Information Pertaining to Podiatry

Information Pertaining to Podiatry
http://bit.ly/TcOj4y
Podiatry is the clinical discipline that is related to the protection, prognosis as well as remedy for the feet as well as connected concerns. To be able to do this podiatrists start using a wide range of treatment solutions from mechanical towards surgical to medical and to pharmaceutical means. Podiatrists handle a variety of individuals from child to the elderly; from couch potatoes to players; from working individuals to younger individuals. The actual scope of practice or exactly what a foot doctor can do may differ from country to country and depends upon the laws from the nation and the training which the Podiatric doctor receives (more).

For example, in the USA the podiatry process is a 4 year post graduate course in which commonly requires the completion of the undergraduate degree first. Just after the 4 year podiatry degree, virtually all podiatrists have to complete a 2-3 year residency. Immediately after this they have full medical as well as surgical rights for the treatment of the feet as well as related complications, although there is certainly several variation between states (more).

Inside Australia, the podiatry program is a 4 year undergraduate degree (not like the USA where it is a postgraduate degree). Soon after the 4 years, Podiatrists are licensed to practice, however the degree consists of very little surgical education. Those podiatrists which choose to pursue a surgical profession, then enrol at the surgical college's training course at the same time doing the job as a foot doctor. The program could also take many years to finish, nevertheless they then have almost full surgical rights regarding the therapy for the feet as well as usage of numerous prescription drugs of which the common foot doctor can not have (more).

Podiatry in the Uk, is actually the same to Australia, nonetheless the basic entry degree is only a 3 year program. Around New Zealand as well as South Africa the degree is just a 3 year program nevertheless the surgical remedies options are much more limited than elsewhere. Podiatry throughout Canada, differs from province to province with some needing the USA equivalent training while others possessing a program similar in the UK.

Winning the Video Thumbnail in Google Universal Search

Winning the Video Thumbnail in Google Universal Search
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Posted by mybinding1

Have you noticed that more and more video results are showing up in Google search results? Everywhere I turn, it seems that Google is providing me with options of videos to watch on the first page of their search results. As a user, I appreciate the video content and will often click on the video results. As a marketer, I am incredibly jealous of those placements and am constantly searching for ways to capture that traffic for my site. This post highlights the five most important factors I've found that play the largest role in when and where a thumbnail is awarded.

1. Index Status

This may seem like a no-brainer, but if your videos are not included in the video index, then you will not be eligible for the video thumbnail. That makes getting the video content on your site indexed your first priority.

If you want to check to see if your videos are included in the index, simply do a site search for your domain and click the Videos tab in Google. Below is an example of the list of videos included in the index for SEOmoz. As you know, the site feature of Google is not entirely reliable (not everything will show). However, it does give you an idea of the videos that Google includes in the index along with their thumbnails, titles, and descriptions, which can be incredibly helpful.

Video Index for Seomoz.org

If you have a video sitemap submitted inside of your Google webmaster tools account, you will be able to see the number of videos that you submitted along with the number of videos that have been indexed. Again, I have found the numbers to be less than comprehensive, but it is another tool to use in checking whether your videos have been indexed.

Getting your videos indexed by the search engines doesn’t have to be difficult. There have been some awesome blog posts here on SEOmoz about that, including this one titled An SEO's Guide to Video Hosting and Embedding and this one called Video Sitemap Guide for Vimeo and YouTube. There are also some excellent resources directly from Google, such as this section of their Webmaster help on Video Best Practices. Here is a screenshot of that page from their site:

Google Video Best Practices

Check these resources out when you have time, they are definitely worth the read. If you are struggling with getting your videos indexed, you might want to consider using a hosting provider with built in SEO features such as Wistia (they will take care of most of the heavy lifting for you). In the meantime, here is a quick overview of what you need to do in order to get videos in the index.

  1. Create and submit a video sitemap: Make sure that your sitemap includes a unique title, description, embed location, thumbnail, and content location for each video on your site. The keyword phrase and description should match with the content on the page where you have embedded your video.
  2. Embed your videos using a simple SEO friendly embed code: The embed code that you use on your page needs to be SEO friendly. Google needs to be able to verify the information from your sitemap entries to ensure that the video is actually embedded on the page and that the information is accurate. Most SEO friendly embed codes will include all or most of the information from the sitemap. However, several hosting providers are also starting to integrate schema.org info into embeds to make information even more visible to the search engines.
  3. Get your page found: Standard SEO principles also apply in video SEO. Googlebot needs to be able to find the page where you have embedded the video and in order to get that page to rank, you are going to need to make sure that it has pagerank passed to it through internal linking, external linking, or both.

If you are embedding your videos on pages that are already indexed or on a domain that is regularly crawled by googlebot, it shouldn’t take long for you to see new videos show up in the index (1-3 days for our site).

2. Competition

Once your videos are included in the index and eligible for video thumbnails, the next major factor to consider is competition. Winning the video thumbnail result is highly dependent on how competitive the search term is for which you are trying to rank. If you want to beat out the competition, here are a few things to consider:

Are you competing with your Video Hosting Provider for the thumbnail result? If you are embedding videos from YouTube, Vimeo, Metacafe, or other public video sharing sites onto your site, you are fighting an uphill battle to win the video thumbnail. Until about a year ago, it was difficult to get Google to index these videos on your site. Now they will index them (in the case of YouTube you don’t really even need to submit a video sitemap). However, given the choice between your site and YouTube, Google seems to choose YouTube 9 times out of 10. The same is true to a lesser degree from sites such as Vimeo or Metacafe. For this reason, you are really better off hosting your videos with a hosting solution such as Wistia, Vzaar, Brightcove, Limelight, or using a custom player such as JW Player. Phil Nottingham provided a great overview of the features of these different options in the blog post I linked to above. Here is a screenshot:

Paid Hosting Package Analysis

If you have your video hosting situation figured out, the next thing you need to figure out is what type of competition do you have on YouTube? Currently, the vast majority of video thumbnail results that are awarded seem to be given to YouTube videos. It probably has something to do with the fact that they are the largest repository of video content on the web. However, it doesn’t hurt that they are owned by Google. Topics that have large amounts of high quality video content on YouTube will be very difficult to crack using your own website. Keep this in mind when choosing key phrases and creating content.

Are you competing with yourself? If you create a lot of video, the temptation is very strong to distribute it everywhere (YouTube, Vimeo, Metacafe, etc.). This is a valid strategy for some companies. However, it is important to note that you will most likely be competing with your own content on these platforms for the video thumbnails. At MyBinding we have a huge YouTube channel, and we run into this problem all the time. Our YouTube videos outrank the videos on our own site. Ultimately you need to decide whether that is worthwhile for you or if you want to try and attempt to rank on different platforms for different keywords. This decision is going to be based on your business case and is going to vary from company to company.

Finally, remember that you are competing for a space on the first page of the Google search rankings. If the page where you embed your video doesn’t deserve to rank on the first page of Google for your chosen keyword, then winning the thumbnail will be difficult. That isn’t to say that video results don’t jump up the rankings occasionally. However, it is far easier to try and get a thumbnail added to an awesome page that is already ranking than it is to get a weaker page to skyrocket in the rankings.

3. Keyword Intent

It is difficult to define exactly which key phrases will qualify for video rich snippets in Google universal search results. It appears that virtually any key phrase could be awarded a video thumbnail. However, certain phrases are far more likely to have video results than others. The best way to think about this is to consider keyword intent. Search terms that include words such as demo, demonstration, review, tutorial, video, test, lesson, or how commonly return video search results. Google has determined that these words represent “intent” by the searcher that fits with video results. These type of search terms tend to be the easiest to dominate with video thumbnails.

Below is a search results page for the term “Wire Binding Machine Demo” (something from my industry and probably not exciting to most of you). However, you will notice that the first three results are all videos

Personalized willingness success kits

Personalized willingness success kits
http://bit.ly/Qb09Z8
We reside in your global today http://www.rosehosting.com/shared.html">linux shared hosting where, with almost no forewarning, a disaster including expensive deluges, twister, along with downburst gusts of wind could hit rapidly. These weather events could make you leave your home or perhaps restrict one to your home until finally assist comes. A person, in addition to families, could deal greater with catastrophe through considering forward along with preparing in advance. The most effective solutions to get ready forward is usually to obtain survival packages to ensure that the requirements have reached side whenever desperately needed. survival packages are employed being a pick up along with get comfort whenever moment is actually an issue. Among this is the do flames that is swiftly drawing near your home all night . a new survival equipment ready for the evacuation can be a ease and comfort at any given time of substantial stress, with very little time to consentrate. The flooding circumstance could also stop evacuation paths along with time management techniques can be critical. Developing a survival equipment ready will assist you to annoy in a rush before you are stop. "On July 17, 2012 Be the change you want to see in the world."

Obtaining unexpected emergency packages inside your car that could include a battery operated radio stations, flash light, additional power packs, routes, blanket, first aid kit, scoop, bottled water, along with non-perishable foods may also be a crucial consideration. Urgent situation packages are available with provisions first survival supplies man or woman or maybe more that will previous approximately 72 hrs. These unexpected emergency packages for your household corner must also include a way to obtain water, meals that will not spoil, first-aid goods and other products easily pre-packaged ready for the short-term stay away from residence. Obtaining these materials grouped together and prepared, must a disaster be prestigious, provides personalized readiness essential for anyone that could confront a disaster scenario where evacuation can be a robust likelihood. In addition there are packages accessible that will serve a workplace personnel of up to 25 men and women. These packages is usually an property in almost any organization, along with demonstrates a company really likes you the particular well-being with their workers must a disaster hit.

If you are a an affiliate a neighborhood connection or perhaps organization, next launching catastrophe readiness in your neighbors can bring ease and comfort must catastrophe jeopardize the local community. When a catastrophe takes place volunteers in the beginning come toward assist. These volunteers usually are the next-door neighborhood friends who wish to lend a hand. There exists a exercise program referred to as the Neighborhood Urgent situation Reaction Team that would be good for just about any connection associate to go to. You can find cert packages intended for the particular CERT program, which include volumes of numerous goods which include camp tents, water products, comforters, first-aid goods and other CERT products which are in step with regulating specifications regarding catastrophe readiness. Your cert packages will be the products you will need for an once-a-year physical exercise to ensure everyone understands their website link inside sequence of support that could conserve lives."On July 17, 2012 Sooner or later we must realize there is no station."


Linked Articles -- unexpected emergency packages, earthquake packages, cert packages, survival packages,

Why SMX East Is A Can’t-Miss Event

Why SMX East Is A Can’t-Miss Event
http://bit.ly/OMnXU8

Search Engine Land’s SMX East search engine marketing conference is returning to New York City on October 2-4. We’ve got a revamped, updated agenda, and have already confirmed a number of world-class speakers. If you’re involved in marketing, PR, social media or any other customer-facing activity, you owe it to yourself (and the ultimate benefit of your company or client’s bottom line) to attend the show. Here’s why.

2012: The Tipping Point Year Where Everything Changed

The world of search has changed more this year than any other in the past decade. Consider these inflection points:

  • Google radically overhauled just about everything, from making sweeping algorithm changes that caused considerable pain for many, to fully integrating all of its services into Google+… even making changes to its ads and product search offering.
  • Though “everyone” saw it coming, spending for online advertising surpassed magazine and newspaper spend combined, and within just a few years is projected to surpass TV ad spend. By some measures, Ad budgets for search represent the majority of online spend.
  • Demand for qualified search marketers is far outstripping supply, with intense competition for talent and no letup in sight.

These are just three of the trends reshaping the world of search marketing. And at SMX East, we’re taking deep dives into these topics and more, offering insights and tactical solutions for resolving pain points and taking your marketing to the next level.

Something For Everyone

SMX East is one of two large Search Marketing Expo events that Search Engine Land’s publisher Third Door Media runs each year in the United States. SMX West, held in San Jose in March, is the other.

Search is a proven medium for driving traffic, conversions and sales. Whether you’re a web designer, developer, in public relations, advertising or traditional marketing, knowing the latest search marketing developments is critical to success.

SMX East gives you the education, tactics and strategies to thrive in search marketing. The conference is big enough that we offer multiple tracks filled with sessions that cover all interests — paid search, SEO, social media marketing — and all experience levels, from beginner to advanced.

Our Agenda-At-A-Glance provides an overview of everything that’s going on, complete with “ski run” icons that indicate sessions suitable for your experience level and skills. Labels identify sessions that are focused toward search engine optimization (working with “free” listings), PPC (paid search ads), and the increasingly crucial If you’re new to search marketing, our SMX Boot Camp will get you up to speed. It happens on the first day of the show, Tuesday, October 2. Attend and you’ll learn the fundamentals in these sessions:

To encourage new people to learn about search marketing, we offer all these sessions through a low-cost SMX Boot Camp ticket. That includes admission on the first day of the show to Expo Hall, networking lunch and Expo Hall reception, and the Evening Forum. You can upgrade to a full pass, should you want to attend more sessions on the second and third day.

SMX Boot Camp is, of course, also open to anyone with a full All Access conference pass. Everyone who attends all four boot camp sessions gets a certificate of completion.

SMX Advanced @ SMX East

SMX Advanced is our smaller conference designed for advanced search marketers that’s held every June in Seattle. It always sells out and did so faster than ever this year. Missed getting in? We’ve got some of the best sessions coming to the Best Of SMX Advanced Track, including sessions focused on cutting edge SEO, paid search, and opportunities in the brave (and lucrative!) new world of tablets and smartphones:

In addition to the SMX Advanced Track, there are plenty of expert-level sessions happening across all three days of SMX East. So if you did make it to SMX Advanced Seattle, New York’s still got plenty of fresh advanced content for you.

SMX Summit

We often hear from people that in addition to attending sessions, some of the most valuable learning they take away comes from interacting and networking with other search marketing professionals. To address that, we’ve added an all new track to SMX East: SMX Summit. These PowerPoint-free sessions feature the foremost experts in the world discussing and debating important topics, followed by no-holds-barred Q&A where they’ll be ready to answer any and all of your questions. The lineup for SMX summit includes:

Social Meets Search

A hallmark of SMX is that our sessions all relate to search. So why have sessions about social media? Because social media emerged as another great way to interact with customers, and it has an increasingly growing impact on search results. In fact, a recent CMO Survey from Duke University says that in the next 5 years marketers expect to spend 20% of their budgets on social media. That’s serious money – and raises serious questions, like how should you allocate resources, how will you know what you’re doing is effective, and how will you be able to be more “socially adept” compared with your competitors?

These sessions will keep you ahead on how search and social media are intersecting:

On The Spot With Local & Mobile Search

Well-known internet observer and Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker has hailed this decade as the era of “SoLoMo” – the intersection of social media with local and mobile search. To complement our social media sessions, we’ve put together sessions that let you “check in” with the hottest trends in local and mobile search:

Competitive SEO For Fun & Profit

With constant algorithm changes, personalization affecting search results, and an ever-increasing number of competitive websites appearing every day, it’s challenging for SEOs to keep up. A further challenge is to justify your hard work and persuade bosses or clients why – and exactly how – your work is valuable. If you’re just getting started with SEO, SMX East’s SMX Boot Camp can help, but we’ve also got plenty of sessions designed to help seasoned professionals keep and sharpen their edge:

What Semantic SEO Means For The Future Of Search Marketing

Semantics – literally the study of meaning – is the next wave in search. We’ve always had meta data to express meaning, but increasingly, with search engines recognizing more types of microdata formats and with Google’s push into understanding meaning via its vast “knowledge graph,” SEOs need to focus more closely on linguistic meaning beyond simple keyword and anchor text optimization techniques. At SMX East, these sessions delve into the increasingly important power of semantics:

Paid Search Track

Are you focused on paid search? Don’t worry, all that talk about SEO above doesn’t mean you’re left out. In addition to paid search-related sessions throughout the conference, we also have a special Paid Search Track running on the first day of the show, with these sessions:

For Enterprise & In-House Marketers

Large organizations face unique challenges, ranging from multiple sites in multiple countries to managing a wide array of stakeholder interests. In-house marketers, regardless of whether they work at a large or small company, face similar challenges. If you’re in either of these roles, you’ll want to check out these sessions:

Content Really Is King These Days

Over the past year, Google has increasingly stepped up its efforts to find and promote “high quality” sites and penalize those with sparse or spammy content. If you’re not focusing on building the best possible site you’re likely in trouble, or will be, as Google continues this relentless purge. But what exactly is “good” content? This track focuses specifically on separating the wheat from the chaff:

Exploring Issues & Tactics

Search marketing is largely tactical – getting the job done efficiently and profitably. But there are also external issues that everyone should be aware of, if only to avoid outside factors that are increasingly influencing what can, and cannot, be done. This track looks at a wide range of issues and tactics, including:

The Benefits Of Going Vertical

Most marketers tend to focus on Google, and with good reason. But there are numerous alternatives that offer significant sources of traffic and potential conversions that you should not overlook. This track focuses on the verticals that can help you get elevated beyond the mainstream search engines:

The Clinic Is Open!

Want specific advice from experts about issues with your sites or campaigns? The specialists are in! On the second and third days of

The SMB Guide To Changing Business Names & SEO

The SMB Guide To Changing Business Names & SEO
http://bit.ly/OHfiSK

Dr. Geoff Bell*, a dentist in Carlsbad, CA (you’re welcome Doc), has a problem child – his son. Things had been going well.

People hadn’t been flossing (I’m looking at you, dear reader), he was ranking #1 for “Carlsbad root planing” and business was booming.

Then Junior had to go get a dentistry degree and decide to join the family business. And because Junior has a bit of an ego, the decision was made to change the name from “Geoff Bell, DDS” to “Bell Family Dental”. No big deal right? Wrong.

There are plenty of complications in changing a business’ name. Many involve filling out a lot of forms to tell the government what’s going on.

Unfortunately, the United SERPs of Google does not provide much in the way of forms. And rebranding (as we call it in the biz) can be the quickest way to destroy your search engine rankings.

Perhaps a few tips in a handy list from myself and some other notable local SEO geeks are in order to avoid the SEO equivalent of root canal:

1.  Don’t Do It!

As you’ll see below, there are a lot of potential SEO pitfalls to changing your name. If you can avoid doing it, you’ll sleep a lot better. But if it has to be done, keep reading.

2.  Seriously. Don’t Do It!

What he said.

3.  Avoid Changing Your Domain Name

Switching domains is a great way to lose a lot of search engine traffic. If you can avoid changing domains, you’ll sleep a lot better. If it has to be done, make sure you have a good URL redirection plan in place.

Do make sure you have a PR plan in place to help you get new links and social sharing signals. These can help support your search engine rankings if there is a dip after you make the switch.

Also,  have a paid search or other marketing campaign in place to help make up for any lost traffic while you are working on improving the new domain’s SEO.

4.  Update Your Business Contact Data – Everywhere

Google uses your business name, address and phone number (aka your “NAP”) as a key signal in its local rankings. It looks at various relevant “citation” sources of local business NAP data (e.g. yellow pages sites, local chamber of commerce sites, etc.) to algorithmically determine where a business is located, what the business does and how it should rank for various local queries.

If your NAP data is inconsistent across these different citation sources, it can cause your local rankings to drop. And don’t forget about updating your NAP data on your Google+ Local page, Bing Local and Yahoo Local profiles.

A good way to find relevant citations for your business is to do a “business name” + “phone number” and a “business name” + “address” search in Google to get an idea of the citations that Google has indexed. Checking for pre-existing listings before adding a listing with your new business name is an absolute must to prevent duplication and NAP data corruption.

When it comes to citations, it’s just as important to get rid of the old information as it is to push out the new stuff. There are some non-traditional citation sources and lower level directories that are quite difficult to get your business information changed on (i.e. brownbook and city-data won’t let you change your business name once you have listed them). These can cause duplication issues down the line.

While many SEOs recommend that you do not change your phone number, no matter what, Will Scott, CEO of SearchInfluence, recommends in cases where you can’t get a lot of citation sources changed, you may want to consider changing your phone number to better differentiate your new NAP information from the old.

5.  Update Your Business Name On Your Website

Would you be surprised to hear that it’s not uncommon for a business to change its name but forget to change it on its website? Get this one at the top of your checklist.

Mary Bowling recommends that you do this before you update it on Bing Local and Yahoo Local to avoid any issues with those services.

6.  Add A Keyword and/or Location Term To Your New Business Name

If you are going to go through the trouble of changing your name, you might as well change it so something that has more value for SEO. In the case of our dentist, while changing to “Bell Family Dental” solves the’ whose business is it’ problem, it doesn’t do much for SEO, except perhaps in the case of those looking for “family dentists”.

A name like “Carlsbad Family Dentists” or even “Bell Family Dental of Carlsbad” might perform better. Of course, you’ll also need to take non-SEO factors into account when choosing a name, such as social media benefits, will it fit on a business card, family member egos, etc.

7.  Make Sure You Can Own Your New Brand Online

According to David Mihm, many SMBs neglect to secure important user names and domains when they rebrand.

Make sure you can get the .com, .org, .net and your relevant country TLD before you make the switch. And make sure the Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus user names are available. Knowem is a helpful tool for this.

8.  Don’t Forget About Your Customers!

A lot of SMBs neglect to include their customers in the rebranding process. When you change your name, it might put off customers who weren’t in the loop and don’t understand what’s going on.

Dev Basu, CEO of Powered by Search, recommends that you give your customers a heads up that you are rebranding soon and show ‘sneak peak’ elements via a Facebook Fanpage or Google+. Then you can gauge customer feedback from these posts.

If all of this sounds complicated and intimidating. Good. SEO for rebranding is not for the faint of heart.

My recommendation for Dr. Bell – Make sure you have plenty of laughing gas on hand before you rebrand. You’ll need it.

*The author has no professional affiliation with Dr. Bell or his business. That said, the author does have teeth.

Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

Related Topics: Local Search

Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

Google Testing Smartphone Optimized Icons In Mobile Results

Google Testing Smartphone Optimized Icons In Mobile Results
http://bit.ly/QFZnd6

Bryson Meunier spotted new mobile icons in his mobile search experience on Google.

He was searching Google on his Galaxy Nexus running Jelly Bean and noticed a new smartphone icon labeled on some of the search results. The icon symbolizes if the web site you are about to click on is smartphone-optimized or not.

Google told us this is a test they are experimenting with to try to “optimize the mobile search experience.” A Google spokesperson said:

We’re experimenting with ways to optimize the mobile search experience, including helping users identify smartphone-optimized sites. We don’t have any more details to share at the moment, but thank you for checking in.

Here is an image captured by Bryson of the new smartphone-optimized icon:

If you are able to reproduce this on your device, please do share with us a better looking and more detailed image of this Google mobile experiment.

Update: Here is a clearer screen shot of the smartphone optimized icon via kagua.biz:

Related Topics: Google: Mobile | Top News



SMX - Search Marketing Expo Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 6, 2012

SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 6, 2012
http://bit.ly/MJyr63

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

  • Getting Dev Team Mindshare For Your SEO Projects

    Getting in the development schedule in an enterprise environment can be one of the most challenging parts of the job for an SEO professional. The dev team has so many different people coming at them with projects to do, and prioritizing those projects can be a mess. Add to that the frustrating reality that the [...]

  • Google Testing Smartphone Optimized Icons In Mobile Results

    Bryson Meunier spotted new mobile icons in his mobile search experience on Google. He was searching Google on his Galaxy Nexus running Jelly Bean and noticed a new smartphone icon labeled on some of the search results. The icon symbolizes if the web site you are about to click on is smartphone-optimized or not. Google [...]

  • The SMB Guide To Changing Business Names & SEO

    Dr. Geoff Bell*, a dentist in Carlsbad, CA (you’re welcome Doc), has a problem child – his son. Things had been going well. People hadn’t been flossing (I’m looking at you, dear reader), he was ranking #1 for “Carlsbad root planing” and business was booming. Then Junior had to go get a dentistry degree and decide [...]

  • How To Manage & Measure Local PPC Accounts

    In my last column, I looked at some of the differences between small and large accounts as the best practices vary for each. In this column, we’re going to specifically focus on one of the most common small accounts: local accounts; and examine some of the best practices for this type of small account. A [...]

  • Nuance’s Nina Is Siri For Enterprise Customer Service

    Although there were so-called “virtual assistants” before Siri, consumers had only limited experience with them and may not have even realized what they were dealing with at the time. United Airlines’ “virtual agent” Alex is one such automated assistant, though it doesn’t use speech and currently doesn’t work on mobile devices. At least a dozen [...]

Recent Headlines From Marketing Land, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:

Search News From Around The Web:

Applications & Portal Features

Business Issues

  • Giving you a better Google, Official Google Blog
  • Google Should Pay $ 750 a Book, Authors Say in E-Book Suit, Bloomberg
  • Apple Wants To Buy Pinterest Rival, The Fancy, Business Insider
  • Baidu Fires Employees Arrested for Deleting Forum Posts for Cash, thenextweb.com
  • Google Slaps $ 100M Golden Handcuffs On Wildfire To Retain Employees After $ 350M Acquisition, TechCrunch
  • Yahoo Gets Googley Q&A Tool at Friday FYI, AllThingsD
  • Yahoo Strategy Guru Jim Heckman Leaves, AllThingsD
  • Zillow and Other Companies Moving From Consumers to Businesses, New York Times

Local, Maps & Mobile

Link Building

SEO & SEM

Social Media

Related Topics: SearchCap



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Getting Dev Team Mindshare For Your SEO Projects

Getting Dev Team Mindshare For Your SEO Projects
http://bit.ly/TbsRgg

Getting in the development schedule in an enterprise environment can be one of the most challenging parts of the job for an SEO professional. The dev team has so many different people coming at them with projects to do, and prioritizing those projects can be a mess.

Add to that the frustrating reality that the person/people setting the priorities often do not have nearly enough information to decide which projects could have the biggest impact for the organization.

This can leave you in stunned shock at a conference room table when that killer project you were pushing for did not make the cut in the development schedule for the next 6 months.

A few key steps can help you minimize the risk of this happening to you. Of course, there is the usual tactics of making friends with key people in the decision making process, and buying the developers pizza and beer. Those are excellent ideas, and you should do them, but let’s dig a little deeper into the process.

Determine Your Non Branded Organic Search Traffic

Being definitive about the potential economic gains is always impossible to do precisely in SEO, but that does not relieve you of the responsibility of doing the best you can. The first step is to get a handle on the current level of non-branded organic search engine traffic (“NBOST”) that your site gets.

The reason we focus on NBOST is that your site should not need any help from your SEO efforts to rank for your company brand name. Google and Bing are very good at ranking your for your brand even with no real SEO efforts, while your SEO is best measured using NBOST. Obtaining an accurate NBOST total is a little tricky in the era of “not provided”, but it is still doable.

Follow these steps and it will get you there:

  • Determine your total organic search traffic (“Total Organic Search Traffic”) in your analytics tool. In Google Analytics the steps are: Traffic Sources -> Sources -> Search -> Organic

  • Look at the incoming search phrases and see how much of your Total Organic Search Traffic for which the keyword reported is “not provided” (“Total Not Provided Traffic”).
  • Calculate the traffic for which you have keyword data by subtracting Total Not Provided Traffic from Total Organic Search Traffic. We will call this “Total Keyword Specified Organic Search Traffic”.
  • Find out what portion of Total Keyword Specified Organic Search Traffic comes from brand terms (“Brand Specified Organic Search Traffic”) by reviewing the 100 most popular keywords and counting it up manually or by setting up a filter in your analytics tool.
  • The Total Keyword Specified Organic Search Traffic which is non-branded (“Non-Branded Specified Organic Search Traffic”) = Total Keyword Specified Organic Search Traffic minus Brand Specified Organic Search Traffic.
  • The % of your overall traffic that is non-branded (“Percent Non-Branded”) is just Non-Branded Specified Organic Search Traffic divided by Total Keyword Specified Organic Search Traffic
  • NBOST = Non-Branded Specified Organic Search Traffic + Percent Non-Branded times Total Not Provided Traffic

This formula uses the percentage of non-branded traffic you do get (in the portion of your traffic where you can see the keywords) to estimate what percentage of your Total Not Provided Traffic is likely to be non-branded.

At Stone Temple Consulting, we did some validation of this methodology using several methods. In one example, we saw that the mix of landing pages for the not provided traffic seems to be very similar to the mix for pages for which we can get keyword data.

The above text based formulas may seem complex, but it is easier than it looks in print, as shown in this sample calcluation:

Estimate Growth Potential For Your Project

This is where some magic occurs. There is no accurate way to forecast SEO gains. And yet, this is a crucial step.

Let’s say you convince your team that NBOST will double based on a given project, and in the next step, you show them the fabulous wealth that will come in once that happens. So they do the project and 6 months later NBOST is up just 5%. You don’t want to be that person, because they will never listen to you again. Your credibility will be shot.

Of course, you need to put enough of a forecast on the table that it is motivating to them.

Note that if your prior forecasts of growth were all in range with, or underestimates of, how you set expectations, and they did the project based on those forecasts you job is much easier now – they will trust you are not just blowing smoke.

That said, how do you some up with a forecast?

Here are some tips on how to go about it:

  1. First determine what portion of the site is affected. If the project concerns one section of the site, and that section gets 35% of the NBOST, that means your project will have little to no impact on 65% of the NBOST. If you double that section’s traffic, you are increasing overall site NBOST by 35%. Breaking down the problem this way will help you better understand how to scale the possible impact.
  2. If you are adding new pages to the site, do the keyword research to determine the potential scale of traffic that could be added. Then scale that back by the time it will take to create the pages and for the search engines to rank that content. Also, do not assume position 1 placement, but assume something more conservative, like position 3 or 4 for less competitive keywords, and lower positions for hyper-competitive keywords. Use industry data to determing CTR by SERP position. You should also take into account the long tail, which I usually do by taking the traffic I see for the major head terms and multiplying by 10.
  3. If you are adding new content to existing pages, such as UGC or newly generated written content by staff writers, understand the schedule by which this will occur. UGC can take many months to have a real impact, and your staff writers need time to generate content too.

These are just a few examples, and there are way too many types of SEO projects for me to model each type. But, the key realization to start with is that you must do this.

If you can’t come up with a way to make reasonable guesstimates of the impact, you can’t expect long term success in selling your projects.

A final tip here is to provide a range. Hopefully your team will know that there is a large dose of guessing in SEO forecasting, so aim to give them a range of possible results.

Ideally, the low end of your forecast is high enough to still be interesting to do, and also covers your downside risk on the project potential. If it doesn’t, then the question is: why are you doing the project?

Of course, sometimes you have to do one project to enable others, so one specific project may offer little in terms of direct gains, but then it needs to be setting you up for future NBOST and conversion gains down the road.

Estimate Revenue Impact

This is a little bit easier to do, and just as important. Your website exists for a reason, and that presumably includes trying to get visitors to do something (a “conversion”).

It may be as simple as visiting a particular webpage, requesting to be contacted, downloading a white paper, completing a purchase, or any one of the above. Whatever it is, the action you are looking for them to complete has value to you as an organization. Otherwise, you would not have a website.

Make sure you understand what the potential conversions are, and the value for each. Some transactions may not have an obvious value, such as downloading a whitepaper, but if that is what a conversion is for you, work internally to agree on what the value is per download.

The other number you need to get your hands on is the conversion rate for your site. Ideally, you want this number specific to the conversion rate that results from NBOST.

If you can’t get this number because analytics is not setup to track it, the next development project you push for needs to be to get analytics setup to track it. You can’t improve what you don’t measure, and this is the basis on which you sell that particular project.

Once you have the conversion rate and conversion value in hand, coming up with an estimate of the revenue impact is easy. It’s just the projected growth in NBOST times the conversion rate times the average value per conversion.

Simple, Clear Presentation

The entire discussion so far has been about assembling the raw material for the real task … presenting this and selling it. Here is where your personal skills are key. As before, I am not going to focus on how to make people friends, or buy pizza, or the like, but the end goal. And the goal is to learn what motivates the stakeholders you need to sell.

This might be understanding ho

Mars Rover Gets Tribute From Oreo

Mars Rover Gets Tribute From Oreo
http://bit.ly/OFOIt5

As you may know, the Mars Rover, Curiosity, has safely landed on the planet, beginning a two-year mission. Oreo is honoring the event with the following image, posted to its Facebook page (and on its website):

This is part of Oreo’s “Daily Twist” series, which has the brand posting interesting Oreo cookie-based images each day, depending on what’s happening in the world. They recently posted this The Dark Knight Rises image, for example:

In June (LGBT Pride Month), Oreo posted this one, which got a lot of attention (not unlike the whole Chick-fil-A controversy, despite its opposite approach to the subject):

That post got over 34,000 shares and over 145,000 likes in just 12 hours, showing Oreo’s social media power (the brand once set a Guinness record for like on Facebook). Of course, Chick-fil-A’s approach has worked pretty well in that regard, as well.

The Mars Rover tribute is not the first time Oreo has honored a body from space in recent days. Just last week, Oreo gave it up for the moon:

The Mars Rover landing is capturing the interest of a substantial portion of the Internet. It even has its own Twitter parody account.

Check out NASA’s reactions, via the NASA HQ Flickr photostream.

[h/t: AdWeek]

WebProNews » Social Media

Generate Great Ideas by Connecting with Customers

Generate Great Ideas by Connecting with Customers
http://bit.ly/MnShT2

Posted by Kate Morris

simple business ideasThe simplest ideas can be the best link building ideas. If you spend a few hours really thinking like your customers, stop thinking about competitors, and stop being yourself (executive, SEO, etc.), there are a number of ideas out there that can turn into multichannel success stories for your marketing program. This inspiration came from my time spent in marketing classes. 

Who here took a marketing class in school? *waits for hands*

If you were a marketing undergrad like myself, you want to shoot the next person that says "pick a company and build a marketing plan for them." For those of you that were spared the annoyance of hearing about Starbucks year after year, count yourself lucky. (Don't get me wrong, I love Starbucks, check my credit card statement.)

Marketing students are well versed on how to develop out of the box ideas for companies all over the world. Know why? They don't have to implement any of them! It is amazing how everyday politics and budgets can hinder the ability to brainstorm really good ideas. 

Creating a marketing plan out of the blue is something everyone should try. It is truly amazing how many great, yet simple ideas come out of starting fresh and thinking not as an employee, but as an outsider. The key is getting out of your own head to generate fresh ideas.

Forget Yourself and Find Them

The first step is to get out of the office. For consumer facing industries, it's time to go find your customers. If you have the ability to visit a retail location, do that. You don't need hundreds of customers, you just need a few. If you are an online retailer, look up some of your clients and ask if you can visit them. Find real people and ask for 15 minutes to chat with each of them. 

No, I am not kidding. This might be difficult, but it's worth the time. 

If you are not a retailer (more B2B), do as the online retailer does and look up your clients to go visit a few. Flying across the country does not work for many businesses, so you'll need to get creative. If all else fails and all of your customers are far away, ask to Skype chat with a few.

You need to enter their world. Don't come to the meeting with questions prepared. Don't take more than the time they give you, and try to be brief. Simply chat with them about their day. Ask them how their life is and how your company fits in. You don't want company specific feedback, you just want to see how you fit into their life and what is on their mind at the moment. Really get to know them. 

Take notes. Give them a $ 5 giftcard and sincerely thank them for their business.

(PS: you probably have a customer for life now)

Get Outside of Your Box

Now that you are in the mind set of your customers, don't go back to work. (Believe me, your boss will understand when they see these ideas.) Instead, find one of those co-working places in major cities. If you aren't in a major city, visit somewhere that isn't home or work. It can be a coffee shop, but try to pick somewhere you can be creative and productive for a few hours. If that means the local library or a friend's office, then cool. 

Now, sit down and think like your customers. What would they say your marketing plan should be? What makes your company/client the place to go to for your products/services? You want to be the favorite place your customers go online and offline when they need something related to what you do. How do you make your company that important?

Don't be you, be your customer. What would you want done differently in your company? Find a whiteboard, a notebook, a computer, or similar. Write down everything that comes to mind. 

Most Important: Answer Without Abandon

Take those questions and just answer. Don't think about what is plausible. Don't consider what other people will say. You want the ideas that you don't have to implement, which is what makes this exercise fun and awesome. Don't consider cost for ideas, just get them all out there. Your only concern should be how to make your customer happy. Don't think about selling them more, getting links, shares, or email sign ups. Just make them love you. 

Do they already love you? Woo! Now, how do you get more people to love you?

Other questions to ask yourself if you are stuck include:

  • Where would potential customers go to find out about our products or services?
  • How do they know they need us?
  • How can we solve their problem faster and more efficiently for THEM? (Stop thinking about shipping and costs, this is about them.)
  • How do we make ourselves avaliable to them whenever they need us?
  • What can we do to make them LOVE us?

The Result: Great Ideas

The above is a brainstorm that turned into a marketing plan for Dick's Drive-In in Seattle. The key take-aways were to have a spokesperson, "Dick," that had a van he drove around in to drum up love and business. If any of you have Uber in your city, think the ice cream truck promotion. They would also give away t-shirts in addition to yummy deluxe burgers. By the time these guys were done, everyone in that room was hungry. 

Ther kicker here is that Dick's is not a client at Distilled. They a well-loved local eatery. Everyone knows who they are and how to get a yummy burger. They probably don't need help online, but they can get help with this 30 minute brainstorm and marketing plan by people who do not work for them. And the idea was fantastic. I was not a part of this team, but I can only imagine the applications. 

Ahem, Links?

I mentioned that these brainstorms can turn into major successes for you, including link building ideas. I can't promise that every idea you come up with will result in killer link building, but I have faith that if these ideas are actually customer focused and impactful, any number of them can get the attention of the media and make your customers want to share your business with their friends. 

More sepcifically, let's use the ideas above for Dick's Drive In. 

  • Spokesperson "Dick"
    Depending on the success of the branding and the events around Dick, this could mean interviews (links) and social shares. If developed right, a meme could develop around a particularly funny photo with captions. 
  • Van with Slogan "Dick, the man with the Van"
    This has Reddit written all over it. There are some possible reputation issues with famililes and what a van might mean to parents (think abduction vans), but you get little to no reward without some risk. This would do great with the festivals in Seattle and online. Think about how many people would tweet and share photos with Dick and the Van? All of these mentions and shares can have a positive impact on your search metrics. And Redditors would be all over talking about this promotion. 
  • T-Shirts
    Depending on the slogan, the shirts could be sold on the website. If good enough, they could drive people to the site via friends. How many times have you asked or been asked about an awesome shirt? The shirts themselves can be link bait. Check out this post from Shoemoney linking to Acquisio for the fact they had an awesome shirt. 

What are the great ideas you have had in the past to grow your business? I'd love to hear them and maybe I can give some ideas of how I would turn them into link building ideas. 


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