do with what separates out the top 3% from everyone else. Of course, many of these personable characteristics are qualitative features, and measuring those would be difficult out of context.
Most organizations tend to define a top marketer by quantitative stats only, e.g., how much revenue generated, increased domain territories, growth in ad revenues or site traffic, etc. It's easier to find job candidates that way, but they may think like a duck, act like a duck, quack like a duck, but they won't be able to evolve or adapt to the changing environment.
Agree? Disagree?
"Any new technology that is significantly cheaper than current, and/or is much higher performing, and/or has greater functionality, and/or is more convenient to use."
