Oct
15th

Google Place Pages: Local Search is Looking Up!

Posted by Teal on October 15, 2009 at 10:18 am

If you’re a local business owner or franchisor who depends on foot traffic and local customers, then listen up (I’ve got good news). Google is making it easier for you than ever to enjoy local visibility—make that good local visibility. With the improvement of their Local Business Center, Google is helping businesses become more “findable” to their customers and offer more helpful information online.

Over the past few weeks, Google has been rolling out Place Pages. An evolution of the original Google Maps and a new rival for Yelp, Place Pages offer local business owners the opportunity to include a wealth of information for potential customers directly through the Local Business Center. Here’s an example from one of my favorite restaurants in Traverse City.

The beauty of the new Place Pages is that now, searchers can review all sorts of information right in Google Maps (it’s almost like a microsite). Local businesses and franchises can upload photos and include videos and many other types of information. The pages also include online reviews from other sources, nearby locations, directions to the business, etc. It’s really a great way to get people interested in your business without clicking through to your actual website (we still recommend having another online presence).

What’s even better is that, depending on the keyword the user is searching, Google Maps can get you a top position in the search results. Searchers are getting more reliant on search engines to do some of the work for them, and Google is obliging. For example, a search for the term “dry cleaners city, state” in Google will most certainly return Google Maps results at the very top of the page.

Interestingly, a search for the term “dry cleaners” (no geo-qualifier) will also return results including Google Maps results based on the searcher’s location (IP address). This means service-specific search terms are likely to return Google Maps results, whether they include a geo-qualifier or not.

It’s still not fool proof, but more and more, local search is becoming a critical part of some companies’ digital strategy.

If you’re a small business owner, a franchisor, a regional multi-branch operation, or any company that depends on local visibility, it’s important that the time be taken to optimize on the local level. A lot can be done (call us if you are stumped), and Google Maps is a great place to start.

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Oct
9th

Some Ado About, Well, Almost Nothing: Meta Keyword Tags

Posted by Christopher on October 9, 2009 at 12:59 pm

OK, so, big deal. Google came out and said “no, we don’t take meta keywords into consideration for ranking (so stop trying to sue us over them).” Then Yahoo!, at SMX on October 6th, said “hey, neither do we.” Big surprise, that. (Does Yahoo! even really care about search anymore is a bigger question. Hey Y!ou – make up your friggin’ mind!)

Then, in the same brief Search Engine Land article announcing Yahoo’s meta keyword news, Barry Schwartz said “Bing doesn’t support the tag.” Really? That’s not what Bing says. A July blog post from the Bing Webmaster Center Team says that while the ” tag’s keyword attribute is not the page rank panacea it once was…” webmasters should still take the opportunity to “score keyword credit.”

It’s almost the opposite of a shock to hear that meta keywords carry negligible weight in the major engines. Long gone are the days when you pop open the code of, say, a free credit report site and see: meta name=”keywords” content=”free credit report free credit report free credit report free credit report britney spears britney spears britney spears free credit report free” etc. infinity.

Ah, web nostalgia – I almost choked up a little bit.

Regardless, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that sort of meta spam is an unsustainable practice. Google didn’t get where it is today by being stupid. Just evil.

Just kidding.

Here’s the thing – meta keywords tags don’t take much time. Nor do they take much thought. Some in the industry feel that if that they do nothing, or next to nothing, you shouldn’t use them because they give your competitors insight into your important keywords. But I think if your competitors are relying on your meta keywords tags to figure out your strategy, they’re hardly competitors. Further, if you’re worried about giving away competitive information, and your competitors are that bush league, and meta keywords do nothing, why not just fill that tag with a zesty word salad (meta name=”keywords” content=”monkey senility, chimp rampage, chihuahua apocalypse, drew barrymore roller derby)? That’ll show ‘em.

Organic optimization is both an act of major revision and a matter of degrees, of deluges and drops in the bucket. Why use meta keywords if they probably don’t matter? If there’s still an “if” attached to “meta keywords matter,” if there’s still a “probably,” and if they do no harm and, importantly, if there’s the potential they’ll pull some weight in the service of your or your client’s site, well, why not?

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Sep
23rd

Google Puts the Kibosh on Keywords (meta tags that is)

Posted by Alex on September 23, 2009 at 10:15 am

There are many practices in the SEO world that come up for debate every now and again, especially as search continues to change and evolve. One item that seems to rear its head constantly, especially in the last few months, has to deal with the keywords meta tag and whether or not search engines, namely Google, use that information when ranking sites. The wait is over! Yesterday, Google officially announced with a statement and video from the head of Google’s webspam team, Matt Cutts, that “Our web search (the well-known search at Google.com that hundreds of millions of people use each day) disregards keyword meta tags completely. They simply don’t have any effect in our search ranking at present.”

That’s it folks, show over – no more suing Google over terms contained within a keywords tag and the ranking of competitor sites. Gone are the days of strategically crafting a keywords tag to accurately reflect the content and information on a page, in the hopes that the major search engines will use that to shoot your site to the top.

Now, because of the recent buzz around this topic, you may be thinking – “Wow! This was totally out of left field, I had no idea!” However, as I just mentioned, this topic has been discussed before. Back in 2007, Google actually officially announced that they were no longer using keyword meta tags in determining a site’s position. In fact, conversations regarding keyword tags and their merit date back to 1996, according to a report published by http://w3.org! So, for over a decade search marketers and SEO’s alike have been debating the use and importance of these keyword meta tags.

Before we get too carried away and start deleting keywords meta tags like crazy, it is important to remember that there is still a general consensus that Yahoo! still uses keyword meta tags to some degree. Therefore, you might want to hang on to those tags for a little while longer. I don’t think I’ll be hanging up my keyword meta tags just yet! What do you think?

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Sep
15th

Online Marketing & Making People Take Note

Posted by Teal on September 15, 2009 at 1:01 pm

I was introduced to Seth Godin’s work awhile back by my CEO, Lisa Wehr. If you’re a marketer of any sort, I am sure you’ve at least heard of him. If not, check out his blog. He’s cool.

Seth speaks a lot about doing things differently and being successful not by doing the status quo, but by taking your own approach to the same old tasks, and being positive and different. Big points (in my opinion) are work hard, stay positive, be creative, be different and most importantly, be remarkable. In other words, be notable.

In many of his blog posts, Seth talks about what it takes to be truly remarkable—or not be remarkable at all. Remarkable, you say? What does that really mean? To Seth, it changes. But underlying it all is what makes you different and what makes people take note.

I feel like online and digital marketing can sometimes entrap people. They get caught up in the wording of the navigation on the site, the placement of the link or the language used to describe a product. Believe me, I know it’s all important, but what happens is the original goals become foggy and incoherent because the color of the button becomes more profound. All the while, overall strategy or purpose of making those changes is missed.

Marketing online is about the big picture—and about being different. We all need to remind ourselves of that. Think about your goals and the resources you have available to you. What is the best use of what you have? What do you have that best describes who you are?

In online marketing, you have some unique opportunities. While some are no-brainers and things you have to do to stay competitive, some of the channels offer your company the chance to be remarkable—to have people take note.

As industries become more competitive and budgets continue to be modest, think about what does or what could make your company remarkable. What makes you different? Why should customers pay attention to you, rather than your competitors? How do you stand out in a bland crowd? How do you not be boring?

Murphy Brown is Bored, from SMN

Some of these questions take some soul searching—or a good session around a round table with your most creative people (think about your resources across the entire company – you’d be surprised what you find). Once you discover what it is that makes your company different or what you have to do to stand apart, start thinking about how to relay those messages. Can those messages be shared through search, banner ads, social media, video, podcasts, etc? In other words, what is the best mix for the story you’re trying to tell?

Keep in mind that integrating your offline messages with your online efforts is important. Don’t forget to keep the voice consistent!

Need help talking through all your goals and stories? Call Oneupweb. We’re not only great at executing goals, we’re also skilled at helping with strategy. And make sure you read some of Seth Godin’s work. It’s a great source of inspiration for many marketers, entrepreneurs and maybe you, too!

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Sep
3rd

You’re So Vain, You Probably Think This Post Is About You

Posted by Christopher on September 3, 2009 at 2:33 pm

Admit it. You’ve done it. The vanity search. I mean, come on – who wouldn’t? Search engines are powerful tools, and we, as inveterate naval-gazers, when presented with tools that claim access to a huge portion of the world’s information, well, we want to know what they know about us. We want to exist, in there.

On the other hand, maybe we don’t.

I have a name that’s, well, common. A lot of people have my same name. Evidence – when I was in high school, I would repeatedly be called out of class and sent to the campus police office. When there, the campus police officer (who shall remain nameless but who, trust me, was a humungous jerk plus kind of stupid), would stare at me, waiting for me to crack. Waiting for my facade of innocence to fall like the house of cards he knew it was. (Remember, this happened multiple times. The same way.) When it didn’t, he’d shove some piece of evidence toward me and say “explain that.” On one occasion, halfway through 12th grade, it was a gym bag containing size small gym shorts (by my senior year I was no longer a size small, nor was I in gym class), a size small shirt, size 7 1/2 shoes (I’ve worn size ten since ninth grade), some eighth grade textbooks, and apparently, a big bag full of weed. My name was written (poorly, I might add) on the tag. Explain that. “Well, I’m a senior. Would you like me to try on that tiny shirt? You think those shoes fit me? Would you like to see my math book? I’ll get it, it’s on my desk in the senior-level math class you just pulled me out of. Why, Mr. Policeman, do you keep thinking this kid is me?”

“Well, that’s your name, isn’t it?”

Well, yes and no. It’s my name, but that drug kid has it too. So do like six other people at this school. Throw a rock, Einstein, and you’ll probably hit one. In fact, your last name is the same as my first name. How do I know this isn’t your gym bag? Explain that, Dick Tracy.

Anyway, he always let me go with a warning (for what I’ve never figured out – “make sure that kid with your name stops hauling around huge bags of pot and then leaving them on the bus”? I’ll get right on that, Magnum PI). I learned my lesson.

Back to the interweb – a search for my name brings up multiple doctors and lawyers (please don’t tell my mom about that, though – she’s suffered enough), a minor league baseball player, a guy who worked in the art department for “Jurassic Park,” and a children’s book author who actually changed his name to mine (!?!?!), along with some guy who killed his mother (see, mom? It could be worse…) and a couple dead guys. If I cared, I’d be a bit disturbed that I’m not represented in this landscape. That I don’t have a presence in that real estate.

That I’m not there.

It could, however, be worse. Recently, a woman from Wisconsin tried to sue Yahoo! because she didn’t like the results of her vanity search. She claimed Yahoo! (who should maybe be sued for continuing to use that ridiculous exclamation point. Who’s excited about that anymore? Who ever was?) “misused” her name (which she claimed was unique) and served up ads for Cialis and porn. The judge ruled, essentially, that her argument was at best, specious, and, at worst, dumb. He threw it out.

There’s a lesson here. Honest. Ready?

I don’t care that my name brings up a bunch of people who aren’t me. I’ve not tried to brand myself, and if I did, it wouldn’t be with my name. (I’m tossing around “World Impakt!!!” and “2 Fly 2 Die,” but I’m not married to them.) If I had, however, I’d want to be damn sure that I not only showed up in search results, but I dominated them. If there was something negative about me in there, I’d want to address it.

Using not only your own optimized web presence, but services such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn, local listings, etc. etc. you can do that. Search “oneupweb” as an example.

Boom. There we are. Continuing to occupy that space isn’t easy, but we’ve decided that our brand is important enough to devote that level of attention to. We’re digital marketers, and when someone hears our name, and searches it, we need to be there, in force. Representing.

And, if your brand’s important enough, we can help you with that.

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