Let’s start with an explanation of what breadcrumbs are. Breadcrumbs are a form of navigation that shows the users path that got them to their current location. It allows for a user to easily return to the page they just left if they landed somewhere they didn’t want to. In addition to being very useful for the user, it turns out it is also very search engine friendly!

To make your breadcrumbs search engine friendly, simply utilize relevant keywords in your word navigation. Make sure to make it natural and flows with the theme of your page. Here is an example of breadcrumb navigation on a website:

Instead of simply putting Home > Cross Country Skiing > Fun For Kids, I took advantage of adding keywords like Adirondack. This is an excellent way to improve the seo on your pages.

Matt Cutts was recently asked what kind of delimiter to use in this video. As you can see from the above example, I use the right arrow (>). Other possibilities are the vertical pipe (|), a slash (/), a bullet, a dash (-), a colon (:). He doesn’t give a clear cut answer, but he does shed a little light on the fact that this is a new possibility with Google that users seem to like.

Inevitably the way Google displays the breadcrumbs will evolve. We have already seen a few ways:

Breadcrumbs showing up with a > delimiter

and

Breadcrumbs showing up with a - delimiter

As Google figures out what the final breadcrumb product will look like within the SERP’s, it is certainly a good idea to add this to your site. Discovering an additional form of user friendly navigation that is also search engine friendly is a win / win situation. Or a win – win situation. Or a win > win situation.

But my challenge to you this year is to not only make resolutions for yourself, but make them for your business. After all, our business is our livelihood. We need to make sure that it is just as “healthy” and “happy” as it can be.

So, here are some ideas to start 2010 with gusto!

A. Get that website redesign that you’ve been thinking about! It’s time and it really does make a difference.

B. Try Social Media Marketing. That’s right … Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr. It cannot be denied that Social Media is a powerful tool in marketing your brand. Start slowly by creating one account. Get used to how it works and how you can use it for marketing purposes. Put it on your daily schedule for updating and work on building your fan base and followers. Once you are comfortable with the one account, you are ready to add another.

Make sure that you are maximizing your opportunities with social marketing. The conversation starts online, but the conversion happens in the real world.

C. Embrace one new “function” on your website. Try adding something new and creative to your website. After all, your website is your vehicle to promote your business. Explore videos. Add a Newsletter Sign up and try Email Marketing. Try blogging. Add related articles or expand your content by adding a new section altogether. Keep your website moving forward!

D. Set marketing goals. With all these new marketing strategies, make sure you track your efforts. You’ll easily be able to see the difference your new strategies are making by analyzing your statistics. Continue doing whichever avenues have made a positive impact.

E. Get involved. Read related blogs and leave comments. Become fans of Facebook pages. Send Direct Messages on Twitter. In a word … participate. Your effort will be rewarded.

F. Cross your t’s and dot your i’s. Make sure your online profiles are fully complete. If you can add 10 pictures, add 10 pictures. Fill out all descriptions and added info sections. Don’t forget about the reviews! Make sure you have enough reviews by soliciting happy clients for them. It’s a good idea to go and check all accounts. You may have thought you would go back to finish one or more of them but forgot about it.

G. Manage your reputation. With the introduction to real time search, it is more important than ever to be aware of what is being said. Use Twitter Search to track any mention of your name, your keywords, your location and your competitors’ name. Use Google Alerts to have an email update sent directly to your inbox. Based on your choice of query or topic, Google will send an email of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.). This is very handy indeed.

Above all, have a happy and healthy New Year!

Online reviews can come from a host of sources – if you have a business and you aren’t checking for these reviews onine periodically, you should be!  The stats for online reviews are impressive: 86% of consumers read them before making purchasing decisions, making reputation management a must for businesses of all sizes. With the introduction of travel review sites such as TripAdvisor, regional dining reviews , potential customers and clients are savvy. Why risk going out for an expensive dinner, stay at a hotel or resort, or do some retail shopping without first seeing what others have to say? Not surprisingly, online reviews have become an integral part of any successful SEO and SMO campaign. 

Online reviews can boost your reputation and bring new customers to your business. But just like other promotional online environments, a review site can be viral, meaning (in the internet world) it can gain popularity and grow at an exponential rate, seemingly taking on a life of its own.  Don’t miss out on this opportunity for free exposure and word-of-mouth advertising, and do your best to ensure it’s all good!

How to Earn Positive Reviews

As in many other areas of sales, the best way is simply to ask for the business! Reputation management begins with developing a positive client base, so you can begin with your most trusted long-time customers or clients, people who know you and your business and have continued to patronize you. You can simply ask them to review you business and the quality of your services, providing them with a few possible locations where they can do so.  Tell them what you are trying to do and simply ask them to be honest in their assessment.  There are a host of locations where your customers can post their comments, including Yahoo Local, Insider Pages, City Search, and Ratingz.net.

A Word About Negative Reviews:

It happens. It may be out of the blue, or come from someone you’ve been expecting to hear from! Either way, negative reviews can be personally upsetting and damaging to your business. The best way to avoid these is, of course, to provide the very best in customer service that you can! If you have 30 or 75 or 150 great reviews and one bad one, most reasonable people will avoid giving it more credence than it may deserve. If there is a recurring theme in the complaints, then it’s probably something you need to look into and treat it as a learning experience. If it does happen to you, however, remember that most resasonable people understand that these things do happen, so don’t over-think it, and by all means avoid getting into a discussion or argument about it online!

Why is reputation management important?

Remember when you were a kid and you played that game where everyone sat in a circle and whispered something into the next person’s ear - by the time it went around the circle it was usually a totally different version. You can avoid that scenario by monitoring your reviews, maintaining positive communication and exemplary customer service, and making sure your business gets the positive attention it deserves.

The good news is that the online review environment is extensive, open to everyone, and FREE! Need help with your online reputation management? Call Mannix Marketing, Inc.!

Then we’d like to recommend that you take a look at the PDFs on your site to make sure that they are optimized. One of the items we find when looking at websites is that the PDFs have been completely ignored. Now to be fair, some of this is probably because up until a few years ago many people were told that PDFs couldn’t or shouldn’t be optimized; that any work done to them would not help the page’s or the website’s ranking. Let’s put this argument to bed right now:

PDFs can and should be optimized for search engines.

Search engines can read PDFs, assuming the text is not an image. So if they are optimized properly, the PDFs on your site can offer a new avenue to gain extra traffic from.

So what optimization tactics should you perform on your PDFs? Here are a few of the main ones:

• Whenever possible, optimize the text of the PDF just as you would any page of your site.
• Be sure to fill out the Document Properties: Title, Author, Subject and Keyword. Treat the Title field like the page title, the Subject field like the meta description and the Keyword field like the meta keyword field.
• Optimize the file name.
• Keep total file size down as low as possible. As with any page on your site, the larger the file size the slower it loads. This starts with any images you include with the original file, and continues through to when you convert the file to a PDF.
• When converting a file to a PDF, be sure to use a program that does not make it one image. For this, programs like Adobe Acrobat, Nitro PDF Professional and Bullzip work well. Photoshop and Illustrator do not.
• Link to the PDF. Make sure the search engines can find it. Use quality anchor text as link when possible.
• Link out from the PDF. Give the search engines a path out of the PDFs to continue to the rest of your site.
• Express the PDF file structure in tags.
• Optimize PDF for fast view web.

So the next time you’re looking for something that might give your website a boost in the search engines, take a look at your PDFs. It may be a hidden opportunity for you to increase traffic to your site.

Have you optimized PDFs and seen success? Still have questions about this topic? Comment and let us know. ]]> http://blog.mannixmarketing.com/2009/08/seo-for-pds/feed/ 4 http://blog.mannixmarketing.com/2009/08/creating-a-healthy-404-error-page/ http://blog.mannixmarketing.com/2009/08/creating-a-healthy-404-error-page/#comments Tue, 11 Aug 2009 11:43:37 +0000 lisa@mannixmarketing.com http://blog.mannixmarketing.com/?p=1225 The 404 error page. What is it and how can you maximize it as an opportunity to promote your business?

A 404 error (”Page Not Found”) occurs when a page no longer exists on your website … or never existed. This could be a result of restructuring your website, renaming or deleting pages without a 301 redirect (naughty) or it could be due to a searcher’s typo. Basically, you are trying to retrieve something from the server that does not exist. When this happens, if a custom page is not created, the following default page shows up:

Default 404 Error Page

Regardless of how a searcher ends up with a 404, we want to make sure that they stay on your site. To do this, you must create a custom 404 error page.

What should a “healthy” 404 error page look like? Here are some suggestions that will assist anyone who lands on it to continue navigating through your site.

A. You’ve got to acknowledge the mistake first and foremost. Some use humor to do this:

The page you seek cannot be found
but countless more exist
The links provided here and there
we hope will lend assist

B.  Consider putting an abbreviated site map right on the error page. This way, we are acknowledging that they are lost, but giving them options to find what they are looking for. At the very least, you could offer them a link to your full site map.

C.  Put your contact info on the error page. Give them the option to call or email you directly.

D. Consider a short contact form. Let the searcher send you their information easily through a simple, direct form.

I hope that this post encourages you to first discover whether or not you have a custom 404 error page. If you do not have one, create one! If you do have one, maximize the page to promote your business further! This is just one more opportunity you have.

Not sure how to create a custom 404 error page on your website? Call Mannix Marketing, Inc. for assistance! Toll free – 1-888-395-9035.

Headline Should Always Be In Active Tense

Example: New Restaurant Opens In Saratoga

Notice how how the verb “opens” is in active tense – NOT “opening” – NOT “opened” … It doesn’t matter if it happened 3 weeks ago, your headline should make it sound like it is happening NOW. This is the standard format for press release headlines. Some professionals will tell you to put your headline in ALL CAPS to draw attention, but in my opinion, it’s better to use Title Case to avoid being an annoyance to journalists. Think about it… do you see newspaper headlines using all caps? Follow the format they use to make it as easy as possible.

Body Of Press Release Should Be In Appropriate Tense

Okay, so the headline is allowed to lie a little, but the rest of your press release will tell the truth. Did it happen 3 weeks ago? Your press release body will talk about it as it happened 3 weeks ago with past-tense verbs, like opened, revealed, designed, said, etc. Is it happening 3 weeks from now? Your press release body should use future-tense verbs/phrases, like will provide, will feature, is expected to draw a crowd, etc. Only the title should be in present tense.

First Paragraph Holds The Meat

Example: SARATOGA SPRINGS NY (July 11, 2009) – Dry Bones, a new American style restaurant in Saratoga Springs, opened on Broadway this week, just in time for the summer racing season.

Your first paragraph should tell who, what, where, when and why. And it should be brief, only about 1-2 sentences long. Remember you don’t have to give all the specific details here; you will have the rest of the press release to elaborate. Many media professionals will not read past the first paragraph, so it’s important to make a good impression and include all of those important elements. Always begin your press release with the dateline (bolded in example above) where you list city and state along with date of release – generally all in CAPS.

The Press Release Should Read Like A News Article

Write your press release as if you were a journalist who has no vested interest in promoting your company. You are simply announcing the news and explaining why it’s newsworthy. Try to avoid phrases like “is pleased to announce” or “come join the fun” or “you don’t want to miss” or other similar red-flag-this-is-promotion phrases. As a general rule of thumb, if you wouldn’t see it printed on a news site, don’t include it in your news release. Instead, write your press release so that the media could theoretically just copy/paste what you have written into their publication.

Use Inverted Pyramid Style

Think of an inverted pyramid – or a clearer image might be an upside-down triangle. It is widest at the top and comes to a point at the bottom. That is the structure of a good press release. You want to write your story so that the most important information is first, then the next important information, then the semi-important information… right down to the information that the story could really do without. This way, if an editor did want to take and run your story but had limited space, they could chop off the last 2 paragraphs and still have a complete story.

Use Quotes

Example: “Saratoga Springs now has a family restaurant that not only offers great food, but is incredibly affordable too,” said Chef Owner Pamela Richter. “Not to mention, children really love how fun this place is!”

This is the appropriate way to sneak in those bragging or promotional phrases – not in the actual body of the press release. You can certainly be creative with your quotes! The first quote should be from the highest-ranking member of your company or organization and usually follows the first paragraph. Quotes can be alternated between each paragraph of text or congregated at the bottom of the press release for journalists to pull from. My personal preference is to have them right in the body of the release between paragraphs so that it reads like a true news article.

When quoting someone for the first time, you should refer to them with their full name along with their title at the company. Every time after that, simply refer to them by their last name.

Provide Contact Information

At the top of your press release, you should provide a “quick guide” of who to contact for more information. You should provide at least a name, phone number and email address. You may also want to add a sentence or two detailing contact information and/or a way to get more information (ie. website link) as the last paragraph of your press release.

Add Boilerplate

Example:
About Dry Bones
Owned by Saratoga Springs native and chef Pamela Richter, Dry Bones is an American-style restaurant, located on Broadway in Saratoga Springs NY. Menu options range from casual American classics, such as burgers and hot dogs, to more indulgent offerings, including steak and barbecue ribs. Dry Bones opened to the public in early July 2009 and serves lunch and dinner daily from 11am to 9pm.

At the very bottom of your press release, you should have a standard “boilerplate” – a short paragraph that tells about your company. Just a few descriptive sentences will do the trick. This remains the same for every press release you send out, but it can be tweaked and updated from time to time as needed.

Browse Samples Before Setting Out To Write

It may help to see a few good examples of press releases that are written the right way. You can browse samples of press releases that Mannix Marketing has sent to local media here.

Get Help!

Not ready for the challenge of writing your own press release? Mannix Marketing can help! We offer press release writing services as well as distribution to local media and online. Contact us to learn more or inquire about pricing for our press release services: 1-888-395-9035.

Have local news to announce to the Albany / Saratoga region? Check out our online broadcast channels for free press release distribution:

• Albany.com/broadcast
• Saratoga.com/broadcast

Now that we know who your target audience is, we now need to know how to go about finding them and being found by them.

The first tip I will talk about is on Twitter.com, a link near the top of the page called, Find People.

We’ll use the same target audience scenario from the previous post:

1. People who love, need or use different kinds of shoes
2. People who live in or near Rochester NY…and when you overlap these two sets, you get… 
3. People who love, need or use different kinds of shoes and live in or near Rochester – those most likely to buy from you…in addition, you may also want to target…
4. Industry peers (competitors) to share knowledge and peruse & pursue their established lists of followers. 

Find People is a search tool that sorts through Twitter usernames and their name. So if we search on ‘rochester’ (we are using the default tab, Find on Twitter), you will see something like this:

Since you are targeting everyone in Rochester, you should be following all of these Twitter users (don’t be too aggressive). You have to be a little careful with searching locations… just make sure the user is from your location.

Once you’ve exhausted your resources with Rochester, now we would move on to the other part of your target audience, ’shoes’. When you are searching on shoes or sneakers or high-tops (be creative) or whatever your target phrase is, you’ll likely get some enthusiast accounts, but with how Find People works (searching on usernames & names), you will likely see many of your peers. It would be good to follow these accounts as well to exchange ideas. You can also spend some time going through their list of established followers who could also be your followers and… potential clients.

So that’s how we go about using Find People to…ummm, find people. Now let’s figure out how we can be found using the same tool.

A person who likely uses Find People is either browsing for a specific person/business that they know… or they’re searching on keywords of interest in hopes of discovering NEW people to follow. 

In our example, a person who loves shoes might go to Find People and type in ’shoes’. Thus, your goal would be to come up under this search so that you can be found by this enthusiast, followed, and potentially sell them your products and services. 

Since Find People sorts through username and actual name, it makes sense that this is where you should be focusing some attention.

Let’s take the username… if you don’t already have a Twitter account, consider including a keyword as part of that username so that you can potentially be found for that phrase. In the example, you might want to choose a username of RochesterShoes or Rochester_Shoes, etc. The problem is most people reading this post (all two of you) probably already have an established username. So this is a bit more difficult to control, plus real estate on Twitter usernames are being eaten up like they were dot com names. You could always create a second profile, or after creating this second profile, redirect the original account to the new Twitter profile. This is not always the best answer though, and there’s actually another way (an easier way) that you can be found by your target audience.

Let’s take a look at my profile for a minute. If someone wanted to find me, they could type in my usename, yllib, and I would come up. They could also find me by typing in my real name, Bill Bouchard. But look at the actual name that I’ve entered… “Bill Bouchard – SEO“… if you do another search on the keyword, ‘SEO’, I’m currently coming up on the first page for that phrase. So someone who’s interested in SEO might go up to Find People, do a search, find me there, and potentially follow me. So now, I am reaching my target audience passively, less work… cool! So, to modify your name, click on the Settings link on Twitter and you’ll see the Name field (the first field on the page). There are character limits for the Name field [20]. The key to this is striking a balance between listing your name (or brand) while having enough characters left to include your keyword (aka.. your product or service).

So back to the orginal example, you would make the Name include the word ’shoes’ if possible, you might even be able to include rochester if your brand name is short enough.

So we’ve seen how Find People is a good tool for doing basic searches for a target audience and also tips for getting found, but it does have its limits, namely you can only find people by their name. In the next post, I’ll get into some more  indepth data mining techniques that will help you really start to hone in on your target audience.

One tip in particular stuck in my mind for email management: OHIO. It’s a cute abbreviation that stands for Only Handle It Once. The basic idea is that you get an email and deal with it right then and there. What’s the point in reading an email and then saving it for later when you will only have to reread it in order to refresh your memory? If you have time to open the email, you have time for a quick reply or appropriate filing. Do it right then and there.

This was particularly good advice for me, as I tend to check my inbox several times a day. It’s a tough habit to break, but I am trying to cut back on the constant email monitoring in favor of effective email managing. This means I designate certain intervals of time I will dedicate to checking and responding to email so I can OHIO! When I respond to an email or read a newsletter, I can then either file it or delete it right away. On the other hand, if I see the subject line and know I won’t have the time to dedicate to handling it, I wait until later to open it so I can OHIO. The result has meant a much tidier inbox for me and much more time allotted to my tasks at hand.

OHIO email management is a simple concept, but takes discipline to make it work. Give it a try, and see if it doesn’t make a difference in your work schedule.

In this image, you can see where the Ten Pack is located on the Google Search Results Page. If your site is not listed, it is worth the effort to make some adjustments to your Google Local account to try to get it there.

First things first. You need a Google Local account. Click here to set one up. If you already have an account, here are some TOP items to check and adjust:

A. Your Title. By adding keywords in your Title, you are placing yourself at an advantage. You are instructed to use the legal name of your business, so definitely use it, But it is perfectly fine to add some keywords in this field as well.

B. Your Description. By adding keywords within your description, you are building your credibility.

C. Your actual location. Your actual location in relation to what Google considers the centroid of the city will play a part in where you are placed within the Ten Pack. Although this is not something you can modify (unless you want to move your business), you should be aware that this is taken into consideration.

D. Reviews. I highly suggest getting some reviews posted.

E. Google Map. Although you may not find this tip very often in other blogs, I recommend adding a Google Map to your directions page. If you don’t have a directions page, add one! … and then add a Google Map to it.

F. Utilize all Features. There is room for 10 images – add them! There is room for a video – add one! Answer all the questions and make your account as complete as possible.

Try these tips to either get your site included in the Ten Pack or to increase your existing placement within the Ten Pack. Should you need additional assistance, please give Mannix Marketing, Inc. a call! One of our highly trained SEO Specialists will be glad to assist you further.

You’ve noticed that your website isn’t coming up in Google’s search results as it once did…  either completely removed or has plummeted drastically. Before starting your Reconsideration Request (formerly known as a Reinclusion Request), first, you must address the site problem(s) that caused the issue. If you don’t know what the problems are, refer to the Webmaster Guidelines.

To request reconsideration of your site, login to Google Webmaster Tools (if you don’t have an account, click here). In the Dashboard under the heading, Talk to Google, click “Request reconsideration” and follow the online steps. As the video above stresses, be sure to:

• Fix the problem before submitting the request.
• Be honest and very detailed about the problem and resolution.
• Describe how your website will avoid these pitfalls in the future.

Once you’ve submitted, be prepared to wait some time before getting results. The requests are considered in the order they were received and by human editors. This will not be an overnight process.