• The earlier you start the better prepared you will be if other things pop up (which they inevitably do)
• You may find that some of your ideas may take time to come together (Do you have some research to do? Do you need other people to make things happen? How much time will they need to get their part done?)
• If you are optimizing for new products or services, it will take some time for your efforts to show up in the search engines
• If there are changes to your website or marketing message you’ll probably want to test a thing or two to make sure you are getting the most out of your efforts (and test it before the holiday rush of visitors hits your site)

Let’s take a look at each one of these points in a bit more detail.

Things Pop Up
When was the last time your business ran as smooth as you planned for an entire month, let alone an entire year? Probably never. Unexpected things happen that take up your valuable time – the time you may be planning on working on the holiday season. If you are able to map out a plan of attack for your holiday season right now, you will be more likely to stick by it and be able to complete it on time.

Most Online Initiative Take Some Time To Come Together
Some initiatives require other resources like designers and copywriters. The earlier they are involved the more apt they are to meet your deadlines. A PPC campaign is often a powerful revenue driver around the holiday season. And sure, you can pull one together over coffee one afternoon in late November. But to really get the most out of your investment you should start early so you can test different keywords, different ads and different landing pages. That way once the holiday traffic is searching for your product or service you are ready to take advantage of it.

Jumping Up The Search Engines Doesn’t Happen Overnight
As we all know, it takes time for solid SEO efforts to show results in the search engines. So if you start now, you may just be #1 for the terms you want by the time we’re all holiday shopping. But if you start in November there is virtually no shot at that.

It’s Better To Test With A Smaller Sample Size
If you’re testing a new marketing message with an email campaign and / or your website, why wait until the bulk of your customers are coming to buy your product to test it? It make sense to test it out when the stakes are not as high. Test a few landing page designs on a small sample (maybe only part of an email list, maybe a month when traffic to your site isn’t that high). That way you have the kinks out when it’s time for the holiday rush.

Are you still under the impression that it’s too earlier to start thinking about Christmas 2010? Or are you all ready starting to plan for the 2011 season? Let us know your thoughts.

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/2009/06/duplicate-content-thought/ http://blog.mannixmarketing.com/2009/06/duplicate-content-thought/#comments Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:46:16 +0000 brian@mannixmarketing.com http://blog.mannixmarketing.com/?p=1190 Recently I was surfing some SEO blogs when I came across a post on a search marketing conference. I like to see what the other leaders in online marketing are saying these days, so I was anxious to read the entire post, and was well on my way until I came across #13 in their list of top 20 quotes from the conference. It reads:

13. Don’t worry too much about duplicate content.
(Luisella Mazza, Google)

This stopped me in my tracks because as an SEO Strategist, one of the top things we work with clients on is to not only develop content, but to develop unique, high quality content. In doing so we ensure the site of not being hit with the dreaded label of having duplicate content, therefore causing the pages or entire site being ranked low, or worse yet, not being indexed at all. (read some of our previous post on the topic of duplicate content)

So have things changed in Searchland? Maybe. Are we being paranoid? Possibly a tad. Google even says within its guidelines that duplicate content by itself is not grounds for action on a website. In fact, their guidelines read:

‘Duplicate content on a site is not grounds for action on that site unless it appears that the intent of the duplicate content is to be deceptive and manipulate search engine results.’

I would say most websites out there are above board and not trying to manipulate any system. So should we really not be worried about duplicate content issues? I say we absolutely need to keep the issue of duplicate content in mind when developing site content. If we don’t, we may, even if the chance is ever so slightly, end up kicked out of search engines if they interpret the content as trying to be deceptive. How do we know how they are going to interpret content on a site? What I think is fresh and new copy may be interpreted by a search engine as duplicate content for reasons I might not even know about.

When it comes to duplicate content, it’s better to be safe than sorry. And remember that there is an added advantage of attacking duplicate content – when you develop or rewrite content to be unique, you are erasing the duplicate content possibility, as well as adding unique and hopefully high quality content to your site for visitors. A win – win.

Have you run into any duplicate content issues with your website? Let us know how you were able to remedy the situation.

What is LinkedIn?
Similar to other social media sites, like Facebook, MySpace or Twitter, LinkedIn is an online community where you and other users can interact, post updates, add photos and display information about the most important product…YOU.

LinkedIn is different from most other popular social media sites because it is geared toward business professionals. Rather than making ‘friends’ with other users you make valuable ‘connections’ on LinkedIn. Think of it as a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week, online networking mixer. With the economy and job openings seemingly going by the wayside, it’s time to start getting creative and being proactive about your most marketable asset: yourself. LinkedIn allows you to put your best foot forward and begin building your new image.

How Do I Build My LinkedIn Network?
You can build your online network by making connections with other business professionals you know or have worked with in the past. These can include college friends, professors, current coworkers, past coworkers, club/group/chamber associations, and the list goes on.

First, begin by connecting with your colleagues at your current place of employment. Next, input your email contacts and connect with your entire list within seconds! If you do attend local business mixers, whether through local Chambers of Commerce, or attend niche trade shows, make sure to collect those business cards and check to see if your peers have accounts. Again, if they don’t – send invites to these new friends asking them to create an account and link to you.

With over 35 million business professionals currently using LinkedIn, you can connect and network with like minded business people on both a local and national front or promote your business services shamelessly to your connections! Build your sphere of influence and open up your network tenfold through this ‘virtual handshake’.

What If I’m Currently Unemployed?
If you are one of the many who may be on the look out for a new opportunity, don’t fret – consider your former employers. LinkedIn allows you to find connections you may have from companies where you have worked in the past. Where did you go to school? Where did you learn your craft? Where did you study? You can find people from your past educational institutions or organizations and connect. Simply put in the name of your past businesses/education organizations, and LinkedIn will do the work for you. You might be surprised at who you find and connect with!

Once you have a connection bank, the next step would be to browse your connections’ connections…do you know these people? If so, send them an invite to connect with you. You will be on your merry networking way in no time!

How Can I Personally Benefit From LinkedIn?
Get seen, be heard and connect! There are many benefits of using LinkedIn, whether you want to promote a positive image of yourself online, network with others, stay in touch with business connections, monitor group updates and/or stay up to date on industry news through RSS feeds. In short, LinkedIn provides an open platform for self promotion and business networking, which often go hand in hand.

Looking for a job? In today’s world, submitting a resume may not be enough to land you that dream career that you’ve been striving for. Competition has ramped up, and employers are looking for those who enjoy interacting and engaging within their respective niche. Most interviewers will ‘Google’ your name to see what information comes up, trying to learn more about you. Try ‘Googling’ your name, and you will see that your LinkedIn profile may pop up above other listings for you. If you don’t have an account yet, ‘Google’ one of our names, either Sarah Lamansky or Destiny Malone (go ahead, try it), and scroll down. Google now offers direct links into social networking platforms (MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn). Traditionally, Google only allowed 10 links on the results page…now the 11th is given to these privileged social networking platforms…showcasing YOU.

Your LinkedIn profile is almost like an online resume that people can view at any given time – an open showcase of everything you have to offer. So make the most of it! Beef up your profile with your professional skills, job experience, credentials, you name it. References are even available upon request; meaning, you can request recommendations from your connections. Anyone viewing your profile can then see and read all the recommendations you’ve received, and it adds to your credibility and positive image as a business professional.

How Can My Business Benefit?
You can use LinkedIn to monitor your competitors and keep an eye on other big players in your niche industry. You may find new business ventures, leads or skill sets, and your LinkedIn profile may be priceless for sealing the deal with a potential client or finding that new business opportunity. You can even use LinkedIn to find or pre-screen potential employees.

Google likes LinkedIn! Many search engines consider LinkedIn.com a reputable site and give more weight to those links. Try ‘Googling’ our company’s name, Mannix Marketing, and you’ll likely find our LinkedIn company profile among the first page results. Also, any links you post on LinkedIn to your website will aide in boosting your site’s search engine rankings as well.

Take note that a LinkedIn company profile differs from an individual LinkedIn account. Employees of your company who have individual accounts can actually help build out this company profile, where you can add a company description, links, photo, etc. This provides a sort of mini-website showcasing all your company has to offer and can be accessed from all of your employees’ individual accounts. In this Internet Age, the more information available online that is controlled by YOU, the better.

How Do I Get Noticed On LinkedIn?
Be active! Change your status daily. Make regular profile updates. Comment on your connections’ statuses. Become an expert in the ‘Answers’/’Questions’ section. Create a poll. Add applications to your profile. Start discussions with peers within your selected groups (you can search groups related to your profession, or browse through a list of groups that LinkedIn suggests for you based upon past/present professional expertise). Staying active on LinkedIn is the key to standing out among the other millions of professionals who utilize this networking super giant.

*This article will be featured in the Glens Falls Business Journal in the July issue

Here is the illustration they gave:
Old URL

New URL

No doubt, this will also help your public profile get found in the search engines because, as you know, SEO is all about targeting keywords!

But Wait… That’s Not All!

You can also reserve custom usernames for your Facebook PAGES. This is particularly useful for businesses on Facebook. You can then print this custom (easy-to-remember) url on your business cards, website, marketing materials, you name it. PLUS it will help your page get found more easily in the search engines by choosing relevant keywords for your Facebook username.

When Is This Happening?

Early bird gets the worm, so make sure you reserve your Facebook username as soon as you can! They are making this available at 12:01 am EDT on Saturday, June 13, 2009.

Things To Keep In Mind…

• Usernames are PERMANENT and cannot be changed (so double check your spelling)
• You can use letters, numbers and a period to create your custom Facebook username
• If you want to reserve a popular Facebook username (ie. John.Smith), reserve early!
• Trademarks and Copyrights can be protected or reported
• You must be an administrator and have over 1,000 fans of your Facebook page in order to reserve a username

Get More Info On Facebook Usernames

• Facebook Blog Announces Usernames Coming – http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=90316352130
• Facebook Blog Elaborates On Usernames For Pages – http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=91106469821&ref=blog
• WHERE TO RESERVE YOUR FACEBOOK USERNAME! http://www.facebook.com/username

Don’t have a Facebook page? We can help set one up for you! Give Sarah Lamansky a call to discuss the details: Toll Free – (888) 395-9035

We’ve recently seen an increase in customers coming to us and asking us to help set up a blog for them on their websites. As Internet marketers we love to see our clients become more involved on the Internet, learning to use the resources at their disposal and providing additional services to their own customers. Having the ability to control the message their customers see is such a powerful tool that they should inherently understand its importance. But do they?

As it happens, some of our customers come to us for a blog because they have heard it’s the latest thing, or that a competitor is doing it, or, in one instance, that their kids are doing it. No matter where their inspiration comes from, we have to be sure that they understand the power of these online tools.

Read the above blogs to learn about how to nurture your own blog successfully and discover how it can be part of a comprehensive SEO program and to get your company found on the web. A blog can put a ‘face’ on a company that enables employees at all levels, including  owners, CEOs and VPs, to get involved with their audience. Setting up a blog is such a small part of the blog experience. Sure, you should be concerned about the platform, where it’s hosted and a number of other items. But if the commitment is not there to take on the responsibility of a blog, those items won’t matter.

So what type and level of commitment are we talking here? Well, as with a lot of things, that depends. But you need to make sure that you:

- Have a vision for what you want the blog to be, and will you have enough content related to this vision to fill a regular blog.
- Have a plan for updating the blog with regular posts. We update a little more than once a week, but there are some that update multiple times daily.
- Have a plan on what to do with the customer feedback that you will inevitably receive, whether good or bad. It is appropriate to respond to comments that have questions asking for further questions, as well as to respond to negative comments that may require clarification that you can provide.

Overall, there are a number of things to keep in mind:

Vision:
- stay current on your topic of choice
- make it clear you have enough to share on the topic
- have something new or different to say on the topic so people will want to keep coming back for more; people are not going to read the blog just because you have something to say – they will read the blog if you have something to say that the customer cares about (and it can be anything from problem solving to coupons)

Updating:
- post regularly, and properly
- it starts with a good title and goes all the way through tagging the blog
- should stay away from appearing like a salesman and keep it light
- link out to appropriate content
- include relevant keywords

Feedback:
- use this as a way to enhance customer satisfaction by responding to comments
- REMEMBER: comments can come at any time – the blog should be up for the foreseeable future – so you need to regularly check for them (even months after a post goes live)
- this is a good way to monitor your brand – be sure to keep up with it

Measure:
- as with anything in business, measuring the return on investment is an important part of a company blog

Scared? Don’t be. We think blogs are great, and are a valuable resource. Because they are so current and timely, it may be a better to utilize your time and energy in other areas if you don’t have the commitment within your company to stay with one.

Have questions on starting a blog? In a rut and need some inspiration? Don’t agree with us? Let us hear it by writing us a comment below – we welcome feedback.

We think this is great for search engine users – providing a greater pool for which to pull relevant results is fantastic. The drawback? Website owners and marketers may find it difficult to keep pace with this change, having to keep finding ways to include rich media on their website in order to be at the top of the SERPs. Recently we came across another significant bump in the road for website marketers when it comes to Universal Search – its impact on PPC advertising.

Yes – we said that Universal Search has an impact in PPC. How can that be?

It has to do with the way that the ‘rich media’ appears on the page. When a SERP has rich media within its results, visitors are more likely to disregard the PPC ads surrounding the results and head right for the videos, photos or articles. Take a look at the below SERP. You see that there are photos at the top of the rankings, followed by a few organic listings. Then there are screen captures from a few videos and underneath that there are links to news articles on the subject. Much more than your ordinary organic and sponsored listings.

For searchers this is great – the enhanced results page hold more relevant information than they once had (just as Personal Search has helped searchers get better results). As a paid search advertiser however, the lower click through rates (CTRs) can affect website traffic, leading to a lower click-through rate and fewer conversions.

Is Universal Search Affecting Your PPC Campaigns?

The best defense is a good offense – stay ahead of the game and start thinking of ways to include rich media within your site. Test new PPC ads to see if you can improve your positioning and CTRs so that when Universal Search starts appearing on the pages with your ads, they remain highly visible and relevant.

Universal Search Isn’t a Bad Thing – It’s Just a Different Thing

We truly believe the search experience is enhanced when there are more options than just text links. As a marketer, is that you need to keep an eye on the SERPs, as well as any PPC programs you have set up. If the keywords you are targeting start bringing up photos and other rich media with their searches, be prepared to act so that you minimize any dip in CTRs and conversions.

Have you run up against Universal Search with your PPC program, or have you made adjustments to your advertising program? Have you made adjustments to your program or site that worked out? We want to hear what your thoughts are – let us know!

I think this is a great time to take inventory of your website and what you would like to accomplish in the coming year. Making clear and realistic goals will help your SEO team to guide your site in the direction that you desire. Our battle plans always start with a goal because you have to have something you can aim for.

Make sure your goals are realistic! Just as we don’t expect to lose 50 pounds in a week, your business also can’t expect to hold a #1 position for your very competitive keyword with your brand new domain name with one page of content. You get the idea. When deciding upon goals, get advice from your SEO Manager. Collaborate on ideas. Back the ideas up with solid research and come up with a set of manageable, achievable goals.

Also when determining goals, make sure to include a measurability factor. If you can’t measure a goal, it can’t be reached. Rank is no longer a great way to measure success – refer to a previous post for further information. Perhaps a goal of how many people you’d like to sign up for your Newsletter, or a goal of how many reservations you’d like to take in a month, or how many downloads you’d like to receive. These are all measurable.

Once you have committed to a goal, make sure it is clear to all involved. If your website is your main vehicle, it may have to be modified to communicate your goals. If you want to promote Gift Certificates, what have you done to give this visibility on your website? Have you added it to your navigation, made a strong call to action and maybe created artwork to draw attention to your plight?

I hope 2009 brings with it a new clarity to the current projects you are working on. This year, it’s time to move forward and achieve! Simplify your projects by breaking down each one with a set of realistic, relevant and measurable goals. This will help you and your SEO team to mold your website into what it needs to be.

My personal New Year’s Resolution: Drink More Water!! Happy 2009 from the Staff at Mannix Marketing!

The good news is that with skillful and targeted SEO, you can participate in today’s busy online marketplace no matter how small your business or how basic your website.  Just like with any business, finding success online includes creating a business plan and using that as your guide each step of the way.

There is much you can  do to lend your own sense of style to your site, whether you’re selling goods or creating an informational location. Create copy that reflects your style and flair, newsletters, descriptive images or quality photography that speaks clearly to what you do, sell or offer, or provide steps to your visitor outlining how to call, email, buy, or participate in what you’re offering. What else could you possibly need?

Know when to turn to the professionals for help. With the extraordinary amount of competition out there, getting your business found on the internet may be difficult and not for the faint of heart! Utilizing the services of an internet marketing company like Mannix Marketing, Inc. to get your business off the ground is more than just a good idea – it’s good business.  In addition to complete website design and development services that are the nuts and bolts of any online environment, professional search engine optimization, keyword research and the creation of targeted meta data are the cornerstones of a solid business plan, and something you just can’t do without.

If you are like most small business owners, you love what you do. There is a ton of competition out there, there’s no doubt about it, and in today’s tough economy, cutting the wrong corners can be fatal to your business! Your considerable expertise combined with professional SEO can make the difference in the world when it comes to getting visitors to your site and keeping them there!