seotworank

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Pocket Video Power Review: This May Be Essential For Your Business

I was recently approached by Jules Watkins, a British TV Producer/Director and the creator of Pocket Video Power (affiliate link), where he asked me if I would review his product. Given his background in video, it seemed like a no-brainer to me! If I were to sum up what Jules does in one simple sentence [...]

Source: http://www.newbizblogger.com/interviews-reviews/pocket-video-power-review-this-may-be-essential-for-your-business

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SEO lessons: Google drops Twitter

Google has let their subscription to the Twitter firehose expire.

That means Twitter's gone from real-time search, for certain. Actually, it appears real-time search is just gone. I don't see 'latest' any more:

I've never been a fan of real-time search: As I said in 2009, a real-time stream of poo is still poo.

The bigger news for the SEO world, of course, is this could mean Twitter will be less of a ranking factor in the future.

If you're a bandwagon-driven internet marketer, and you go diving after the latest gimmick, then you're probably panicking about now. A little voice in your head is shrieking "OH GOD MY TWITTERZ IS GONE NO MORE RANKINGS FOR MEEEEEEE".

That's why you need to change your ways and practice future-proof SEO.

The lesson: Future-proof SEO

I know a lot of folks started spamming Twitter the moment they learned it was a ranking factor. They're the bandwagon SEOs.

Here's how bandwagon SEO works: You hear something's a ranking factor, like links, or Twitter. Then, you spam the crappage out of it, burying Google in an avalanche of worthless links, tweets, etc., and vomiting automated follows and link requests all over the internet. For a while, you see some success, and you get really smug. Those stupid SEO's, you think. They're full of crap.

Then, poof. The ranking factor goes away. That foomp sound? That was the air rushing in to replace the rankings your site used to occupy.

Bandwagon SEO leads to tears. On the other hand, future-proof SEO leads to happiness and that sense of one-ness with the interwebs:

If you built your SEO strategy around Twitter and Facebook as outreach tools, a sound link acquisition strategy and best practices site construction with great content as the centerpiece, then you're fine.

This is the core of future-proof SEO: Do use channels like Twitter and Facebook. Google's move doesn't mean you should stop doing so.

You have to treat these tools as fantastic messaging channels. The link-building and audience-building effects are great, of course. But the real power of Twitter is its ability to put you squarely in front of influencers, media and consumers.

Don't leave Twitter!

Don't stop using Twitter because of Google's move. That would be very foolish. Twitter dwarfs Google+ by comparison. It may still be a ranking factor, too—it'd be easy enough for Google to scrape results for data. Or, they may be planning to integrate Twitter feeds into Google+.

Think strategically: Twitter and Facebook are still your best non-search outreach channels. Don't let them lie.

Other stuff

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/conversationmarketing/MRJI/~3/3rci4SncDbk/seo-lessons-google-twitter.htm

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Monday, August 1, 2011

10 tips for writing that sells

No matter why you have it, your web site needs to sell. You need to get visitors to do something, whether that something is ‘sign up’, ‘buy now’ or just ‘keep reading’.

Here are 10 quick tips for copy persuades, sells and converts:

Start by telling people why they should read. Marketing copywriting 101: You have to get folks to read before you can persuade them. Write a headline that gets them reading. Something like, I dunno, ‘Writing that converts’.
Put on the brakes. Online readers start by scanning the page. Use subheadings, images and other rhythm-changers to provide a fast preview of the page. That tells them why they should read, per #1.
Invite agreement. I love Robert Cialdini’s brilliant book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (affiliate link). One of the first lessons in the book is ‘invite agreement’. Say something your ideal customer can agree with. Don’t worry whether everyone will agree. You aren’t speaking to everyone. Focus on your customer. Pssst: Read the first line of this post again to see an example.
Make a concession. Again, from Cialdini: Give your readers something. They’re more likely to stick around. I always try to give folks information they don’t already have. It provides strong incentive for them to keep reading, subscribe and maybe even retweet. It makes them deeper participants.
Provide social proof. This term’s been beaten into a raw, stinky pulp, but it still applies. Demonstrate that others agree with you, or that 100000 people already love your product, you may get higher conversion rates. Note – this only applies if you want folks who desire social proof. If you’re looking for first adopters, this may not matter as much. Pssst: Look at #2 in this list. That’s social proof. It says “A guy 100x smarter than me agrees with me.”
Know the no’s. AKA, the buts. Anticipate readers’ concerns, then allay them. Easy for me to write, hard for you to do, but there you have it.
Don’t fear the long page. Write lots. Long landing pages kick ass. Don’t believe me? Read what Conversion Rate Experts did for SEOMOZ. Design your long lander in ‘chunks’. Put the first chunk and call to action above the fold. Continue the page, building in increasing detail and repeat calls to action. Watch it work.
Put no more than 4-5 lines in a paragraph. A single, massive paragraph tells the reader “big, forbidding blob of information here”. Shorter paragraphs tell her “lots of little, digestible bits of information here.” Which is more inviting?
Repeat yourself. First, make your point: You need copywriting that converts. Then, give an example, social proof or something similar. Then, wrap it all up by working your main point into your call to action.
Call to action. If I look at 20 random web sites, at least 10 of them will be utterly devoid of any call to action. If your visitor has read an entire page, they like you. They want to do something. Help them out!

That’s it. There’s a reason you’re doing all this work. Make sure your writing seals the deal and turns visitors into readers into customers.

Oh, and a call to action: Buy my e-book, The Unscary, Real World Guide to SEO Copywriting. $7, and chock full o’ writing advice.

Also, follow me on Quora. I'm addicted, apparently.

Other stuff

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/conversationmarketing/MRJI/~3/kR9Eo4iOrAc/10-tips-writing-that-sells.htm

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Schemas, microformats, rich snippets, and SEO

by Mike Moran

When I was a kid, sometimes my father called me a dirty little schema. (He's from Brooklyn.) OK, OK, he didn't spell it that way. It wasn't long ago when "schema" was a word only used by database geeks. Microformats and rich snippets are even more obscure terms, but they are becoming increasingly important. If you don't know what they are, remain ignorant at your own peril, because these arcane terms are making big changes in SEO--probably the biggest markup-related changes since search engines stopped looking at the keyword meta data field.

So, what's a schema? Glad you asked. It's a formal description of what data can be stored in a database, in what format, and what it means. Doesn't sound like much to do with search, does it? Well, XML documents are defined by their schemas that tell you what the valid tags are and what you can place within those tags. Still not feeling it? Yeah, Google wasn't either, which is why it has thrown in with the crowd that wants to make HTML data smarter, so that we won't need to convert all of our pages to XML.

A graphical depiction of a very simple xml doc...

Image via Wikipedia

Back in 2009, Google started supporting microformats, which are defined by mini-schemas that embed tags into HTML. I didn't pay a lot of attention to the microformats that were developed at first. (Not too many of my clients are trying to encode recipes.) But that is changing rapidly.

Microformats now are defined for people, events, products, and may other truly useful commercial search targets. You can define these formats right inside your HTML using the <div> or <span> tags with the right attributes, and you can use standard CSS to format that properly for viewing and printing.

Why go to the trouble? Rich snippets, that's why. Check out how many different kinds of snippets Google supports, and the number keeps growing. How would you like your product to be shown in your search result snippet, with its current price? Or your event with the right date and address? Now you have more control over your snippets than ever before, it you take the time to encode them properly.

Time was that the only HTML people talked about was making sure you have nice titles and descriptions in your header and making your main point a first-level heading. Now, we are in a whole new ballgame and there is no reason to stay out of this game. Rich snippets are here and they are valuable. Don't let your competitors jump on them first.

Be sure and visit our small business news site.

Source: http://www.searchengineguide.com/mike-moran/schemas-microformats-rich-snippets-and-s.php

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I lose my fracking mind or: A new Python script

Total. Mind. Meltdown.

I'd do a brilliant insightful post today, I'm sure, except that today's events, professional and media-related, combined with my concussing myself with a bicycle rack yesterday, have left me a gibbering idiot. Or brought out the gibbering idiocy that normally lies just beneath the surface. Or something.

So instead, here's a little Python script I cooked up to handle the day:

I'm happy to post this to Git if you want it, but caution: There may be an endless loop in there. It certainly feels that way.

Don't worry. Nothing really serious happened, except the whole bike rack to the head thing. The rest is just icing, which I'll keep to myself to protect the innocent, at least until they aggravate me to the point where they're no longer innocent.

Other stuff

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/conversationmarketing/MRJI/~3/kmZAdozZcIQ/i_lose_my_fracking_mind_or_a_n.htm

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AdWords: Yet Another Problem With Google's Panda Update

Hit By Panda

In a recent comment someone shared the fate of Patrick Jordan, owner of justanotheripadblog.com.

Since the Panda update happened, some scraper websites (monetized by Google AdSense) have started outranking Patrick for his own content.

Panda = No AdWords Soup for You

Distraught with the decline in traffic, Patrick turned to AdWords to try to bridge the gap and drive some revenues.

Unfortunately, Google wouldn't let him do that either:

I asked on what grounds he had decided that my site does not produce original content. His answer was that he had typed a sentence into Google and found it contained at many sites around the web. Seriously, I made a lengthy strong case for my site's record of having 100% original content and he typed one sentence into a Google search.

I emailed back and asked him to be specific about his search. This was his reply:

"An example of a specific sentence that appears in multiple websites is "a superb app for iPad and iPhone that lets you quickly and easily transfer photos and videos between iOS devices and computers ? has been updated this week, to Version 2.3."

Google Rolls Out the Red Rug (for AdSense Scrapers)

Think about how perverse this is:

Google algorithmically penalizes your site
Google won't say why it is penalized, other than some abstract notion of "quality"
Google offers no timetable on when things can improve, but suggests you keep spending increasing sums of capital to increase "quality"
Google pays scraper sites to steal your content & wrap it in AdSense ads
Google ranks the stolen content above your site (so the content has plenty of "quality" but it is just not "quality" on your website)
Google ignores your spam reports & DMCA notifications about how they are paying people to steal your content
Google tells you that you can't even buy AdWords ads, because you are now duplicate content for your own content!

Contributory Copyright Infringement

So now we have Google telling advertisers "I won't even take your money" precisely because Google is paying people to steal their content. Small publishers likely don't have the capital needed to sue Google, but clearly what Google is doing here *is* flagrant, systematic, abusive, and illegal (contributory copyright infringement).

One of Google's larger enemies may want to fund some sort of class-action lawsuit. Google deserves far more of a black eye than they have got in the press from the embarrassment that is the Panda update.

Um, Could You Please Help Me Out a Bit Here Google?

Patrick Jordan begged Google for help in March. In response they sent him this:

Yet Another Webmaster Loses Faith (& Trust) in Google

Since Google has ignored him (for months), Patrick felt he had to rebrand & redirect his old website to a new iPad website. Google made (a rather long and egregious series of) mistakes. And he had to pay the price for it, because Google is a monopoly that doesn't give a crap about how destructive their business is on the ecosystem, so long as it increases their profits.

Again I ask, how long does Google leave this mess in place before publishers broadly take a more adversarial approach to publishing?

Now that Google is aware that the panda fallout is costing THEM money, it will likely get cleared up quickly. I suspect to see an update within the next couple weeks at most. And it would happen even quicker if the press actually did its job. ;)

Update: Matt Cutts stated that the site wasn't hit by Panda here, so that wasn't what caused this. However that still means that Google has to work on better highlighting original content sources over the scrapers, stop funding the scrapers via AdSense, and improve the internal policies which state that you can't buy ads if a scraper outranks you for your own content!

Categories:

google

Source: http://www.seobook.com/no-adwords-soup

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As Google+ Controversy Rages, Linden Lab Launch Social Profiles

Two weeks ago, when I first wrote about the problems with Google+ and identity/pseudonymity, some people misunderstood. They believed that I was speaking about a virtual worlds issue (solely and specifically), and what's more, a personal one, even...

Source: http://feeds.searchenginewatch.com/~r/sewblog/~3/l23xUrg2iZo/As-Google-Controversy-Rages-Linden-Lab-Launch-Social-Profiles

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