Search Engine Optimization SEO Articles

If you are struggling with the decision of whether to implement RSS feeds or not, consider the following pros and cons for webmasters who use RSS feeds as part of their content and communication plan... Benefits (Pros Of Using RSS) The benefits for a webmaster who opts to implement RSS feeds on their website are numerous: 1. Saves Time RSS feeds save time. RSS subscribers can quickly scan RSS feeds, without having to visit each and every website. Subscribers can then click on any items they are interested in, to get additional information. Pros and Cons of RSS Feeds - 2 years ago

It does not matter what you call them: vodcasts, vidcasts, videocasting, or video podcasting... there are a few behind-the-scenes actions you can take to help attract more attention to your video productions. Just like websites, it does not matter how amazing the content is if interested people are unable to find it. Use the following suggestions to help increase the exposure your videos receive... Tips to Optimize Video Podcasts. - 2 years ago

Sound effects are often used to compliment and enhance artistic presentations, whether they be podcasts, videos, or other audio/visual productions. Royalty-free sound effects are typically non-exclusive and can be used by anyone who purchases them. Professional sound effects can give a podcast or production a more professional sound. However, many new producers may not realize that sound effects have copyrights, and in many cases it is illegal to use a sound effect that you happen to find on the web without properly licensing it. Most podcasters and producers do not have the time or equipment to go out and record all the sound effects they may want to incorporate into their production. Podcasters are better off using royalty-free sound effects. Royalty-free sound effects are purchased, and there is no recurring fee for the use of the effect. The purchaser may use the sound effect(s) as often as required within the license terms and conditions, without paying for the use of the sound effect each time the effect is used. Sound Effects: The Power of Audio - 2 years ago

Growing subscribers of your RSS feed will expand your reach. Put the appropriate effort into marketing your RSS feed, so you can increase adoption and spread the message contained in the RSS feed. Increase RSS Subscribers - 2 years ago

Learn the ins and outs of using a sound effect to polish your presentation or podcast. What Is A Sound Effect? A sound effect is a ready-made sound for podcasters or producers. Typically, podcasters need to only incorporate the sound into their production for instant success. This can be done with various editors running in a very short amount of time. Sound Effects make the creation of a podcast easier and professional. Sound effects are usually easy to edit and customize using any sound editor, occasionally more sophisticated sound require precise tuning. What Are Sound Effects? - 2 years ago

Repurposing content is not a terribly new concept. Webmasters that picked up on the trend have benefited from traffic surges for a while now. Repurposing content is all about presenting the same content in a variety of different ways, or using different mediums to present the same content. Webmasters can manipulate content in order to provide the same content in any number of different formats. Re-Using Content - 2 years ago

Learn the ABCs of RSS Feeds - 2 years ago

There are a wide variety of things you can do in regard to blog promotion. Here are just a few... Promote Your Blog - 3 years ago

There is a lot of money to be made with Google Adsense. If you know how to pick your niche, which keywords to optimize for, how to choose the ad units, and where to place them, you might be lucky to turn your site into a stable source of income for you.

Free media coverage can help a business a lot. While not everybody is destined to be a media star, the simple tips in this article will help everybody to get the media coverage they need.

Amazon Kindle has a huge earning potential. However, the competition is fierce, too. This is why you need to know how to make your Amazon Kindle eBook popular. Read this article and you will learn what to do in order to promote your Amazon Kindle eBook.

Google Adsense might be the most popular way to monetize a website but it certainly isn't the only one. Here are 10 Google Adsense alternatives to explore that could bring you more money than Google Adsense itself.

The Panda update is one of the most serious changes in search engine algorithms in the last years. This update affected millions of sites (and their owners). If you want to learn how to make your site do well in post-Panda searches, read this article.

When your goal is to rank well with search engines, it is important not only what you do to optimize your site but also what your competitors are doing. This is why you need to keep an eye on your competitors' SEO activities, as discussed in this article.

Baidu is the most popular search engine in China, more popular than Google itself. This is why, if you have visitors from China, it makes sense to optimize your site for Baidu as well. The rules for ranking well with Baidu are similar to the rules of the other search engines, yet there are differences, as we show in the article.

When you are doing business locally, you need local traffic. Maybe you are asking yourself how this is possible, since search engines are global in nature. Read the article and you will learn what you can do to get targeted local traffic to your site.

Personification works wonders in mass media advertising, sales letters, and poetry. So why not pay-per-click advertising? Learn how testing a more personified version of your PPC ads might just result in a big win for your product or service. - 4 hours ago

Focus on providing the best possible relevancy to users. If you want prime real search engine estate, you’ll either have to dish out some exceptional content or buy it through ad campaigns. Build trust, credibility, and authority in your niche. - 20 hours ago

Yahoo Axis displays search results for the iPhone, iPad or desktop browsers, without users having to leave their current web page, and provides a preview of the pages that results link to in an effort to overhaul the modern method of search. - 2 days ago

The ruling brings an end to second phase in the ongoing battle over Android's use of Java code. Oracle had previously won a partial victory on the matter of copyright infringement, though the jury remained split on other elements of the case. - 2 days ago

Google has released a new version of its iPhone search app, boasting a revamped interface, full screen image searches and improved search speeds. The update makes app pages load faster and autocomplete search suggestions appear more quickly. - 2 days ago

Content marketing and link building both have their merits in the realm of search marketing. However, the tale of the tape reveals that content marketing has a distinct advantage over link building for marketers. Here are seven reasons why. - 2 days ago

How will mobile local monetization materialize? That’s the big question. This outline offers a few foundational elements for mobile monetization which many players ¬- including Yelp, Foursquare, and Facebook - could (as some already have) build on. - 3 days ago

Google unveiled its Knowledge Graph recently, which it called the “first step in the next generation of search.” Chinese search giant Baidu isn’t impressed, saying Google’s semantic search isn’t new, and Baidu has been doing it better since 2009 - 3 days ago

The objective is to teach webmasters about the Google search engine works and what you can do to make your site more visible in search results. - 4 days ago

To our readers. Pandia is a project we as editors have rund since 1998 on our spare time. It has been a labor of love, but we readily admit that it has not always been easy to combine with our offline life and our daytime jobs. At the moment we find that we are not [...] - 6 weeks ago

Digital curation is the selection, preservation, maintenance, collection and archiving of digital assets according to Wikipedia). Curation used to be the domain of archivists and librarians. But the brunt of curation has moved from the shelves and archives to the Web. These days your daughter and your grandmother might be doing it. And recently the Web has added a social aspect to curation: You don't just collect and preserve information, you share your collections with the world. This is social curation and here is a look at the best social curation sites right now. - 2 months ago

The latest search engine news from around the Web. - 2 months ago

The latest headlines from the world of social media and social networking. - 2 months ago

The latest search engine marketing and optimization news from around the Web. - 2 months ago

Sehrch is a semantic search engine developed in the UK. You can search their index by entering a regular query, like on Bing or Google, or you can benefit from their structured data by formulating advanced searches and get precise results. - 2 months ago

The latest news from the world of search engines. - 2 months ago

by Mike Fleming We're taking a look at how the "average position" metric lies to you (or more accurately, is misunderstood by you). In part one, we studied the reasons behind this and why distributions in Google Webmaster Tools is your sweet release for truly understanding your organic search position listings.Let me wrap this up by showing you how to examine distributions in your AdWords account, as well. This is really important because, if you believe campaign/ad group/keyword/ad performance equals "My click-through rate/conversion rate/cost per conversion is at an average position of 3," you're not getting the real story. Plus, an average number is not actionable. But, if you segment positioning into distributions, you can now see performance differences in different positions on the page, draw some conclusions and take some action.With your PPC ads, there are two places that provide you with this distribution data.  First, in the AdWords interface, you can segment by Top vs. Other ad positioning...  This allows you to see how all of your metrics distribute across top-of-the-page positions (those that show above organic search results) and other positions (to the right or below organic results). Why is this important? A couple reasons...The average position metric you see is not segmented.  So, if you have an average position of 1, that doesn't mean you showed in the first spot at the top of the search results above organic listings. It means you won the first spot in the auction every time. The difference? You could have been the first ad listed on the right side of search results because no ads earned a top listing. That's right, the average position is the auction position and doesn't tell you anything about actual position on the page. For that, you have to use the segmentation feature. But, even then, it only shows you top vs. side and not a breakdown, position by position.It's all about the money. Of course, top positions cost relatively more than others. While they get the majority of the clicks, this doesn't necessarily mean it's the best place for you to be. If you look at the screenshot above closely, you can see that the campaign shown has more conversions in less clicks and for less cost in side positions than in top positions in Google results.  That's good to know, right? So far, lower positions are better for this advertiser.One other place to see an even more detailed look at position distribution is in your analytics tool. For example, in the advertising section of Google Analytics, there's a Keyword Positions report that looks like this... When you click on each keyword in the list (I have #3 highlighted), you see where your ads have shown in terms of position on the page.  But, every good Web marketer knows that you can't look at lonely metrics. There must be context! See the drop downs at the top of the columns? You can change metrics to give context to performance. You might get most of your visits at the top, but how is bounce rate or conversion rate or per-visit value! Now we're learning something. Now we can place our ads where they'll make the most money. Brilliant!While average position can certainly be used for general comparisons on the surface levels, it's no good for actionable insights. But, now you know and can manage your campaign better. Be sure and visit our small business news site. - 6 days ago

by Todd Bailey v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} 0 0 1 465 2657 WebiMax 22 6 3116 14.0 96 800x600 Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Calibri;} I haven't been in Google back-rooms.  I have never met the Penguin personally.  But I can make observations.  It seems the pursuit of truth and honesty is one of the underlying messages taken from the ordeal. I have discussed the recent update with many web masters and business owners and seen sites hit by the update.  Both for the reasons stated in all the recent press surrounding Penguin as well as sites that do not fall within the filters criteria.  Many result pages show empty sites and spam sites still.  I think we are on to something here. And the Penguin update name doesn't just come from another cute black and white bird, but is more closely related to a penguins sense of smell.  Algorithmically, the filter uses its "sense of smell" to associate authority (or lack their of) related to the site much like penguins use their sense of smell to identify their partner or offspring.  As we know of the penguin, they set off into the ocean in search of food to feed their partner when they return.  How does a penguin find its partner, navigating its way through the masses of spam when it returns, with it's sense of smell. The Market of Google The 'market' of Google houses regulations. There are particular 'ways' in which Google wants advertisers to use its 'marketplace.'  The resulting abuse is not a surprise; it's natural for advertisers to test limits when it comes to making money.  However, those who decided to go too far were penalized.  There is such a thing as 'too' far; and, there is an associated level of expectation for people to adhere to 'the lines.' Did Yahoo's Scott Thompson adhere to the lines?  One can argue for the 'not entirely' side.  To be blunt, he lied about his schooling.  He danced around the lines to get the job.  Did he have 'bad intent' toward any entity?  It's very unlikely; but, smearing the lines is an offense in itself.   Despite apologies, Thompson was ousted from Yahoo. Another high-profile person is in the news this weekend too.  Roger Clemens, the great retired pitcher of the major leagues, was on trial in the US District Court for lying to Congress in 2008 regarding conversations related to steroid usage.  Another gentleman says he saw Mr. Clemens use steroids on several occasions.  Mr. McNamee states he injected Clemens with hormone-influencing drugs in 1998, 2000, and 2001. Mr. Clemens is not the only baseball or sports star of this generation to be accused of using illicit methods to physically produce satisfying sports results.  The desire to perform well is not uncommon.  However, the desire to produce must adhere to the regulations hosted by professional sports.  Otherwise, the players are making transgressions and must be dealt with accordingly.  Penalties not only punish transgressors but send message to others.  It reinforces the integrity of the lines. The Philosophy of the Penguin The Penguin's philosophy is not as terrorizing as the sentiment of lost rankings, resources, and money.  We need lines.  Otherwise, there would be no structure or order to allow for success or failure; without the lines, there would be no direction for the notion of progress to follow.  Are those, affected by Penguin, malicious souls?  Is Scott Thompson a horrible person? Should those who cheered for Clemens as a player, now jeer the man who may have lied about steroid usage, about evading the lines? It's a philosophical question I can't answer for everyone; but, maybe it's better for us to separate the crimes from persons and to understand the 'crimes' stemmed from desires to do well, to prosper.  Those desires are not wicked.  However, the notion of bending, stretching, and ultimately dismissing the lines cannot go unnoticed or punished.  Otherwise, we tamper with the intrinsic value of success, why the 'desires' to do well exist in the first place.  In theory, the Penguin secretly champions those playing within the lines.  The Penguin's philosophy is a righteous and needed one. The Reunion of Friends And with the return of the penguin from the ocean I am mostly reminded of animated features with happy endings of reunions between partners.  Hollywood loves a good reunion and rewards it by publishing it when they read the script.  But what of the lost penguins who are affected by the masses?  What of the sites that have been plagued by this update?  Are we that far off from an Occupy Googleplex with chants of "No Taxation Without Representation?" Hold on, let's not get ahead of ourselves.  The Google I know is a for profit company looking to provide its users with the best content in its results through its continued inovation.  Although the Penguin Update doesn't look at content on a site, only the sites linking to it.   So we await the next refresh (likely) of the penguins adventure out to sea and when he returns to find his mate this time around we can anticipate one of those animated classics.  Lets just hope it's not another Final Fantasy flop. Be sure and visit our small business news site. - 7 days ago

by Nick Stamoulis One of the most common mistakes I see website owners and marketers make when launching their first SEO campaign is that they let search volume dictate which keywords they should target. I can completely understand the rationale behind their thinking--if more people are searching for keyword X that means more visitors for my site which means more money for my company. Unfortunately SEO is not that cut and dry. The higher of a search volume a keyword has the more competition there is for it, which means it's going to be much harder and take a lot longer to rank well in the search engines for. It's also important to remember that just because a particular keyword has a high search volume that doesn't mean it's the right keyword for you. For instance, "IT services" is a wildly popular keyword with over 45 million searches each month. However, "IT services" is also an incredibly broad keyword and might not be the most accurate keyword for your website. What kind of IT services does your business offer? Do you cater to small businesses or global enterprises? Do you offer IT consulting services or maybe you specialize in certain software platforms? Are you local service provider or do you have clients all over the country? More specific keywords like "managed IT services" (which still gets over 60k searches each month) might send less traffic to your site, but they will also drive a more targeted visitor. The more targeted the visitor the better chance you have of converting them. Broad keywords with large search volumes are typically used at the beginning of someone's buy cycle when they are just beginning to research their options. They want to cast as wide a net as possible and will subsequently narrow it down the more they learn. Someone who searches for "IT services" at the beginning of their buy cycle might end up looking for "small business IT service providers in New York" by the time they are ready to buy. While targeting "IT services" might drive more traffic to your site, you're not driving the quality traffic you need to grow your online business. Think about it like this--let's say that after thorough keyword research you added 20 new long tail keywords to your website. Even if each of those keywords only drives 5 unique visitors to your site each month that's 100 more highly-qualified visitors that have never heard of your brand or been to your website before. Those 100 visitors are much more likely to convert because they found your site through a very specific search phrase. On the flip side, a visitor that found your site through a broader keyword (even though they can still convert) might not be the kind of visitor you are looking for. For instance, an SEO client of mine had visitors finding their site by searching for "software." While it's great that they were getting any traffic from such a broad and competitive keyword, "software" could really mean just about anything. The majority of the visitors that came to their site from "software" weren't good leads for their company and clogged up the sales funnel. Many site owners think that keyword research is a one-and-done process, but that's not the case! No one is required to get their keyword selection right the first time (it took me years to really hone in the right keywords for my site and my audience!) but you shouldn't assume that the keyword with the highest search volume is automatically the best one for your site. Be sure and visit our small business news site. - 9 days ago

by Stoney deGeyter Pete and Repete were walking on a bridge. Pete fell off. Who's left? Repete? Ok, Pete and Repete were walking on a bridge. Pete fell off. Who's left? Repete? How about we just move on... In marketing, when something works it gets repeated and repeated again and again. Never letting a good campaign go to waste, imitators will jump on board and drive it into the ground until it's no longer effective. We've seen this with the Got Milk? campaigns. It wasn't long before we started seeing imitators touting got sand, got rice, got mold, got Jesus and even got poop! (Like, who doesn't?) The same thing happens with TV and movies. Someone breaks an "edginess" barrier and it's soon a race to see how soon it can be topped without losing advertisers or getting crushed by the FCC. It's hard to believe there was once a time when it was taboo to say "damn" in a theatrical movie, or that depicting a married couple in the same bed was just not something you did on TV! It's inevitable that yesterday's "big thing" is today's normal thing. What's new is old again Online marketing runs on the same principles. While solid SEO and link-building concepts remain universal, there are a number of strategies of years past that no longer work today. Why? Because they have been done to death, rendering them almost completely ineffective. Remember reciprocal link pages? Mass article submissions? Mass directory submissions? Comment spamming? Link wheels? These are all but virtually dead, dying or soon to be declining link-building strategies that have been used, abused and discarded in the cyber junkpile of once successful SEO strategies. All this shows the danger of jumping on any single "trick" when pursuing the holy grail of SEO: search engine rankings. These tricks often turn into nothing more than short-term gimmicks, and sites fall down just as quickly as they rose up in the search results. In online marketing, there are many paths to the same goal. Many will work for most, some may work for all, and others only work for a period of time. Many business owners find one strategy that works and they stick to it, even long past its usefulness. Not every marketing strategy works 100% the time. Those that put all their marketing eggs into a single basket find themselves with egg on their faces when that one strategy comes crashing to the ground with the changing tide of online marketing strategies. But I get it. We do what we are comfortable with and venturing outside of that is the unknown. The unknown means taking risks and possibly experiencing losses. But it also means possible rewards, and that's what businesses need to be looking at. Developing long-term strategies that get results In any kind of marketing, its good to have multiple strategies at play at any given time. Putting aside the whole concept of marketing to specific customer personas, it's not a good idea to put all of your time, money or effort into a single marketing approach. I can easily make an argument for investing not only in SEO and link building, but also in social media, PPC, content, analytics, etc. Focusing all your marketing efforts onto a single avenue of growth can be effective for a time. However, marketing diversification gives you more opportunity to be even more effective. If you're limiting your marketing efforts to one or even two avenues, it might be time to branch out. Look at other successful marketing avenues and see how you can venture out a bit. Look at specific tactics and campaigns and see what makes sense for both short and long-term success. Sometimes it takes trial and error to find strategies that work. Your first attempt isn't always the best attempt, and it should never be your final attempt. You can always piggyback on what others are doing, just don't mimic exactly. Use others' success to build successful campaigns unique to you. Be sure and visit our small business news site. - 11 days ago

by Todd Bailey Have you lost sight of a well-loved service or product? People are creatures of repetition. Usually we commit when we find a service or product we enjoy using. Recently, Ryan Buddenhagen wrote a post on brand ability to bring back old services and products. The notion is not very novel. Blockbuster movies enjoy reviving old heroes and comics. Food producers sometimes reintroduce a retired food or beverage. The Eagles once did a "Hell Freezes Over" tour... Speaking of music, you may catch sight of modern-day hipsters wearing vintage CBGB shirts. The East Village club, opened from 1973 to 2006, was a bastion of punk-rock music. Investors now plan to reinvent the club, starting with a music festival, then plan on finding a new NY location for the old club at a downtown locale. "We're going to recreate a moment in time," admits one investor. The four-day festival is planned to start on July 5 and host over 300 bands. The spread of the festival is vast, spanning more than 30 locations. I'm looking forward to tracing how the reinvention of the CBGB sentiment and club fares. The story and Ryan's post introduce interesting points. Why not bring back coveted services and products of old? It could be a great branding and marketing operation; or, it could fall flat on its face. Here are a few things to consider if interested in internal re-introductions: Why Retire? What was the reason for retiring the service/product? Was it due to consumer disinterest or a new internal direction? The latter choice may have been a mistake. It's okay. All businesses make them. Sometimes businesses make decisions and then find more intelligence is elucidated after the fact. Think about revisiting former decisions. Re-sample Most run tests before fully introducing a service/product to the market. Don't concentrate on how a former product/service fared then. Think about if something can work well into your business model now. The decision could be a good idea; but, you don't want to reengage with full force. Ask Them There's never been an easier time to ask consumers questions and get feedback in real time. You may think a former product/service reintroduction; yet, when asking consumers, none of them agree. It's about them; never forget that. A brand can simply write a Facebook post, blog post, or tweet to consumers, asking their opinion on a reintroduction. Even if they don't like the idea, they'll appreciate your brand thought enough to ask them. Updates To steer the concept in another direction; don't dismiss profits which can come from a presently popular service or product. Think about Apple's iPad; it's on its third iteration. Apple continues to make upgrades and improve its product. As referenced, people are creatures of habit. Sometimes an upgrade to an existing product/service is better than an entirely new entity; because, consumers may already have emotional connections to the original. There's no reason to interrupt that connection. Be sure and visit our small business news site. - 2 weeks ago

by Mike Fleming I wouldn't call the "average position" metric pointless, but it's definitely lying to you.  Most people approach this metric with a natural misunderstanding. It's natural to think, "This is the average position that my organic listing or paid ad shows up at in a search for this keyword."  Sorry, but no.  How could a tool just flat out lie to you?  Well, the tool isn't lying to you.  It's your understanding of what that metric is communicating that is lying to you.  In a recent article titled, "The big lie of AdWords average position," light is shed upon this subject.  But, this goes beyond AdWords to organic search and many other applications in life as well.The temptation to use averages goes along with the fact that we really like to have one number that will represent overall performance.  It's easier.  The problem is that averages don't really tell you anything about what's going on.  There are a few reasons for this... We use mean averages - These averages take a total and divide it by the number of participants.  The reason this is suboptimal is that you could get an average position of 3, but you don't know if you showed up in position 3 every time or split equally between positions 1 and 5 or any other combination of possibilities.Only impressions are calculated - Let's say there are 3 searches on your keyword.  In the results, your listing shows in positions 1, 5 and 15 respectively.  What's your average position? 1+5+15 = 21/3 = 7.  Your average position is 7.  But, this isn't the number that you see.  You see an average position of 3.  Why?  Only impressions count in the calculation.  In the third search in our example, the searcher never went to the 2nd page.  So, even though you earned a position of 15, it wasn't included in the calculation.  To get a true average position, your impression share would have to be 100%.  If it's not, then all the times your listing or ad came up in search results but was not seen by the searcher are not figured in.All listings are counted, not just your top listing - If there's one search, and the searcher views your ad or organic listing on the first page and then clicks through to the 2nd page and sees a different ad and/or a different organic listing on that page also, that's one search with multiple impressions.  If you were in position 1 and then position 11, your average position would be 6.  This is why you might see that number in Google Webmaster Tools or AdWords for a keyword, even though when you do an organic search you see your listing in position 1.  Of course, it's never that way because, much of the time, only your #1 listing is seen and not your #11.The SolutionInstead of looking at averages, look at distributions.  This is where the insights are found.  Let's take a look at organic listings in this post and then we'll review how we find the solution for this for paid ads in the next post.If you're looking at the keywords your site has shown in Google Webmaster Tools, you'll see something like this...For the search term "pole position," our average position is 14, but if you click on the term, it takes you to this page...What you see here is a distribution of your impressions by page and by position in search results for organic listings.  Even better would be if they let you click through the page and gave you a distribution for each specific page as well, but of course you can assume that your top page for impressions is the one ranking the highest in results.  So, you can see in my example that, even though my average position for the term "pole position" says 14, my true rank for most impressions is 6 to 10.  That's a big difference; especially when we're talking about the difference between being on the 1st or 2nd page of results.In fact, we've got a client right now who's average position for their top keyword says 4.3.  But, this is deceptive.  They're actually #1 for this keyword, but other pages also show up in the rankings as searchers go through them.  So, instead of spending our time and energy trying to reach the #1 position, we've moved on to other priorities.Now that you know what's truly going on, you can better strategize for improvement.  By taking a look at exactly which pages are ranking where and who's right above you in results that you need to overtake, you can look at comparative metrics of your closest competitors and set goals accordingly.Next time, we'll look at how to get the true story about your paid ads when it comes to positioning. Be sure and visit our small business news site. - 2 weeks ago

by Stoney deGeyter The number one key to your business growth is crafting a message that speaks to your audience. Having the right message builds up your strengths and helps you overcome any deficiencies you might have. McDonald's doesn't make the best hamburgers in the world, but they do have a great bit of messaging that speaks to their target audience. It's that message, not the hamburgers, that makes Micky D's the number one fast food restaurant in America. While substance is important in order to have a great message, the message itself helps establish the perception of your substance. Much to my chagrin, my kids would rather go to McDonald's over Burger King or Wendy's. They don't love the food as much as the box the food comes in, and not even close to as much as that toy inside the box. McDonald's has the right message for my kids. But I'm the wrong audience for that message, though I'm a sucker at giving my kids a fast-food treat of their choice! So, McDonald's has a different message for me. Primarily, it's a message to give my kids a fast-food treat of their choice! The audience matters as much as the messageIf you are putting the "right" message in front of the wrong audience, you're still going to fail. Each audience needs a "right" message of its very own. Several years ago, I wrote a letter to my U.S. Senator expressing my disapproval with his position on a particular issue. About a week later, I received a letter thanking me for expressing my support for him on this issue. Huh?! The letter went on to list out all the reasons why "we" were right about the issue. The problem is, I didn't think "we" were right. I was, he wasn't! If you own or market a business, you may feel you have the right message. And maybe you do. But that may be the wrong message for someone else who is, say, skeptical about doing business with you. My Senator may have been able to convince me I was wrong, but because he gave me the wrong message, it fell on deaf ears. If his message was right, he went about it all wrong for the audience of me. The right message for me would have been to acknowledge my viewpoint, sympathize with it, find areas of common ground and only then make the case for the merits of the issue. That message would have had a higher chance of persuading me. How to craft the right message for any audienceNot everyone is convinced you are the right company to do business with. The message you use for your current customers is not the same message for customers who have yet to do business with you. You must craft a distance message for each audience. How, when and where you communicate your message plays a significant role in your company's success. Web businesses have a number of unique communication opportunities to get their message out: website, telephone, emails, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc. Each can play a significant role in your company's success. When you communicate to your customers, potential customers or even skeptics, you can easily craft the right message, only to find that it's the wrong message for that particular segment of your audience. Current customers need to be addressed differently from prospective customers. Interested parties should be addressed differently from those who are not interested, but can still be convinced. Each marketing forum provides a unique opportunity to get your message out to a different audience. Whichever forum(s) you use, target different segments of your audience with language that reaches them specifically. In business communications, the one-size-fits-all approach just doesn't work. I'm sure you've got THE right message, but in reality, you need the right message for each target audience. Follow me+ at @StoneyD, and @PolePositionMkg. Be sure and visit our small business news site. - 3 weeks ago

by Nick Stamoulis I think we can all agree that content marketing is an indispensable component of SEO and Internet marketing in general. Great content gets shared, which in turn creates inbound links to your website, which helps your site do better in the search engines, which drive more traffic to your site and so forth and so on. But too often site owners are just looking at content as a link building tactic. In reality, the content you are creating for your SEO, content marketing and social media marketing campaigns can serve a much greater purpose---it can turn your brand into a thought leader. Here are 4 tips to becoming a thought leader in your industry: 1. Start producing more content. If you are only writing one blog post a week, while a good place to start for many site owners, your solitary piece of content is not even a drop in the bucket when you compare it to how much information is being churned out online every day. Even in a relatively small niche, your content has to compete with blog posts, articles, white papers, videos, podcasts and more. One piece of content is probably not going to make your brand stand out for long, even if you are able to write a piece of content that captures the attention of your audience. You need to give your target audience a reason to remember you, check out your blog a couple times a week, subscribe to your newsletter, follow your social profiles and so forth---and that means you need to product more content. If you want to become a thought leader, you have to consistently produce great content proving you deserve to be recognized. 2. Don't be afraid of giving away too much free information. In my opinion, one of the worst things a company could do for their SEO is write a bunch of great, juicy, quality content and then lock it behind a login. I know that many companies are concerned about giving away too much information for free (why buy the cow, right?) but the truth is you have to prove to your audience that you are an expert---and this means providing them with relevant, useful information. Don't expect your reputation to mean much to an organic visitor that has never heard of your brand before. You have to prove yourself to them and your content is the best way to do that. I'm not saying you can't put some of your content behind a login (or a lead form), but the majority of the content you produce needs to be openly published so both the search engines AND your customers can find and use it. Think about it--who are the thought leaders in your industry? Chances are most of them have blogs where they talk about the latest industry trends, best practice tips and so forth. They are willingly sharing expert advice, which helps further establish themselves as industry thought leaders! 3. Specialize in something. Too often most people (especially marketers) feel the need to become jack-of-all-trades. I can understand wanting to know how different factions play into your niche, especially when they influence each other in some way (like how social media or content marketing works with SEO), but in order to become a true thought leader you need to be exceptionally good at one thing and know that industry inside and out. In order to provide people with valuable insights and not just general advice, you need to understand the subtleties of your niche; seen it all, heard it all, done it all. Thought leaders are, amazingly enough, leaders in their fields mainly because they know it better than anyone else. 4. Never stop learning. A thought leader has to have their finger on the pulse of their industry; what's coming down the pipeline, how are customer behaviors changing, what industry trends are shifting and so forth. In order to stay ahead of the curve (or at least keep pace with the pack) you need to know what is going on! Read other industry blogs, attend conferences, follow other experts on social networking sites--just keep yourself immersed in the way things are and where they are going. Getting stuck on the way things used to be means you'll soon be an expert of old knowledge and no longer a thought leader. Your content is worth so much more in the long run than a few inbound links! Make sure you are working it to it's full potential. Be sure and visit our small business news site. - 3 weeks ago

Beyond clear-cut blackhat webspam, the second-biggest category of spam that Google deals with is hacked sites. The most common reaction we hear from webmasters is “The problem is with the Google search. There is nothing wrong with our website.” That’s a real quote from an email one site owner recently sent us. Sadly, it turns [...] - 4 weeks ago

I haven’t given an update on my 30 day challenges in, like, forever. So here goes: - In 2011, I paused my 30 day challenges to do a “six month challenge”: training to run a marathon. I ended up running the San Francisco marathon (while tweeting!) and a couple half-marathons. Pro tip: ramp up slowly [...] - 2 months ago

Updated: Okay, there’s a new plan. My wife is having surgery to put a screw in her foot, and the operation is two days before my panel. I really can’t leave her to come to SXSW. We’re going to try for me to Skype in to the panel instead. Cross your fingers. Every so often [...] - 2 months ago

A couple months ago, I wrote this about SOPA: SOPA galvanized the tech community, from start-ups to venture capitalists to the largest web companies. SOPA was an unexpected shock and a wake-up call. Well, guess what? Now the internet is awake. And I don’t think it’s going back to sleep any time soon. We might [...] - 4 months ago

I’ve been reading a lot of the coverage of the Search plus Your World launch and I wanted to share my story and then clarify something. I love to stay up until early in the morning playing Werewolf. In early December I went to a journalism conference called “News Foo Camp” in Phoenix and played [...] - 4 months ago

Larry Lessig has a new book called Republic, Lost which discusses the corrupting influence of money on politics. I would highly recommend the book, because it gets to the heart of why things so many things in Washington, D.C. seem broken today and how to fix them. If you don’t have the time to read [...] - 5 months ago

A lot of the time, I dispel misconceptions by leaving comments on blogs. That works great, except for the rare occasion when someone pretends to be me and leaves a rude, fake, or otherwise untrue blog comment. Over the previous decade, I’ve only seen 4-5 times where someone impersonated me. But in the last month, [...] - 5 months ago

When I did my blog post about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) last week, things looked quite grim. The fight isn’t over, but there’s been a lot of great developments in the last few days. If you’re not familiar with SOPA (and the PROTECT IP Act in the Senate), here’s a video that covers [...] - 6 months ago