Big Social Media Plans + Small Budget = No Problem.

Step #1:   Develop ideas with endemic potential.

Marketers who view social media as efficient channels through which they steadily self-promote, where they do more talking than listening, or where they attempt to impose brand messaging and force brand loyalty instead of encouraging it are looking at it all wrong.

Social media is efficient because it’s viral. It isn’t designed for bragging about how great your business is.  It’s about enticing people to brag about your business for you. Essentially, social media offers smart marketers the opportunity to turn a handful of people into an enormous labyrinth of loyal brand ambassadors.

Step #2):  Be ‘resource wise.’

Probably one of the biggest myths about marketing on the social web is that it’s free.  It isn’t and it never was.
Marketers familiar with social media understand it takes a great deal of resources to be successful, including time spent strategizing, developing and implementing campaigns, and consistent man hours dedicated to routinely engaging with audiences. Costs for design and production, analytics, content creation and research can all put a significant dent in budgets too.

Following are a few suggestions to help marketers cut costs and improve ROI.

Focus on identifying trends surrounding posts and tweets that net the biggest reactions and interactions. Replicate those strategies.
Like the Ford Fiesta campaign, leverage User Generated Content (UGC) to reduce development and production expenses whenever possible.
Rely on turnkey social media management apps to automate posts and updates, gather data or monitor conversations to alleviate the burden of time consuming tasks.
Take a page out of Marketing 101 by integrating your efforts.  Messaging of traditional campaigns should align with social media messaging.  Post broadcast ads to your company’s branded social sites.
Enable your social media audience to share special offers or discounts with their friends.
Make your customers the star of your social media campaign.  Post photos of contest winners or reward your most influential followers with exclusive sneak peeks or special discounts.  Fan inclusion is a simple and cost-effective way to build brand awareness.





Step #3): Simplify the sales path.

In Michael Stelzner’s 2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, it revealed that by spending as little as six hours per week in social media marketing, 61 percent of marketers surveyed saw lead generation benefits.

Social media isn’t all fun and games.  As marketers, our bottom line goal is to positively impact the bottom line of our business.  What this means is that any social media marketing campaign – any good marketing campaign for that matter – should include 1) clearly defined goals 2) performance analytics and 3) calls-to-action.

How much is too much promotion? Facebook wants to know

Some users have recently reported that Facebook asked them to rate posts from advertisers to see if it’s “overly promotional”. This is part of their new update (rolled out in January 2015) which reduces the visibility of posts advertising your products and services.


Here are some of the traits that will be considered “too promotional”

Posts that solely push people to buy a product or install an app
Posts that push people to enter promotions and sweepstakes with no real context
Posts that reuse the exact same content from ads


To us, this sounds like any post that is about your product may be considered “overly promotional” and may be penalized. But isn’t the goal of your Facebook page to get your message out to your fans and interact with the users of your products?

How to Estimate How Many Links You Need

Doing some work for a client with a fairly new site recently, I noticed their home page has a toolbar PageRank of 7, and they achieved that almost entirely by having a site-wide link on a PageRank 9 website.  Finally, now that have I seen enough cases like this, I think it’s possible to estimate the answer to the question “How many links do I need?” for many situations.  This posting will detail the anecdotal data I’ve seen, and then give tables that can be used to estimate what a page’s toolbar PageRank will become if you obtain a link from a high-PageRank site, and also how many links of which type you need to move up one level of PageRank.

Why Getting a PR8 Site-wide Link is Like Getting a Single PR9 Link

You’ve probably noticed that if you have a PageRank 6 website, the next level of pages down on the site are probably PageRank 5, and the next level down from that are PageRank 4, and so on.  This is not always the case (for instance, one popular post on this blog titled “Google’s Secret Ranking Algorithm Exposed” is a PageRank 4 as of this writing, while the blog’s home page is a PageRank 3) but it’s generally the case.   So when you obtain a site-wide link from a PR6 website, you’re essentially obtaining one PR6 link, maybe 10 or 11 PR5 links, and 50 PR4 links (perhaps).

If each level is worth roughly 1/5 of the previous, then a site-wide PR6 link is equivalent to:

1 PR6 link (the home page) + 10 2nd-level PR5 links (=2 PR6) + 50 third-level PR4 links (= 10PR5 = 2 PR6) = 5 PR6 Links = 1 PR7 link.

Looking at the anecdotal cases, it does seem to me that obtaining a site-wide link is akin to obtaining a home page link from a site that is one PageRank level higher.

The Value, in PageRank, of Obtaining a Single Link

Clearly, that depends on your existing PageRank, and how much PageRank you will get from the target of a linking request.  Using the anecdotal evidence above, I created the following table and calibrated it against those individual situations; you can look up what your pages existing toolbar PageRank is, and then look over and see what the pages PageRank should be after obtaining a link from various other pages.

How Many Links You Need to Move Up One PageRank Level

Remember, in the article referenced above, the conclusion was that each toolbar PageRank level is roughly 5.14 times harder to reach.

Based on that assumption, and the table above, I generated Table 2, which does not show how many links it will take to go from zero links, but instead, how many links will it take you to *move up* one PageRank level.  

12 Valuable Tips for Video SEO Beginners

1. Content Quality Check

Ensure your videos are relevant, informative, and rich with content. Don’t waste time producing videos that have nothing to do with your brand or service.

Videos demonstrating step-by-step processes or videos expressing opinions about topics can be quite useful. Videos should be fun, memorable, short, and leave the viewer wanting more.

If using a video production company, trust one that understands the importance of these concepts. If you’re hesitant of their services, make sure to scan their existing video portfolio in detail for videos that match these qualities.





2. Title

Capture the potential viewer’s attention with a catchy title that contains related key phrases that are relevant to your brand or service. Do some keyword research and find the words that your audience will most likely be searching, but remember to keep the title interesting, not just filled with keywords.

Create a title that will catch the eye of a user. Brainstorm some titles that catch your eye when passing a magazine rack. What compels you to pick up a magazine?




3. Tags

Optimize your video with important key phrases or keywords. Don’t use complicated words or terminology that may not be common to the average person.

Refer back to your keyword research and think in terms of what your targeted audience might be searching for when looking to find your brand or service. Tag your video with these terms and consider naming the file of the video with these terms in mind.




4. Description

Optimize your video’s description with relevant keywords and include a keyword-rich description of your video to allow search engines to index it and rank it higher, and for users to better understand your video before viewing.




5. Links

Use video as a portal to other content on your site. Upload a couple of videos to portals like YouTube and Vimeo, and consider providing links back to related content and other relevant videos on your site.




6. Transcripts

Provide transcripts of your videos. Good old HTML content is still a favorite with search engines.

If you want your video to rank well, you need to give the search engines something to index and rank. Surround your videos with on-page copy that can be indexed by search engines.




7. Length

Keep your video at five minutes or less. The average amount of time a user spends on a YouTube video is around 1 minute 30 seconds. People do not want to sit through a boring video, and most will not do it.

If you have video content that is of long duration, consider breaking it up into smaller pieces and tagging each accordingly, to be more appealing to the viewer. Not only does this make for better viewing pleasure, multiple videos are also better for optimization efforts.

YouTube is now paying close attention to viewership and engagement. It is critical that viewers watch your video for as long as possible.

8. Video Sitemaps

Submit a video sitemap to Google to make sure that the search engine spiders can find your video content and index it accordingly. This is the easiest way for search engines to find your video content.

Take advantage of Google Webmaster Tools for creating a video sitemap. Use important keywords in the anchor text that links to your videos featured on your sitemap.





9. Branding

As video is a great way to generate brand awareness with prospects, take advantage of this opportunity to incorporate your brand and logos into your videos.




10. Embedding Options

Help your video go viral. Allow other users access to the coding that will allow them to embed your video on their website or blog. This can help gain valuable back links and shares that will boost your rankings in search engines.





11. Syndication

Submit your video to RSS feeds and syndicate your videos to drive exposure across various online platforms and to optimize your videos even more.





12. Share, Share, Share!

Get on your social networks, look through your email contacts, write on your blogs, and get the hype going. Share your video with everyone, because if you have content worth sharing, it will continue to be shared to grow an expanding audience, and in turn develop more exposure for your brand or service.

Can The SEO Industry Embrace Long-Form Content?

1. Time is of the essence

For many SEO bloggers time spent on blogging is time not spent on paid work. Blogging is a side project for many of us, squeezed in between SEO audits and web analytics reports. Not many companies allow their staff to spend a lot of time on blogging, and those that do tend to judge an employee’s output by the number of posts they generate rather than the length of them.





2. We don’t get paid for this

Relating to the first issue, blogging is usually a voluntary activity. With few exceptions, on the whole SEO bloggers don’t get paid for their writing. It’s something we do because we like it and/or because it adds value to our reputations in the long term. It doesn’t generate direct revenue, which makes it hard to justify spending a lot of time on.





3. Short-term thinking is beneficial

A mindset that embraces quick change instead of long, in-depth analysis can actually be an advantage in this fast-paced industry of ours. SEOs that quickly adapt to changing circumstances, that can rapidly churn out large amounts of content, and that are able to send out massive amounts of link request emails, tend to be seen as more productive and valuable than those who spend hours agonising over that one anomalous keyword referral. That short-term thinking often results in short-form content of variable quality.




4. We chase hypes

Relating to the previous point, as an industry we’re infected with a hype-chasing mentality. The algorithms we attempt to profit from change from day to day, which means we’re always adapting and looking for the next ‘silver bullet’ that will help us gain a competitive advantage. Our blogging reflects this – every time Google spits out a substantial update, it dominates the SEO blogosphere for weeks. New features of Google’s products need to be rapidly communicated and analysed on various blogs if they’re to be seen as cutting edge and on top of things. Few bloggers have the freedom – or will – to take a few days or weeks to gather data and analyse new trends carefully.





5. We’re not investigative journalists

Investigative journalism is a powerful medium, but it needs skilled practitioners to pull it off. Most SEOs are not journalists. We don’t usually have the skills that are required for proper in-depth research and authorship.





6. The internet favours short content

As Nicholas Carr argues in The Shallows, the internet as a medium encourages short attention spans. That means long-form content is at a high risk of not being read properly. Short articles and short videos tend to work better online than lengthy tomes and in-depth analysis.

7 SEO Tips for not provided in Google Analytics

Ever since Google announced they would no longer report referring keyword data from logged-in users, webmasters and SEOs have become increasingly frustrated dealing with the dreaded (not provided) keywords.

Google assured us this would impact less than 10% of queries. Although that has proved to be the average, some webmasters have observed 50% of their keyword information wiped clean away from their data.

1. How Big is Your (not provided) Impact?

If Google reports less than 5% of your organic keyword traffic as (not provided) then you probably don’t have much to worry about. On the other hand, if you are one of the unlucky few who experienced 25-50% in lost keyword data, then you want to hustle to get that data back.

The simplest way to measure impact, of course, is to look at your referring keyword information. Here you can easily track the percentage of “not provided” keywords





2. Take an Accurate Look

Once you understand how much referring keyword traffic is hidden by Google’s privacy veil, now is the time to fill in the missing holes in your analytics..





3. Get Smarter Data Analysis

Using clear, step-by-step instructions he shows how to:

Establish Macro Content

Understand the Performance Profile of not provided traffic.

Match up Performance Profile to Brand & Non-brand Visits

Establish Conclusions

Landing Page Keyword Referral Analysis





4. Mine Your SEO Report in Google Analytics


Google’s own answer to this predicament is the new SEO reports in Google Analytics. The reports are found under the “Traffic Sources” section.


Although it’s true that these SEO query reports list most of the keywords searchers used to find your website, they are limited in value by several major drawbacks.

The data is limited to the top 1000 daily search queries and top 1000 daily landing pages for the past 30 days.

The reports are often criticized for their inaccuracy and confusion they produce.

The query reports aren’t tied to landing page reports, or vice-versa, severely limiting their usefulness.




5. Got Ca$h? Buy the Data


The same privacy loophole which angered so many webmasters also allows web marketers to buy the keyword data. This is because although Google hides referring keyword query data from everyone else, it does make this data available to customers who purchase advertising through Google.




6. Send Google Your Love

…or not. Personally, I love Google and what they have done for our world, but it’s best to let our voices be heard. If you have strong feelings about Google’s “not provided” actions, Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz suggests you voice your concern.



7. Don’t Worry

Although we find the development of “not provided” keywords troubling, one thing that will always be true is that SEOs are resourceful – incredibly so. Through 1000s of algorithm changes and a rapidly shifting web landscape, savvy web marketers have found ways to keep up with evolving search engines. In fact, the reverse is often true – search engines find themselves keeping up with web marketers.

The “not provided” story is long from over. That said, we’ve been through worse storms than this. By working together for a better understanding of the web, as SEOs do, we will arrive on the other side stronger than ever.

Fixing 5 common SEO problems with HTML5... today!

Problem 1: Pagination

You have a tonne of pages, e.g listing products in a particular category, which are completely identical asides from which subset of your products are listed on them. Now you want to ensure that you rank, but you also do not want to run into duplicate content issues, or waste your crawl budget letting Google crawl hundreds of pages which add no value. However, maybe you do want them to be crawled to ensure the content is indexed? Maybe you want them crawled but are aware these same products are listed in different groups and sequences in varying categories and you are worried about the implications of this. If only you could just tell Google: “Hey! These pages are paginated listings, so please treat them accordingly!”.

This is a common scenario for many sites, especially eCommerce sites; however, whilst a common problem, it is still something we see many clients struggling with. Furthermore, often clients will have some specific site quirk or preference which makes this less straightforward than it should be.

Problem 2: Page structure


For years now we have been reminded over and over to focus on semantic HTML. Originally the focus on this was that it makes rendering content across devices and formats far easier when it is neatly categorised: HTML for content and meaning, CSS for presentation and style, and Javascript for additional behaviour. Removing anything in your HTML that was just there for presentation was not too difficult, but managing to fully define the meaning of the content with HTML was pretty much impossible - HTML simply wasn’t a rich enough language. Microformats started flooding in trying to fill some of the gaps, but the fact is that HTML remained ill equipped for the task.







Problem 3: Internal search pages


What happens if you Google Bing’s results page for Googling Bing? Well, nothing actually because they block it with robots.txt, but my point is when a search engine starts crawling another search engine’s results pages the universe gets uneasy.

Now if you have an internal search feature on your site, the standard answer would be to block it with robots.txt and stop the hellish nightmare that can otherwise ensue. However, some sites actually blend the search feature with weird navigation systems or even use the search results as a way to list certain product categories that they then link to. The best solution is to fix the site IA and make this a non-issue but it isn’t always as easy as it should be.





Problem 4: Microformats != schema.org

Microformats and RDFa are two forms of embedding machine readable meta data into our web page that are both quite well known in the SEO community.

Microdata is another such format, and is part of the HTML5 spec, but has remained somewhat in the shadows and hasn’t seen the widespread adoption of the others.

Schema.org is not a format or a language in itself, but it actually a vocabulary which the search engines have all agreed to understand and respect. It lays out what types of entities and attributes you can insert into the metadata on your web pages and guarantees that all the engines will understand these.





Problem 5: AJAX and URLs



This one is well known and disliked by pretty much every SEO that there ever was. AJAX sites are really nice for users and improve the user experience greatly.... right up to the moment the user tries to bookmark the page they are on, or email it someone, or share it via social media, or use the back button, or find the page in their history the next day.

AJAX and SEO simply were never designed to mix, and now we are in a world where people want both. If you have somehow managed to avoid this problem and aren’t aware of is then I’ll briefly outline it... AJAX allows a webpage to, via the use of javascript, update the contents of a page without actually reloading the page; a new HTTP request will be sent and the new content will probably replace some old content on the page but because the page does not reload the URL does not change.

The traditional method to address this to ensure the Googlebot can spider the content is simply to ensure the AJAX calls are hooked to traditional <a> tags so you can include an href to a version of that same content which Google will pick up (and far too often even this hasn’t been done - meaning the content is stranded and will never get indexed). This is fine for the crawling aspect of SEO, but nowadays we need to consider the fact that social shares are an important aspect of SEO too and if the user can’t copy and paste the correct URL then you are already handicapped.