SRPI

SEO.com is doing its part to help boost the struggling economy. The Utah Internet marketing company today announced its Ultimate Web Marketing Makeover, which will give one organization the chance to emerge from the recession via a comprehensive Internet marketing campaign.

“We’ve been fortunate to experience great growth during the recession, and now we want to give back to help someone else have similar success,” said Dave Bascom, chief executive officer of SEO.com.

Through October, SEO.com will accept submissions from various organizations that detail how the recession has affected them, and how they believe Internet marketing services could improve their situation. SEO.com will then award one of those businesses a six-month contract worth more than $60,000. Some of the services will include:

• Web Site Redesign
• Search Engine Optimization
• Pay-Per-Click Advertising
• Link Building
• Press Releases, Writing and Distribution
• Copywriting
• Local Search Optimization
• Social Media Optimization
• Website Analytics
• Blog Marketing

“With all the services we’ll provide over the period of six months, we expect to lay a foundation that will literally change the future of a struggling organization,” Bascom said. “To the winning organization, this will be worth much more than the $60,000. We will provide them with a strong online presence so they can attract many more customers through search engines, and we’ll design their site so more of those visitors will turn into paying customers.”

To participate in the contest, participants must fill out the Ultimate Makeover form which includes a section to write a 500-word essay that explains why they should be selected.

Any organizations that offer quality products or services and have been negatively affected by the recession are encouraged to apply. SEO.com will judge the participants based on the quality of business or service, the industry, the story behind the company, how it has struggled during the recession, and the potential to not only succeed, but to benefit the community.

“We really want to help a deserving company or organization get back on its feet,” said Nelson James, vice president of SEO.com. “We are good at what we do, and we are confident that the services we are offering in this package will do just that.”

SEO.com is accepting submissions for the Ultimate Web Marketing Makeover through Oct. 31, and will announce the winner in early November. If you know anyone who could benefit from this contest, please spread the word. For more information, and to see a video, visit http://www.seo.com/web-marketing-makeover/

About SEO.com
SEO.com is a full-service Internet marketing firm that specializes in search engine optimization. The SEO firm’s search engine marketing tactics help numerous clients reach millions of potential customers on the Internet. SEO.com has grown rapidly since its inception and continues to expand its offerings as a full-service online marketing firm. The company offers everything from organic search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) to social media marketing, online public relations and search friendly-Web design. Clients range from small startups to Fortune 100 companies. For more information, log on to SEO.com.

Excerpt from:
SEO.com Kicks Off $60,000 Marketing Giveaway to Aid Recession-hit Company

When you have a large company, I mean large enough to be international, you need to have your website listed in different languages so that people across the globe can access it and then understand what your site is about. After all, you need to remove all the roadblocks you can for all your potential customers. But when you translate the site, keep in mind that you shouldn’t just do a direct translation word for word because things just do NOT translate well like that. Have you ever spoken to someone who looks up every word in a language to language dictionary? The sentences they compose are very poor, grammatically speaking, even though they may have all the correct words in the sentence. You do not want your website to read that way or your potential customers will think poorly of you.

At the same time, as you have your website translated professionally, it would be wise to remember that the keywords that are popular in the United States are not necessarily popular in other countries. So while we use the term laptops in the United States, the term equivalent to notebooks is more popular in China on Baidu, and it’s a totally different word in Russia on Yandex.  This makes a big difference when you have the copy translated and it’s definitely something that needs to be researched beforehand and then shared with the translating company.  It’s also important to remember that just as we use slang words here, there are slang words used in each country and they need to be researched as well. They will not be revealed in the synonym search given on Google.com, you will need to speak to a local to find out what the current term is for your keyword.

This is how I do the localized research once I have found the correct localized terms.

• Go to Google Adwords
• Change “results are tailored to English, United States” to whatever the right language and country are for my search
• Put in the directly translated word in “enter one keyword or phrase per line” section
• Leave the rest of the options as they are already selected and click on “Get keyword ideas”
• Change “Match Type” from “Broad” to “Exact”
• Review the local search volume by month, reviewing the keywords and the search volume for them

Sometimes you will find a great keyword or two that you should use to optimize in your copy.  Always remember to check out what each of those keywords mean though, don’t automatically assume that they are synonyms just because that’s the way Google has them listed. That could be a big mistake!

So can you just use Google translator or one of the other online translating tools to translate your keywords for you? Absolutely not! I once did that for a very large client and my Malaysian counterpart had a heyday laughing at me. Not a pleasant experience on my part. Be sure to use a live translator who is current and fluent in both languages. The reason I say current is, as mentioned above, you need to use the recent slang keywords, not only the proper words necessarily.

Besides using these keywords in your content, you should also use them in your title tags, meta descriptions, alt tags, and image names when possible. In fact, if you can use the keywords in your file names, that will help you too. Remember, not all countries have Google as the top search engine and in most cases the search engines for other countries are using the “old” search engine rules, so you can play by them.

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How to Take Your Keywords Global

YouTube gets millions of searches every day and can be a powerful marketing avenue if used effectively. But how can a company use YouTube to market their products or services? The answer is to create a video that will go viral.

This sounds pretty simple, but it is actually not that easy. Not just any video posted on YouTube will be viewed by millions of people. The trick is to make a video that people are going to talk about, email to their friends, and link to on their blog and their social networking profiles.

So the benefit of a viral video for marketing purposes is when the video promotes a product or service offered by a company. The video might be about a product or just mention the product or service in part of the video. Once the video is viral it becomes another avenue to inform millions of people about your business.

To make a video into something that people will talk about you need to make it something they will remember. This can be done by making it unique, or making it informative. Another good way is to add an element of humor to it and make it something people will laugh at. Silly humor often works well for making a video go viral. Another option is adding the element of shock to the video. Shock works well when it is something placed at the end of the video to try to scare the viewer.

A video on YouTube that has used one of these methods to go viral is called “Charlie the Unicorn”. If you have not heard of this video then you are one of the few who has not. The video has now been viewed over 40 million times. The reason for the popularity of this video is its simple, silly humor. People watch it, laugh and then tell their friends and co-workers to watch it.

So the trick to making a viral video is to include one of those elements in the video. However I am not going to tell you how to include it. That is something you will need to figure out on your own. But once you get it all figured out it will be well worth it. Just look at what it did for Charlie the Unicorn. The video has nothing to do with internet marketing but it still managed to get mentioned on our SEO blog.

Read more here:
Charlie the Viral Unicorn

YouTube gets millions of searches every day and can be a powerful marketing avenue if used effectively. But how can a company use YouTube to market their products or services? The answer is to create a video that will go viral.

This sounds pretty simple, but it is actually not that easy. Not just any video posted on YouTube will be viewed by millions of people. The trick is to make a video that people are going to talk about, email to their friends, and link to on their blog and their social networking profiles.

So the benefit of a viral video for marketing purposes is when the video promotes a product or service offered by a company. The video might be about a product or just mention the product or service in part of the video. Once the video is viral it becomes another avenue to inform millions of people about your business.

To make a video into something that people will talk about you need to make it something they will remember. This can be done by making it unique, or making it informative. Another good way is to add an element of humor to it and make it something people will laugh at. Silly humor often works well for making a video go viral. Another option is adding the element of shock to the video. Shock works well when it is something placed at the end of the video to try to scare the viewer.

A video on YouTube that has used one of these methods to go viral is called “Charlie the Unicorn”. If you have not heard of this video then you are one of the few who has not. The video has now been viewed over 40 million times. The reason for the popularity of this video is its simple, silly humor. People watch it, laugh and then tell their friends and co-workers to watch it.

So the trick to making a viral video is to include one of those elements in the video. However I am not going to tell you how to include it. That is something you will need to figure out on your own. But once you get it all figured out it will be well worth it. Just look at what it did for Charlie the Unicorn. The video has nothing to do with internet marketing but it still managed to get mentioned on our SEO blog.

Read the original here:
Charlie the Viral Unicorn

SEO.com opens its doors to offer information about its company, and tips and quotes on Internet marketing and search engine optimization. Food and beverages will be served, and the public is welcome to come, see the new office and ask any questions.

SEO.com invites the public and media to an open house at its new corporate headquarters, Tuesday Sept. 29 from 4-6 p.m. The new office is located at 14870 S. Pony Express Road Ste. 100, just off Interstate 15 at the Draper/Bluffdale exit near the point of the mountain.

SEO.com has experienced rapid growth in the last year, growing from 12 employees to more than 50 and increasing monthly revenue by 352 percent. This summer, SEO.com moved from the Novell Technology Center in Provo to a larger, 12,000 square-foot office in Bluffdale, Utah.

The Internet marketing industry is becoming more and more popular with businesses of all kinds, and many business professionals are interested in reading similar stories in newspapers, magazines and online. The media is invited to come to the open house and gather information for future business stories on any of these popular industry topics, including Internet marketing growth during the recession, social media marketing, blog marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click advertising (PPC), Web design, Web site analytics, keyword research, and more.

About SEO.com
SEO.com is a full-service Internet marketing and search engine optimization company. SEO.com specializes in tactics that have helped numerous clients reach millions of potential customers on the Internet. SEO.com has grown rapidly since its inception and continues to expand its offerings as a full-service online marketing firm. The company offers everything from organic search engine optimization and pay-per-click to social media marketing, online public relations and Web design. Clients range from small startups to Fortune 100 companies. For more information, e-mail  press@seo.com.

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SEO.com Hosts Media and Public at Informational Open House in New Office

Plenty of business plans are based solely on playing catch-up, and SEO is no exception. You could easily base your SEO strategy around scoping out your competitors’ approaches to link building, on-site optimization, social media, etc. and just copying it.

Of course, it won’t take long for people to see you for what you really are – a slimy bottom feeder who’s merely an “expert” at ripping off others’ ideas. I harbor a lot of ill will toward the capitalistic pond scum that operate this way.

If you actually care about your career (not to mention your reputation), you’ve got to do more than just copy, spy, steal and play catch-up all the time. Here are three big ways you as an SEO can establish yourself as a genuine leader:

1.    Learn Like Most SEOs Aren’t Willing To Learn

Most SEOs will learn the tactics required to do SEO. You’ve got to do more.

• Accept only empirical proof through testing and retesting new ideas on your own sites. Follow the data, not the hype. This is the only way to learn like a leader.

• Be very selective about what you read. Read blogs of other SEOs who do testing (SEOmoz and Michael Gray to name a few). Resist the urge to read everything SEO for fear you might miss something. I read everything when I was new to search marketing, and it didn’t take long for me to realize that 90 percent of the content out there is either rehashed or unactionable. I’ve since scaled way back and have more time to do actual SEO.

• Diversify your skill set. Leading SEOs often double as designers, web developers, statisticians, PR specialists, and affiliate marketers. The more skills you can gain in these areas, the more you’ll differentiate yourself or your SEO company from the crowd.

2.    Work Like Most SEOs Aren’t Willing To Work

The same is true in any industry. If you’re willing to put in the time, you’ll reap the rewards.

• Resist the urge to sprint in your SEO efforts. You’ll either get burnout or look like a spammer to search engines. At the same time, always work with a sense of urgency. When it comes to tasks, if it doesn’t impact rankings or conversion, your clients don’t care about it, and neither should you.

• Use white-hat automation wherever possible. It will buy you more time to focus on tasks that can’t be automated or contracted.

• Distance yourself from the competition by having a dynamic link acquisition and generation strategy that includes working toward links that will be nearly impossible for others to replicate.

3.    Invest Like Most SEOs Aren’t Willing To Invest

During my time in the internet marketing industry, it has become apparent that there are a ton of people marketing quick money schemes, SEO shortcuts, black hat techniques, etc. because there are a ton of people who are looking for them. You have to invest your time, your money, and your resources to get lasting SEO credibility. There is no quick fix.

• Spend money to make money. You can do SEO completely for free, but I promise that you’ll go slower and be less effective than the best SEOs. A couple of SEOmoz tools have saved me more than enough time to compensate for the costs of membership and then some. Some article marketing and directory building services may be the kind of investments that pay for themselves. Time is the SEO’s most precious commodity.

• Invest in networking. The value of relationships is huge in this industry because other established SEOs are the ones who really bestow credibility. Industry connections lead to learning and mentoring opportunities. Time and experience result in speaking opportunities, high profile blogging, etc. How are you helping other SEOs get to know you and more importantly your work? Take advantage of opportunities to establish your presence and build rapport by remembering the difference between high- and low-value networking approaches:

Having a “second-mover” SEO strategy isn’t necessarily a bad idea if it’s just one element of what you’re trying to achieve. After all, if you were able to get backlinks from all of the domains that your competitors have links on, you’d have more links than any of them individually. Major win! Remember, however, that this is a short-lived advantage and won’t help you lead the pack for long, nor will it enhance your credibility.

Ultimately, anyone can become a great SEO if they’re willing to do what it takes. Talk to any major player in the industry and they’ll tell you it wasn’t just clever personal branding (although it takes some of that too). It’s hard work to differentiate yourself from the many neon-colored deer on the lawn, but if you’re serious about sticking in this industry you’d be crazy to give anything other than your best.

Originally posted here:
3 Big Secrets To Leading The SEO Herd

Plenty of business plans are based solely on playing catch-up, and SEO is no exception. You could easily base your SEO strategy around scoping out your competitors’ approaches to link building, on-site optimization, social media, etc. and just copying it.

Of course, it won’t take long for people to see you for what you really are – a slimy bottom feeder who’s merely an “expert” at ripping off others’ ideas. I harbor a lot of ill will toward the capitalistic pond scum that operate this way.

If you actually care about your career (not to mention your reputation), you’ve got to do more than just copy, spy, steal and play catch-up all the time. Here are three big ways you as an SEO can establish yourself as a genuine leader:

1.    Learn Like Most SEOs Aren’t Willing To Learn

Most SEOs will learn the tactics required to do SEO. You’ve got to do more.

• Accept only empirical proof through testing and retesting new ideas on your own sites. Follow the data, not the hype. This is the only way to learn like a leader.

• Be very selective about what you read. Read blogs of other SEOs who do testing (SEOmoz and Michael Gray to name a few). Resist the urge to read everything SEO for fear you might miss something. I read everything when I was new to search marketing, and it didn’t take long for me to realize that 90 percent of the content out there is either rehashed or unactionable. I’ve since scaled way back and have more time to do actual SEO.

• Diversify your skill set. Leading SEOs often double as designers, web developers, statisticians, PR specialists, and affiliate marketers. The more skills you can gain in these areas, the more you’ll differentiate yourself or your SEO company from the crowd.

2.    Work Like Most SEOs Aren’t Willing To Work

The same is true in any industry. If you’re willing to put in the time, you’ll reap the rewards.

• Resist the urge to sprint in your SEO efforts. You’ll either get burnout or look like a spammer to search engines. At the same time, always work with a sense of urgency. When it comes to tasks, if it doesn’t impact rankings or conversion, your clients don’t care about it, and neither should you.

• Use white-hat automation wherever possible. It will buy you more time to focus on tasks that can’t be automated or contracted.

• Distance yourself from the competition by having a dynamic link acquisition and generation strategy that includes working toward links that will be nearly impossible for others to replicate.

3.    Invest Like Most SEOs Aren’t Willing To Invest

During my time in the internet marketing industry, it has become apparent that there are a ton of people marketing quick money schemes, SEO shortcuts, black hat techniques, etc. because there are a ton of people who are looking for them. You have to invest your time, your money, and your resources to get lasting SEO credibility. There is no quick fix.

• Spend money to make money. You can do SEO completely for free, but I promise that you’ll go slower and be less effective than the best SEOs. A couple of SEOmoz tools have saved me more than enough time to compensate for the costs of membership and then some. Some article marketing and directory building services may be the kind of investments that pay for themselves. Time is the SEO’s most precious commodity.

• Invest in networking. The value of relationships is huge in this industry because other established SEOs are the ones who really bestow credibility. Industry connections lead to learning and mentoring opportunities. Time and experience result in speaking opportunities, high profile blogging, etc. How are you helping other SEOs get to know you and more importantly your work? Take advantage of opportunities to establish your presence and build rapport by remembering the difference between high- and low-value networking approaches:

Having a “second-mover” SEO strategy isn’t necessarily a bad idea if it’s just one element of what you’re trying to achieve. After all, if you were able to get backlinks from all of the domains that your competitors have links on, you’d have more links than any of them individually. Major win! Remember, however, that this is a short-lived advantage and won’t help you lead the pack for long, nor will it enhance your credibility.

Ultimately, anyone can become a great SEO if they’re willing to do what it takes. Talk to any major player in the industry and they’ll tell you it wasn’t just clever personal branding (although it takes some of that too). It’s hard work to differentiate yourself from the many neon-colored deer on the lawn, but if you’re serious about sticking in this industry you’d be crazy to give anything other than your best.

Continued here:
3 Big Secrets To Leading The SEO Herd

There are several ways to obtain links on the Internet, through numerous different types of web pages. Some techniques to increase page ranking are difficult, while others are very simple. I would like to review a method for obtaining links that I would say is somewhere in the middle on the toughness scale, but if done right, can be very effective in increasing your search engine results page (SERPS) results.

Articles and blog posts make up much of the content on the Internet. However, the crazy thing about online articles is that you hardly ever know the source. Some articles are from every day bloggers, some from various types of researchers and some are from paid writing sources and other freelancing services. Nevertheless, whatever the source, it is still content. As long as it is not duplicate content, chances are Google will index it. Along with the content, if you can include some good anchor-text links that tell what the article is focusing on, it often helps Google in the indexing process.

Once you have your article, now it is a question of where to post it. There are several different ways for submitting articles on the Internet. There are blogs, directories, free website services (weebly.com, wordpress.com, blogger.com, yola.com), and even some services that specifically take article submissions (ezinearticles.com and squidoo.com, just to name a couple). Each has their different pros and cons.

A major factor to consider when choosing where to post your article is whether you want to go for quality or quantity. I have had an ezinearticles.com article get a PR2 rank after getting just a few outside links to it; which led me to believe that Google looks at these articles on ezinearticles.com as higher quality.

Whether you decide to go for quality, quantity, paid or free services, articles can be a great source for obtaining links all over the web. Give them a shot! It could be a nice break from the tedious task of requesting links for link building.

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Using Articles for Link Building

This post is for those who are thinking about buying a domain to use as the web address for their site. In my opinion, the name of the domain is one of the most important decisions you can make for your website, especially if you plan on doing any search engine optimization.

Not only is the name of a website a determining factor when it comes to people being attracted to your site and whether or not they will remember how to get back to your site, but when chosen correctly, the domain name can give your site a tremendous head start in ranking ability. Keep in mind that you can still rank well without a killer domain name, but from what I have seen, it sure helps.

Let me give you a couple of examples. Let’s say your big, 100% relevant, targeted keyword is seo blog. What would be the best domain name to buy to help you show up for this? The best domain name you can use is the exact keyword phrase you are targeting. So, SEOBlog.com would be your optimal domain. Just to demonstrate the importance of this in SEO, go ahead and search “SEO Blog” in Google. For me, seoblog.com is at position 19. What’s so amazing about this? Click on their site and you will see that there is virtually no content. Check their back links–less than 100. This is a fairly competitive term and it takes some good search engine optimization to show up for it. But, it is my opinion that this site ranks well mainly because of its domain name.

Let me give you another example. On July 27, 2009 I started a website for my wife. She is a very accomplished pianist and is going to start offering wedding pianist services in the state of Utah. We did some keyword research and decided to target the keywords “Wedding Pianist”, “Wedding Pianist Utah”, and “Utah Wedding Pianist”. The keyword “Wedding Pianist” is not 100% relevant, since she only offers her services in Utah, however, we found another Utah wedding pianist who shows up for that term already as well as many other wedding pianists who are also geographically limited. We couldn’t buy the domain WeddingPianist.com, that was already taken. Instead we bought www.weddingpianistutah.com. This domain contains our main keyword (at the beginning of the domain even), and it also gives us a geographic location to help customers clarify where she is available.
Today is August 3, 2009 and her site shows up number 8 for “Wedding Pianist” and number 2 for the other two terms. How did this happen? First of all, these terms are not super competitive, but even if they were, I would bet that her site would still show up well in a reasonable amount of time, maybe not 7 days, but still quickly.

In addition to helping you show up well for your terms, having a url that is the main keyword you want to be recognized for is beneficial because people will be able to remember your website easily when referring you to others or when they need to come back themselves. Again, you can still rank well and build a great reputation online with other domain names, but I would recommend a keyword oriented domain if you’re just starting out.

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What’s In a Domain?

Ten years ago, websites were largely brochure-ware and widely considered disposable. It was not uncommon for a company to roll out a new website annually. Eliminating waste is a popular topic these days, and many companies are employing strategies to get the most out of their online budgets.

Today, it is not uncommon for a website to last years. Companies are stretching their dollars by investing early and adopting the process of steady, ongoing improvements.

Spending time and money early in the life-cycle of your website has greater impact on your business’ success. Not only do the decisions you make have longer shelf life, but the process is also cheaper at this stage.

Set a winning strategy

Good web development teams approach your project with purpose.

You’ll want to reach a deep understanding of your company, your brand, and the target audience; run through a competitive analysis to set the playing field; and outline your online strategies and how they fit into your overall corporate mission. Many refer to this as the discovery phase, and essentially this is when the team does its homework. These are all great investments of your time.

The result is you will get better recommendations on what creative and technical tactics will best support your goals, meet your objectives, attack your competitor’s strengths and exploit their weaknesses.

Rally the troops

This is the time to get opinions from within your company. Before the first pixel of your website is onscreen, there will be consensus on what the team is setting out to do and why. The value of later choices will be measured against these early decisions. This will save waste, therefore minimizing costs. Anyone who opts out of participating in these early stages of web development shouldn’t get to cast votes during beta testing. If they’d like, they can cheer lead from the sidelines.

The storm before the calm

You’ve got the team dressed. You know your opponent’s playbook. The excitement in the locker room is palatable. But, you’re not ready to charge out and take the field. It’s time to wire frame the most important pages on your website and storyboard technical components. Planning is critical. Would you live in a house erected by an architect who built it without blueprints? Would you be confident enough to drive a car that rolled down an assembly line without plans?

At this point in the process, change is rapid and cheap. Figuratively speaking, it’s only on paper. Think, get opinions and feedback, work and rework ideas, explore options, and make changes as until the team is satisfied. Approving a wire frame or storyboard is not a point of no return, but it is the last time “what if…” and “hey, what about…” are cheap questions to answer.

It’s all over but the shouting.

Now it’s time to build without second guessing yourself. The team already knows the site is being built correctly, so any change will be minor. The development environment is not the cheapest place for change, but it is cheaper than fixing the live site in a panic. Additionally, any major change will negatively impact the budget and time line. Since you’re already planning on iterative improvements, major changes can be built into the game plan for later phases, or simply avoided.

As exciting as launching the site will be, for some it will be anticlimactic.

Ok, more shouting.

Once your site is built correctly, you can minimize your website expenses and concentrate your efforts on marketing and promotion. This is where the money rightfully should be spent in order to maximize your revenue. You can confidently drive traffic into your sales engine, knowing it’s built to win.

The road to relevance

New websites are no longer the key to being perceived as fresh and relevant. Today, we know that’s the responsibility for writers, bloggers and marketers and in many cases consumers themselves as we engage in two-way conversations.

Learn from the examples of some of today’s web giants, like Amazon.com and Apple. I bet you can’t remember the last time you saw a major change on either site. Both have effectively looked the same for years, but, I bet they made small improvements last week. The best websites don’t need to be redesigned unless their purpose changes.

Change is cheapest at the beginning of the process, and progressively gets more expensive. Therefore, it’s in your best interest to invest early and make improvement a steady, iterative process. After the foundation is set, you study metrics, analyze conversions, and act accordingly. Very rarely do you make a mistake through this system of checks and balances, let alone one you can’t recover from quickly. This approach is better for your brand, your budget and your customers.

Original post:
Invest Early in Your Website to Save Money