There are many people talking about the death of SEO. Yeah, I know, you are contemplating closing this post. Stay with me. Well, if you are a seasoned search marketing veteran, you are free to go. There is nothing here that is going to be earth shattering. But I have seen too much recently to not say something.

SEO is not going anywhere but it has changed. Long gone are the days of “tricks” and “secrets.” SEO is moving towards (and about time IMHO) being a staple of every company’s IT and Marketing schedule. But we are not there yet. I can’t research a local company or do a competitive analysis without coming across a handful of sites that are missing the basics. The larger companies are getting there, but again, not there yet. This is what should happen though, SEO is a part of marketing and web development and should take its rightful place.

But there are no secrets. Can you still pick up some good ideas from the minds at conferences and get togethers? Yes! But know that you might be one of those minds. How? It’s the experiences that make good ideas. Conference organizers constantly try to blend new speakers/new perspectives with seasoned veterans. But what is said there is not hard and fast truth. Any of them will tell you that your site is unique. It’s about the idea they are presenting that spurs the idea for your site.

The questions I’ve seen arise recently have been just like those from 2005. Site developers and first time website owners want to know how to get their site to #1 right now. They want to know why other “less desirable” or “less worthy” sites are outranking their beautiful creation. The answer is always the same.

1. Build your site well. It needs to be clean, understandable, and navigable. Page load times and text based content are things to notice.
2. Content needs to be focused to the user. Don’t stuff. Don’t over optimize. Build pages for different users and make it something they want to read. Users via email are different than those from PPC ads. And the users from organic SERPs are different too. All users are not created equal.
3. Content needs to engage and entice. Not only to convert (which is the first focus) but also to share. In this world of linking, the best way to go about links isn’t easy. The best links are from real people. You will get them by marketing and customer service. PR is a good road too, remember that one? Journalists are your friend.
4. If you are building links by paying someone in India, stop.
5. Be patient. Yes, the engines will pick up content almost instantaneously in some cases but not all. If you spotted a problem recently and changed it, give the bots time to find, fix and propagate.

Build your foundation (good clean code), set your framework (navigation and structure), insulate (link build), pick the right colors (content), and then market. The most beautiful well built house will never be found if no one talks about it.

Building a Proper SEO House is a post from: Kate Morris

OKCupid Email

First, I want you to see the actual email I was sent. (No, you are not allowed to know my username on there. ) I also learned not to forward this email as my login information is embedded in the email (not great). A coworker had access to my account very quickly, and he was nice enough not to poke around my profile. Oops.

Please note that this email was not sent to everyone. I confirmed it with my roommate and her single mother. My roommate said “Oh yeah, I got that a month after joining.” (Yes, I lovingly hate how pretty she is). And her mom had never seen it before. Nor does this just show after a period of inactivity. I went active/inactive/active/inactive plenty of times in my four year membership and only got this email once.

This might have been a ploy to get attention but it seems to be turning on them.

Email Breakdown and Rewrites

The first thought was  ”Really? Awww, thanks.” I mean when someone calls you pretty, beautiful, attractive, handsome, etc. you say “Thank you.” It is awesome to think that the online dating service is complimenting you by saying that other’s actions mean they think you are attractive. Who doesn’t want to hear that? The mistake was not in the compliment of a better performing account, but in the resulting actions and comments. 

Here is how they might have changed a few key points in the email.

The scales recently tipped in your favor.

My Reaction: Just recently? So was I ugly before. Thanks guys.

Better Copy: Did you change your hair? We’ve noticed an increase in positive reactions to your profile and wanted to let you know that whatever you are doing, it is working!

Why: We all know people that might not have changed their apperance, but just generally feel better and so they almost glow. Let them know that there is an increase, but don’t compare them to others on the site. Dating is a personal thing and it should not be seen as a competition.

You will now see more attractive people in your match results … the people we recommend will be more attractive … Also! You’ll be shown to more attractive people in their match results.

My Reaction: So I was being shown the dogs before? Thanks again.

Better Copy: Just leave this out.

Why: Just like Google doesn’t let sites know when they are increasing in rank, OKCupid should not mention this, if it is even true. This has more negative connotations than positive ones. With the dating pool changing constantly, it leaves some wondering when they might leave the now “infamous” Top 50%.

And, no, we didn’t just send this email to everyone on OkCupid. Go ask an ugly friend and see.

My Reaction: This was the last straw. You don’t really WANT to ask others if they got this email, because what if they didn’t? Thinking about it, I was “ugly” for 4 years.

Better Copy: We don’t send this to everyone, we just wanted to let you know that your glow is shining through. Now go email that [guy/girl] you’ve been eying the past few weeks. Now is the time!

Why: This has a call to action, reinforces their confidence boost, and pushes them to visit the site and message someone new. It leaves the user empowered and feeling good about using the site.

Possible Full Revision

Did you change your hair? We’ve noticed an increase in positive reactions to your profile and wanted to let you know that whatever you are doing, it is working! That glow or je ne sais quoi.

How can we say this with confidence? We’ve tracked click-thrus on your photo and analyzed other people’s reactions to you in QuickMatch and Quiver.

Suddenly, the world is your oyster.We don’t send this to everyone, we just wanted to let you know that your glow is shining through. Now go email that [guy/girl] you’ve been eying the past few weeks. Now is the time!

Lessons

1. Testing is Imperative

   In my opinion, this email should never have been sent. Had this copy been tested in focus groups, or even throughout the company, I think at least a handful of people would have reacted just like the online world is now.

   Always test any communication internally at least.

2. Don’t Segment on Relative Measures or Generalizations

   You can and should change your message based on who you are talking to at the time. Segmenting based on perceived attractiveness and then publicly telling people you are doing so is not smart. Not all Mustang lovers are male. And beauty is in the eye of beholder, not in the click through rate of a profile.

3. Repeat After Me: I Will Not Mock My User’s Friends

   There is little way to sugar coat this. Never reference your user’s social circle in any negative light. In social media, their friends are the ones you are trying to influence through the user. Any communication with a user is social media based because anything can and will be shared socially between friends. Always keep that in mind with every communication sent out from your company to the world.

Bonus: Geek Overload

We’ve tracked click-thrus on your photo and analyzed other people’s reactions to you in QuickMatch and Quiver.

This statement brings out the geek in me. I want to know:

• What is the algorithm like?
• What happens when someone more attractive joins in 2 hours?
• What happens when someone pauses their accounts versus deleting them? Are they included in this 50%?
• Do people get an email every time the enter or exit the 50%?

Just curious now …

Ask Your Ugly Friends: OkCupid’s Email Faux Pas is a post from: Kate Morris

When first approached about Blue Glass LA, I knew nothing about it, only that Chris Winfield, Brent Csutoras, and Tony Adam were behind it. That in and of itself was credibility enough to attend, but the more I looked into the show, the better it got.

First off, most of the panels have only 2-3 speakers, making them more focused and less rushed, for the audience and the speakers. I am a big fan of this format because the hand picked speakers get more time to really teach. And as a regionally based show, the crowd should be more intimate.

This show seems much like Search Exchange, which I spoke at this past May and loved. It was a good opportunity to really get to know and network with people. Blue Glass LA is hoping for the same vibe, adding an LA twist.

I think this is going to be an awesome show for networking and education. Taking all of the best things about some of my favorite shows (like PubCon and SearchExchange) and putting them on the West Coast with a great crew. I can’t wait to see everyone in a few weeks!

New Breed of Show – Blue Glass LA is a post from: Kate Morris

There is a new face in the Austin Personal Training scene, and he happens to be my brother. Brian Morris just finished his certification from PFTA here in Austin. He will soon be starting as a personal trainer on some lucky gym’s staff, but is also looking for clients.

Most personal trainers are all about finding the young people looking to prepare for bikini season, but Brian is hoping to reach people of all levels of life and fitness. We come from a family with a history of obesity, so Brian and I both know adversity when it comes to weight loss. He is even working with our mom right now. She has gone through a gastric bypass and thyroid cancer, making for an interesting combination of fitness and nutritional needs. No situation is too difficult with someone this dedicated to a healthier life for everyone.

For example, he wants to reach the baby boomers that want a better quality of life, not a beach body. Keeping up with grandchildren and traveling the world (that hike up St. Paul’s Cathedral in London is 1000+ steps!) are their goals.

I am very excited about this new part of Brian’s life because I can not only aide in this new venture, but it’s awesome to see him this excited about his career. Brian really does love helping people with their fitness goals. He has been telling me every week for the past 9 weeks about what he is learning in class and helping me change my habits for the better. (yes Brian, intervals are what I need to do, I’m working on it)

So as promised, if you are in Austin, and always wanted to work with a personal trainer, let me know. I’ll get you the hook up. *wink wink, nudge nudge*

A New Austin Personal Trainer is a post from: Kate Morris

2006 Matt Cutts as the Zombie Jeeves

A while ago (and we are talking years) at SMX Advanced 2007, the Google Dance Northwest to be exact, I watched as the Ask PR Director worked through the launch of Ask 3D. A few friends and I got a private tour of the new features, and I knew immediately that they were years ahead of their time. But they went and threw it all away.

(Funny enough, that night was when I first met Matt Cutts, who is in this picture. )

Now, even though it was proven to work better with users within the first few months, Google finally accepted it and is using the three column approach. It took Microsoft and Yahoo 2 years to adopt it, and Google 3 years. What does Ask get out of it? Nothing.

So I will say again. The Microsoft/Yahoo deal should not have happened. Instead, had Yahoo been smart, they would have bought Ask and AOL. *sigh* They might have tried, I don’t know, but what I do know is AOL, Ask and Yahoo are now all but dead. To Microsoft and Google … do you see the opportunity here? If you haven’t already, pick off the Ask talent. It’s being so wasted.

</rant>

Ask from the Grave is a post from: Kate Morris

Folks in this room understand that the quality of a search engine depends heavily on the relevance of advertising, and the relevance of advertising relies on the volume of bids.

Steve Ballmer, MSFT

Sorry, Steve but I beg to differ. This was a quote from the SMX West show in March 2010. While I get his point, and he was speaking to a room of search marketers, there is something flawed about his logic.

When Google started its upward climb, it was not the leader in advertising. Overture (GoTo, Yahoo, whatever) was. People started using Google because the results were relevant, natural and paid. Trust was given to the brand, and that is when “google” became a verb. You don’t become a part of societal vocabulary by getting advertising right. Steve is missing a few vital parts of the puzzle, and that seems to always be the issue over at Microsoft.

The piece that is missing is the relevant results that bring in users. These results build trust in the brand. Returning users build the user base (traffic) which brings in advertisers, and advertisers bring in money and ads. Those ads do make the results more relevant, but it is not the ads that drive initial user trust and participation.

Disclaimer: I have not done research on this, and someone could easily prove me wrong. This post is from a marketing psychology point of view.

The quality of Google right now may be its ad network. Everyone knows that it is what makes Google so powerful. But any competitor to Google is going to have to understand that replacing that trust will have to occur to get users to switch.

I always hear advertisers say “I only use Google AdWords because, while it’s more expensive and the other networks convert better, the volume is just not there.” Remember that at higher volumes, generally, it is more difficult to convert. This is why you never just increase bids to be #1 in the ad line up. It’s not always profitable to be #1. There is a double meaning there MSFT.

Just something to think about.

Quality of a Search Engine is a post from: Kate Morris

What is the hunt? Raven started this game in which they hide clues across the interwebs. The clues are on their site and other Search Marketing blogs. They did one hunt last month (I was lame and didn’t participate that time), and the newest one just started yesterday.

The Second Clue is being released today at 1pm CDT.

Don’t think you can’t participate because you’re a day or two behind though. The other clues are still out there for you to find. And it ain’t over until the Raven is Found! This contest is open to everyone, not just search marketers, and you can join in any day. Oh, wanna know what you can win?An Apple iPad.

RavenHunt Quick Facts:

• RavenHunt is free for anyone and you can start playing at any time
• There are two RavenHunt clues released each day (Be Sure to Get Both!!)
• The object of RavenHunt is to collect the secret letters you find when you solve riddles
• On Friday, the second RavenHunt clue will include a form for you to input the unscrambled secret word
• You need to follow Raven’s Facebook and Twitter accounts to be updated on when clues are released

RavenHunt Prizes

First Place:

• Apple iPad
• 1 year Pro subscription to Raven
• Premium Membership to Search Engine Land
• Copy of The New Community Rules by Tamar Weinberg
• Copy of Web Analytics 2.0 by Avinash Kaushik
• Official RavenHunt t-shirt

Second Place:

• 6 month Pro subscription to Raven
• Official RavenHunt t-shirt

3rd-10th Places:

• Official RavenHunt t-shirt

Join The RavenHunt is a post from: Kate Morris

I have been saying that this is the year I would travel for me, do all the things I have been meaning to do, but couldn’t do while in class. I went skiing in Breckenridge in January, went to Seattle in February, and decided to make a road trip to Winnipeg, Canada in March.

You see, a flight from Austin to Winnipeg is really expensive! There are few airlines that make the trek at all, and it requires so many connections, it’s almost worth the drive. A few months out, I had decided to look into ticket prices, $700 at minimum, and they stayed that way. I calculated the gas required and it came out to $400 round trip. But driving is boring, and it’s 1500 miles one way up to Winnipeg.

Two things pushed me to do the trip. One was the fact that my brother mentioned he always wanted to go to Canada. And on top of that, one of my friend’s (Lyndsay Walker) birthday was coming up. That was it, I was going. But I wasn’t going to tell Lyndsay, it was a surprise.

The road trip was fine … please note though, Kansas=Nebraska=South Dakota=North Dakota. There is no change in the scenery on Interstate 29. That was until we got to Fargo, and thought we were in Florida. The fields were so flooded, it looked like we were in the swamps of Florida, for real. It was all due to the amount of snow melting. And I drove through a snow storm in my mustang. *almost had a heartattack*

The real story starts when we get to the Canadian border. It was 9:30pm on Friday night. I had our passports out and ready. He hadn’t done this before, but I’ve flown into other countries tons of times. Really annoying questions, not happy border agents, and a few sideways glances, and we’d be on our way. Okay, so maybe a car search, we did drive from that southern state. We might have drugs, what do they know? So when we were handed our passports back and asked to pull over, I figured that was it.

Nope.

The border agent not only told us to wait in the car, which was wrong, but we had to answer the questions again by an immigration officer. And can I mention how much I didn’t wanna get out of the car? You do NOT move when crossing borders unless they ask you to. I was so afraid of being arrested for getting out of my car!

The immigration officer was terse, but normal. She made assumptions about my brother’s life I wasn’t happy with, but then the kicker came. Had either one of us ever been arrested? Well I am lame, so no. I haven’t ever been. My brother on the other hand … well there was one small problem.

In 2003, he wrote a check for self storage and it bounced because he closed the account a few months later. The bank nor the  storage place mentioned this to him for a year. S0 2004 rolls around, and he gets a notice about the check. When going down to take care of it, the county court house officer tells him there is a warrant, and that he needs to be processed. Let me mention now, this was a $40 check.

So not knowing what was going on, he paid all the fines, and agreed to one year of probation. June 21, 2005 was the end of the probation period. Since he knew that there was a Class C Mideameanor on his record, he told the immigration officer. The look on her face gave it all away. He wasn’t allowed into Canada. Oh and it was recorded as a Class B Misdemeanor. Thanks Tom Green County.

But I was more than welcome to leave him at a hotel and go over myself. But who does that??? Really???

I spent hours (after the hour drive back to the nearest town) on the Internet, and sure enough, any criminal record is grounds for denial of entry to Canada. The only way around it was a waiver (only during the week between 8-4pm) or a “Criminal Rehabilitation” process. That would take weeks and court documents. And the process can only be complete 5 years after the end of the sentence. I’ll wait for you to count … June 21, 2010. Yep, even during the week there was no hope. All because of a misplaced check in 2003. *sigh*

I got Lyndsay to write a Letter of Invitation, and we tried ONE more time the next day. Didn’t work but the officer this time was much nicer. We never lied and they understood why we had to try again.

So three car searches later (2 US, 1 Canadian), 2 background checks, and a few hours with Lyndsay and Lyndon Reid in Grand Forks, ND, we turned around and headed back south. Thankfully, the trip wasn’t a total loss. We got to see Lyndon and Lyndsay, and stopped in Missouri to see some old family friends.

Now for the process of getting this stupid thing off his record. No, not going through rehabilitation, this thing needs to be GONE.

And to the US and Canadian Border Offices. GET ALONG! Stop giving decent citizens on both sides shit for no reason. This was just as stupid as Lyndsay’s denial to the US. I know we are all about border safety, but really? A bounced $40 check? 7 years ago?

Canadian Rejects Road Trip is a post from: Kate Morris

Issue: In optimizing a client’s website, I came across some images that might seem unsuitable for children. Not vulgar or crude, and were there in a health care sense, but were still not suitable for children.

I wanted to find a tag that I could place in the image or on the page that would let the search engines, especially the adult filters of the images side, that the images were not suitable from the get go. The client had noted it on their site as well, but on the entry page, not on every page that the images appeared.

Short version: There were no tags that I could find, and no one knew the answer. So I emailed a friend of mine … Matt Cutts (no, I am NOT giving anyone his email address). See Matt, for those of you that don’t know, is one of the minds behind SafeSearch and is now the Head of the Web Spam team at Google. Who better to ask right?

Turns out there are meta tags that can be affixed to the page with ratings that are much like movie ratings. These ratings work with browser filters to ensure that kids do not see specific content on the web. Reading between the lines, I am thinking that this might also be a way to signal to the SEs that there are things on that page that should be behind the SafeSearch wall.

How to Tag Adult Content

The best resource for adult rating that Matt pointed me to had examples of how to use all the rating systems. Major downside: this means 4 additional meta tags on my page. This area of the world has not been condensed, so there are many way to rate pages. For my client, I added them all. Better safe than sorry in my opinion.

I won’t go over every one, but basically for most of them you place specific codes within the meta tag that let bots and browsers know exactly what type of content is on that page that might not be suitable. In my client’s instance, it was partial nudity on a woman that was health care based.

It might have taken some time and a little more work, but I know that parents and search engines will like that my client is trying to help protect children on the web. I just hope that the various organizations can come together on ONE rating system someday, but that might be as possible as all of the browsers rendering the same way (stupid IE …).

UPDATE: I had a question (PRO Membership Required) the other day in the SEOmoz Q&A that gave me another thought about how to use the adult content tagging. If your images have ever been placed behind the SafeSearch filter, and you think it isn’t warranted, you might TRY (read: hasn’t been tested) placing these meta tags on the page where the image is hosted, and use the tags for safe for children. Don’t use this to get around the filters, I don’t think that will work. If hand checked, and the images are in fact NOT kosher, you might get removed/banned. No bueno here people. Karma, remember karma. If you don’t want your kids, your nieces/nephews, or godchildren looking at those images, then other kids shouldn’t either.

Tagging Adult-ish Pictures is a post from: Kate Morris

Background

I am not a tools type of search engine marketer. Well, in terms of PPC bid management tools. I love Raven Tools and SEOmoz and some of the newer PPC tools like WordStream. (Yes, some of those are affiliate links)

There are some tools developers in the PPC space that I keep hearing about but have never seen. For the most part I don’t have the clients that are large enough for them. But seeing as there are some new awesome tools, I’ve been more open to requests from tool developers in the PPC space.

The LiveBall Approach

I got an email from Kristina Allen at Ion Interactive on February 15th asking me to review a press release about their most recent developments. Normally these requests are dry when coming from PR people, but Kristina got it right. The title of the email was Leprechauns, Lattes and LiveBall. She got immediate bonus points for originality and attention grabbing.

Her email not only got my attention, but Kristina, whom I had never met, had taken the time to read my site and understand me. She talked about my SEM Cereals post and asked nicely if I’d look at the release. She kept things light and informal.

Girl should get a raise just for that.

LiveBall

I had heard of Ion Interactive, but had no idea what they did. I wanted to help, but I can’t talk about something I know nothing about. Within 24 hours they had a demo setup and were sending me everything I needed to review their tool. The CEO was even present for the demo to answer my questions. So thanks to Justin Talerico and Megan Leap for answering all of my questions.

And just to make it clear, they are not paying me to write a good review. I am highly critical of unnecessary tools and will tell you the way it is. But I do need to tell my readers that they did send me a copy of their book, Honest Seduction. (Warning: affiliate link) I haven’t read it yet, but it’s on my list now.

LiveBall Review

LiveBall is a landing page optimization tool that is hosted on the Ion servers. Basically they setup an environment on their servers in which marketing people can create landing pages to test in an easy interface. LiveBall is hosting on a dedicated IP address for each customer. The pages created by their system are cross browser friendly (I asked) and while are hosted on their domain, they are pointed at a subdomain on your root domain.

The team there aids in building themes based around your current site layout. So they start the account for you by coding everything to look like your site. Testing these pages allows you to keep the same look and feel as the rest of your site. Your marketing managers can add and subtract elements to test through their easy WYSIWYG editor.

One feature I loved is that the LiveBall system gives you image galleries to choose stock images to test. Right now they are organized into six categories including Active Life, Business People, Healthcare, Higher Education, Leisure People, and Meanings. I’ve done testing, and it can get expensive to buy all the images you need for pages that you might not even keep!

The greatest thing? All of the pages created are SEO compliant. (That’s what their release was about) You can use the canonical tag to point the search engines at the “real” version, or add a “noindex” if you don’t want these pages in the index. You can add in your own tracking code, but they have built in tracking as well to help aide in decision making about the best landing page possible. And the system passes query strings so that you can track what you need to for your system as well as collecting important keyword information.

Overall Thoughts

This is something I would recommend to a company that has a marketing department and needs a way to test landing pages on the fly without interrupting the IT and web development side. Ion makes it clear that this system is built with marketers in mind, not necessarily code-minded people. It’s simple and easy to use, but also builds nice code on the back end.

What a company can learn in this system can be pushed to web development once conclusions are drawn. LiveBall and Ion have no issue with their clients taking the information and code developed in the system and putting into use on the whole site, I made sure to ask. Most companies will want to take what is learned and use it on the whole site back on the home server.

In talking with their team they understand that landing page optimization is not just for PPC. That is why they released the SEO compliant features. They know that testing is not a one time thing, and over time even the best campaigns can use some optimization. You never know when one change to a page can result in a 10% increase in conversion rates.

LiveBall Review is a post from: Kate Morris