Are you limiting your audience? You should be.

A few weeks ago, Microsoft added a new tool to their adCenter system: the Broad Match Modifier. It’s a powerful ally when you consider how important it is to limit your audience when running an online marketing campaign.

I know that’s an odd statement. After all, the point of an advertising campaign is to help your company reach a wider audience. Limiting that reach may seem counter-intuitive, but there’s a method to this madness. In the past, broad match keywords could be a dangerous addition to your adCenter campaign. They could enhance your reach, but they also had a habit of bringing in a lot of traffic that converted poorly.

Negatives and Positives

Until now, keeping that traffic at bay involved producing lists of “negative” keywords and making clever use of phrase matching. The new Broad Match Modifier allows you, in essence, to create a “positive” keyword (or keywords) within a broad matched keyword. By putting a “+” sign in front of individual words within your keyword, you’re telling adCenter that you only want your ads to appear when those words appear in a search.

For example, if you’re running a delivery-only pizza place, you might run an ad for the broad matched keyword “pizza delivery”. You’ll get plenty of traffic for people looking for a place to get a pizza delivered, but you also might get traffic from people searching for “pizza restaurant” and expecting a table. You won’t be selling any pizzas to that audience, but you will spend advertising dollars to bring them to your web site. You can avoid the expense (and their frustration) by changing your broad match keyword to “pizza +delivery”. That way, you’ll only show up if someone uses the exact word “delivery” in their search.

Reaching a broad audience is important, but it’s even more important to make sure you’re reaching the right audience. Broad Match Modifiers should help you meet both of those goals.

Are you sure you're dealing with an "SEO Expert"?

With so many today claiming to be “SEO experts”, I thought I’d put together a list of things to watch out for. While true experts are few and far between, many people try to sound smarter than they actually are.

This is problematic for industry veterans like myself, because it hurts the credibility of the entire industry.

Here’s 7 Signs you might not be dealing with an “SEO Expert”…

1. They guarantee #1 rankings

I’ll be honest with you, nobody can guarantee rankings, outside of people who work for Google of course. You should be dealing with someone who measures success in terms of ROI, traffic growth, conversions, and leads.

The job of an SEO consultant is to advise you of best practices, which over time will improve your rankings.

These improvements can be big or small, but nothing is guaranteed in a world where Google changes their ranking formulas daily.

2. They use scare tactics

Sure there are high stakes when it comes to SEO, but that doesn’t mean you should be afraid. Some “experts” tell you that if you don’t work with them you risk being “banned” or “penalized”, in order to seal the deal.

The bottom line is fear shouldn’t play a role in your decision. Picking the most qualified and experienced individual should be the goal.

3. You can’t understand them

A good SEO should be a good communicator, because let’s face it there is plenty of room for confusion. If you can’t understand anything an “SEO expert” is saying, maybe they don’t even understand it themselves.

At its core, search engines want to find the best content out there on the web. It’s not rocket science, although the wrong person can certainly make it seem like it if you aren’t careful.

4. They try to impress you

Beware of those who boast and brag instead of having a conversation with you. Often times the noise you are hearing isn’t confidence, it’s insecurity.

An experienced and veteran SEO isn’t concerned with your opinion of them, they are fully confident in their skills and technical understanding of search engines. It’s normal to show case studies and client examples of their work.

Just keeps things in perspective. Those examples should be stories of how they helped others businesses, not ego-centric monuments to their greatness.

5. They talk in generalities

It’s really easy to fake it as an “SEO expert”, just make a lot of general statements using words like “Google”, “Keywords”, and “Backlinks”. The person you are hiring to do SEO should be able to give you very specific examples of how they improved revenue, visitors, and return on investment.

The great thing about SEO is even a high priced consultant will still provide an extremely high ROI. More often than not a few changes to your site structure and meta data can double revenue inside of 12 months.

6. No examples of their work

If all they can tell you is their previous client was “#1 for all their keywords”, maybe you should ask more direct questions. Search engine optimization is a process of research, implementation, and analytics. Guess what? After that process is done you just keep going, adding more targets, more niche markets, and more keywords.

A good SEO is detail oriented, keeping records of changes, and how those changes affected the bottom line. Otherwise you’ll just end up throwing darts at a board, wondering what worked and what didn’t.

7. They don’t practice what they preach

So they claim they can get you first for your keywords, are they #1 for their keywords? I know SEO is probably the one of the more competitive keyword strings around, but they should at least be trying to rank well for something right? The same goes for link building, if they promise they can build thousands of links for you, ask them how they managed to do that for their own websites?

Before I recommend anything, I always test it first on a sample website. There’s no way I can, in good faith, recommend something I haven’t first tried myself.

In my opinion, the reason why there are so many myths going around in the SEO industry, is you have too much talk and not enough experimentation. A trusted advisor has their fair share of mess ups and slips along the way. They made the mistakes so you don’t have to.

Summary

To wrap it all up, SEO is just like any other emerging field. There are some good, a few bad, and lots of average players competing for customers. Educating yourself is the first step in selecting the right partner for your business.

Every year Technorati publishes their “State of the Blogosphere” report which contains the results of very detailed surveys on topics which include: blogging and social media, bloggers and traditional media, traffic and analysis, brands and marketing in the blogosphere, bloggers’ motivations and consequences, monetization, and changes within the blogosphere.

Specifically regarding traffic, Technorati asked professional marketing bloggers what the top three overall drivers of traffic to their blogs were in 2011. These were the results:

1. Twitter
2. Facebook
3. Tags on their blog posts

The occasional blogger, or the small business blogger may not even be taking advantage of using tags on their blog posts, but if it works for the pros, it can also work for you.

Whichever blogging platform you use, whether it’s WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr or something else, you have the ability to add tags to your blog posts. Do it!

In order for your tags to actually drive traffic to your blog, they need to include words and phrases that people are searching for. And the tags need to actually be closely related to the content in that blog post.

Tips for adding tags to your blog posts:

• If you sell or service name brand products of any type, be sure to include them in your blog posts and in the associated tags. For example: dryer repair, Sears, Kenmore, Whirlpool, GE etc.
• Include mention of your geographic service area in your blog posts, along with your services and then also include service + geo information in your tags. For example: appliance repair Dallas
• Include the main topic of your blog post as a tag. For example: swimming pool maintenance
• Include industry-specific terms and abbreviations in your tags for readers who are knowledgeable along with plain English tags for the average consumer. For example: accounting, npv, net present value, nav, net asset value
• Include date or year info in your tags where appropriate. For example: 2011 tax help

If you’ve been neglecting to add tags to your blog posts, or your tags are not as specific as they could be, you’re missing out on a powerful way to help drive the right kind of traffic to your blog.

+1 button functionality

Functionality has been added to the +1 button to make it easier to share content. From now on, when a visitor clicks the +1 button on your site or in the search results, they will immediately have the option to share the page, as well. This should increase the number of shares, since the new functionality makes it so easy to do. Google provides instructions on how to create a plus one button on your own website. Once the plus one button is in place, any changes made by Google will automatically go into effect as Google rolls out updates.

Google+ badges

Along with code for the +1 button, Google also provides code that allows you to create a Google+ “follow me” badge for your site. There is also code available to create a badge for your personal profile, but as a business, you most likely will want to promote your business page, as opposed to your personal Google plus profile.

Google has also provided a detailed style guide for promoting your Google+ pages, as well as for how to use Google+ logos and promotional materials.

Google+ follow option

Additionally, a “follow” button has been added to the Google+ badges, to allow your site visitors to easily add your page or profile to their “follow” circle automatically. Clicking the follow button also gives the user the option to add you to other circles they have already created or to create a new circle.

In short, the new Google+ button features make it easier to connect with your site visitors on Google+ and for you to promote your Google+ properties on your own site. This functionality is not only useful because of the social media aspect of Google plus, but also has SEO implications because of the extensive use of Google+ in Google’s search plus your world.

Google reported over a 400% increase in mobile queries in 2011, with some categories seeing up to 15-30% of ALL (desktop and mobile) searches coming from a mobile device.  A recent study from The Kelsey Group estimated that 1 in 3 mobile searches are local in nature.  The same study cites that after looking up a local business on a mobile phone 61% of users called the business and 59% of them visited.  This means that a whole lot of consumers are already looking for local business on their mobile phones.

What do you think happens when a mobile user can’t find a business on their mobile device, or the experience is not that good because the web site was not optimized for small screens?  According to Google more than 50% of mobile users expect mobile sites to load as fast, or faster, than desktop sites.  The same study also cites that 60% of mobile users are not willing to spend more than 30 seconds on a site to find what they have been looking for.

So if a business, big or small, doesn’t have a good mobile experience right away, mobile users will go somewhere else.  Quickly.  And they tend not to ever come back.

WordPress Support Forum – tons of helpful info on using WordPress on a self-hosted site

Flickr Creative Commons – royalty free photos you can use in your blog

Yahoo! Style Guide – for your pesky grammar and usage questions

Web Hosting Reviews – to help you decide where to host your site

Legal Guide for Bloggers – so you know your rights and liabilities

Google Analytics – so you can track your traffic and marketing efforts

If you need more convincing; reasons why you should have a business blog

It’s definitely helpful to add fresh, unique relevant content to your website on a regular basis. This can take the form of blog posts or case studies, white papers, testimonials, FAQs, survey results, reports, photos, infographics, videos and much more. Blogging isn’t the only or best way to add content to your website, but it is an easy way for you to keep your website updated without needing a programmer or web developer to do it.

How does more content help?

Search engines determine how relevant your website is whenever someone is looking for information online. The more content you publish that is highly relevant to the products and services you provide, the more “authoritative” your website becomes on those topics to both search engines and visitors.

How often should a small business blog?

You might be surprised to find that just one blog post a week can be very helpful in building your online presence. The more you post, the more quickly you’ll see results. But if you start adding fresh content to your website on a regular basis, even if it’s just once a week, you’ll be better off than you are now.

How long should blog posts be?

Your blog posts can vary in length to suit the subject you’re talking about. There’s no magic formula for how long a “good” blog post should be. Sometimes just a photo and caption is appropriate. Sometimes you may be answering just one or two specific questions. Maybe you’re just posting a video. Maybe you’re making an announcement. Just post.

If it helps you to blog more frequently, then by all means write shorter blog posts. Not only is a master’s thesis not required, it’s also not going to be read by your visitors. People consume content in bite-sized pieces. If they come to your blog and see a “wall” of text, chances are they’re going to groan and move on.

How will this help me?

Blogging will help your business in several ways:

• Differentiates you from your competition
• Establishes you as an expert in your field
• Gives you an opportunity to reach out to customers
• Gives customers an opportunity to interact with you through the comments
• Makes it very clear to the search engines what your website (and your business) are all about
• Builds your online presence
• Gives you something to tweet about or post on Facebook

How quickly will I see results?

Blogging will not make you an overnight success. Organically building your business presence online takes time and the results will come gradually. That being said, if your business serves a distinct geographic area that isn’t smack in the middle of a huge metropolitan area, your efforts may have surprisingly quick results.

Zeroing in on very specific services in a very specific geographic area will do more for you than trying to be everything to everyone.

I’m definitely not a writer, what do I do?

If you have ideas but you don’t like to write, or you don’t have the time, find someone in your company who has a way with words and give them your idea list. Or you can outsource your blogging needs. Hiring a ghost writer who can post the text-heavy blog posts for you frees you up to manage your business and come up with ideas. You can add company-specific information, photos, videos, reports, etc. yourself or have someone in your company do it for you.

Don’t let your concerns about your writing ability or your time constraints stop you from building your business presence online.

1. Back up your existing website, including database (if your site has one).
2. Register the name and set up hosting for the new domain.
3. Move one directory or subdomain from your existing site to the new site.
4. Set up 301 redirects to tell Google that the pages have been permanently moved.
5. Check Google to see if the pages you have moved are showing up in the index at their new address.
6. If it all looks good, move the rest of the site over and be sure to set up 301 redirects for each page. You don’t want to lose any backlinks or site authority your website had at the previous domain.
7. Don’t set up a 301 redirect where all old pages point to your new home page. Take the time and trouble to redirect each page individually. If you’re changing your site as well as moving it, and there’s no longer a 1 to 1 match for each page, then redirect the old page to a page on the new site that has similar information and will give the users a good experience.
8. If you are rebranding, or completely changing your site, you might want to move the old site first, do all your troubleshooting, and then set up the new or rebranded site at the new location. You’ll still need to do 301 redirects. But this way, you’re controlling the number of changes at any one time and limiting the possible points of failure.
9. With 301 redirects, the backlinks to your site will continue to work, but if possible, you should notify the site owners who link to you and inform them of the change, giving them the new URL to link to. Some will edit their link to you and some won’t, but it’s a good idea to try.
10. Don’t abandon your old domain name for at least 6 months. There will always be stray email and links and other issues that may crop up and you will want to still own the old domain so you can tie those all up.
11. Be sure to set up Webmaster Tools properly, Web Analytics, verify ownership, create a new sitemap, etc. Keep both the old and the new domains in your Webmaster Tools account. That way you can check for crawl errors to make sure all of your 301 redirects are working properly.

How old is your current domain name?

Generally speaking, older domain names garner more “authority” with the search engines and perform better than brand new domains which are given no respect until they prove themselves. Unless you have to change your domain name for some compelling reason, the age of your existing site is an important reason to keep the old name.

What is the reputation of your current domain name?

Have you ever been dropped out of the search results? Or has your site been blacklisted or banned? This can happen when you buy links from disreputable sources, or if your site is hosted on a server that hosts nothing but spam, or if you’ve used any “black hat” techniques to try to game the search results. If so, it might make sense for you to start over. Cleaning up a bad reputation with the search engines can be a long, painful process and might never get you in their good graces anyway.

How many other sites link to your site?

It’s a smart idea to have a Webmaster account with each of the three largest search engines, Google, Yahoo and Bing. These accounts allow you to find out all about the traffic and visitors to your site, links to your site, and how the search engines view your site. But if you don’t have Webmaster accounts, you can still check backlinks to your site.

In Google and Bing, type this in the search bar:
link: yourdomain.com
That’s the word link, followed by a colon, space, and the name of your domain.

In Yahoo, type this in the search bar:
linkdomain: yourdomain.com
That’s the word linkdomain followed by a colon and a space, then the name of your domain.

When you change to a new domain name, you don’t want to lose these valuable links to your site. So if you absolutely have to change your domain name, be sure to set up a permanent (301) redirect from your exisiting web pages to their corresponding new pages on the new domain.

Does your company use your domain name for email?

If you and your employees have email addresses with your current domain name, you’ll have to change everyone’s email address, and you’ll undoubtedly lose contact with some people in the process.

Are you prepared to spend some money promoting your change?

It can be quite expensive to “train” your existing customers, partners, suppliers and contacts to find your website at the new address. Since your company’s web address should be on everything you print (business cards, brochures, mailers, invoices, receipts, and all advertising) you’ll need to print all new material with the new domain.

If you still want to change your website’s domain name, here are the things you need to do to make that change successful and minimize potential problems.

Think of a Webinar as a Radio Show with Visual Aids

One of the first things to keep in mind when you develop your next webinar is that it should resemble more of a radio show with visual aids than a live presentation. For example, during a live presentation, your audience is sitting in front of you and everyone has a limited number of distractions. However, during a webinar, your audience members unfortunately have many more opportunities to divert their attention elsewhere. As a result, it is extremely important to focus on your voice inflection and visual aids, since these are your hooks for keeping everyone engaged.

Use More Visuals in Your Webinar

In the world of webinars, think pictures, not words, since the most important element of a meaningful webinar experience is the content on your screen. Research has proven that people cannot read and listen effectively at the same time, so the best way to keep everyone engaged is to use your screen to “suggest” your points visually instead of posting words on the screen.

Tell Stories during Your Webinar

Research has shown that people are naturally wired to learn by example and tend to apply the experiences of others to themselves. Telling stories in your webinar is a great way to educate your audience without boring them, and giving examples to bring each of your points to life can keep everyone engaged appropriately.

Intersperse Interactivity during Your Webinar

Few things are likely to bore your audience more quickly than listening to an endless number of facts without any interactivity. Asking survey questions and having a contest to give a prize to whoever answers a question the fastest can promote the competitive nature in people and encourage them to focus more deeply on your key points.

Add Some Humor to Your Webinar

Adding a bit of humor to your webinar can help to lift your tone and bring back any attention wanderers. Even if you are not a natural comedian, find a funny picture to help you make a point or a way to make fun of yourself nicely.

When it comes to developing your next webinar, following a few guidelines can help ensure your audience stays engaged and retains your points effectively. Keep in mind that keeping an online audience attentive is much more difficult than engaging a live audience, so sticking to these tips is integral.