Web Strategy

SEO and analytics tools you may not use - and are priced very well... FREE!

If you've done much publishing on the web, you're probaly already familiar with Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. However, many web workers stick with the same small handful of SEO tools. There are quite a lot of them available online for free, and testing keywords and looking at analytics across multiple tools can make a lot of sense, especially since optimizing them is an inexact science.

Social Monitoring Tools, Keyword Targeting, Noise Elimination, Refined Mentions, Analysis, Take Action... The Social Media Monitoring Funnel is a great guide

The following is a guide to social media monitoring. Before I get into the nuts and bolts of the article, I want to emphasize that each company needs its own strategic thought and implementation - and that no two companies should have identical forms of monitoring. Each brand is different, each website is different, and where people talk about your company and what is being said is going to vary. With that in mind, I present to you the Social Media Monitoring Funnel.

Some great quick tips on SEO.. This answers many "beginners" questions...

To show you what I mean, here's a list of SEO questions that I get asked all the time, along with what the answer depends upon, and then a quick answer based on the various factors that might be involved:

This topic is constantly coming up... How can you measure the ROI of social media?

It is easy to predict that we will be talking a lot more about social media measurement and ROI in 2009. The question of ROI becomes more important when there is a market transition from an established form or investment (i.e. traditional media) to an emerging form like social media. Even though the ROI of current or traditional investments may be no less certain, the test is always a higher one to justify a change.

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In this article I'll use the SEO filter, made by Andé Scholten, to make some new interesting SEO reports in Google Analytics. I realized that the data, provided by the filter, had given me some new opportunities. It wasn't possible in Google Analytics to get good SEO related reports. The reports I did get were these: * An overview of keywords during a specific period and (after clicking) the landings page on which visitors landed after clicking on the Google result. * An overview of the 'Entrance Keywords' of a specific page.

Great post on content strategy

I encourage clients, associates and even friends to create content-rich sites for whatever they specialize in with the purpose of building an audience and forging relationships. The type of content aside, the way to create a popular web property is to slowly grow larger over time in an organized, attractive layout with uniquely useful material focused on your niche.

Bloggers like numbers. Big numbers. Yes, we want a lot of traffic. But, we also want the usual status indicators: (1) Big RSS count, (2) Big Email List, etc. So, how do you go about converting a random visitor to your blog into a subscriber who will continue to come back? Here are some simple tips that you should probably execute.

If you use software like aWeber you will get great statistics on whether your email was opened and if they clicked on anything... If you are getting a low read rate chances are you need to modify/tweak your Subject Line.. aWeber does a great job of cleaning out your lists when email becomes inactive.. Checking into these statistics is important to keep your email marketing campaign fresh. This post has some details on "reactivating" your *dead* lists.

How many email messages did you send out in your last campaign? Really? That many? Wow! Now, how many of your recipients actually opened or clicked on your email? Yeah, that's a different story. Remember that with email, size doesn't really matter. Performance is what counts, not just for your email program and its bottom line but also for your sender reputation. A reactivation campaign is the answer here, and it's just as important as any acquisition campaign. It will help you clean out the dead wood, re-energize your list and reclaim some of the money you spent acquiring and engaging those addresses in the first place.

If you've read this post thus-far, you know that Target can join feedback loops (though not for Gmail) and clean its list, which it's already doing. It can also look into optimizing its HTML design for "images off." Beyond this, Target can also: 1. Become authenticated 2. Segment non-responders and market less frequently 3. Segment non-responders and attempt to re-activate them through a "win-back" email, otherwise remove them from the list

Great points on getting your emails past spam filters. Our suggestions... Don't be too flashy.. Be succinct.. Use only Opt-In Lists... And Use aWeber!

Luckily, you don't have to keep up with every detail. But there are some important SEO trends you should know about as we go further into 2009. I'll break the list down into two sections - Strategy and Tactics and Industry/Big Picture Trends - and then turn it over to you at the end.

Awesome Greasemonkey scripts to make you more productive with Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a fantastic tool as it is - and it's always improving, but there are a lot of people out there that have created tools to make it even better. In an effort to make everyone aware of these fantastic and easy-to-use tools, I've compiled a list of the ones we use everyday. If we missed one, or if you've got a great tool that we should add to the list, please let us know! We're always looking for ways to make Google Analytics easier to install and use. I hope you find them as useful as I do, and a big thank you goes out to each of the people responsible for these fantastic time-saving tools.

There are some great scripts on that page. I'll be checking out several of them for sure. Thanks for the link!

The days of a long-standing, static website are over. Start a blog (preferably integrated with your website) and start leveraging the power of these tools to bring fresh content and high-relevance to your website.

In 2009, an active blog at the centre of your Web presence says that you are ready to have an engaging conversation with your ideal guest today. As such, your blog needs to become the centre of your online Web presence, and that means it's time to prioritize your marketing efforts in the new year.

Goes to show that online video marketing definitely works - as if you hadn't guessed it yet.

The vast majority of those surveyed (95%) for the report, who have utilized online video as a marketing tool, were satisfied with online video marketing and expect to use it in the future.

According to a report on search engine results from Forrester Research: "on the keywords for which Google offers video results, any given video in the index stands about a 50 times better chance of appearing on the first page of results than any given text page in the index." Not only is video invaluable to getting your web presence better exposure in search engines, but video is the most compelling way to tell your story and inspire potential visitors.

You typically have to create some number of social interactions to leave the trail of signals of quality to make Google want to trust a site enough to put it in front of a large traffic stream, especially if you are starting a brand new site and are trying to operate within Google's guidelines. As Bob Massa says "search engines follow people."

There are two points in this post that I want to emphasize... First off SEO is an ongoing process. There isn't a magic trick that pushes your site to the top of rankings. It takes work.. Rinse & Repeat. Analyze & Tweak. Secondly there is a great point that if you hire an SEO expert you will get your site in front of the thousand other relevant people in your niche. This is very hard and takes a lot of work. So, you should create Outposts. Creating outposts is part of a content marketing strategy where you distribute your content among various networks to build up multiple sources of traffic... Great quote from Bob Massa explains it perfect!

At a recent social media workshop a participant asked me to reveal my social media routine - how I track, converse, communicate and otherwise curate all my various social media activities. I paused to think about it for a while because I never really considered what I do a routine, but it occurred to me that, in fact, I do have a systematic approach to social media. (No surprise really, I'm a systems thinker and I just do it habitually - ask my wife, I have a system for making the bed and loading the dishwasher.)

It's a great idea to create social media systems, or "processes" that allow you to automate some research and setting time and tasks for different aspects of social media - whether listening or interacting.

Great tool for bigger Search Engine Marketing campaigns

Clickable's immediate activation and intuitive user experience make it easy to manage pay-per-click marketing across all major ad networks. Powerful recommendations and reporting make you more efficient, effective and confident with your search advertising - even at first login.

Situation: You run a social media program at a corporation, and you need to measure to improve your program, but more importantly to show to your bosses that this 'new media' program is worth it's weight. Challenges: You see the immediate value of a community program but your management is unconvinced. Furthermore, the brand police and the traditional hard-liners don't like your 'open-thinking' type of revolt. There may be other challenges too: lots of activity but few people, or you simply don't know where to start. Goals Deliver a report that demonstrates the value of a social media program as well as helps you improve the program over time.

Great overview on how to measure the social media aspect of your business's web strategy...