SEO Your Site for User, Not Meta Keywords Tag

This post is the result of a question posed on LinkedIn Answers asking about the best way to use the Meta Keywords Tag to optimize your website for the search engines.

My Response:

In short,  I guess my answer would be “It really doesn’t matter.”

The Meta Keywords Tag has long been regarded as a useless factor in Search Engine Optimization. I’m not saying that it’s not a factor at all, but because it has been overly abused by so many websites, in my experience the major search engines simply ignore it. It’s much more valuable to put your keywords in the body of your content, in your header tags, and in your Meta Title and Meta Description.

My approach to SEO is to focus on a user-friendly website first… and then focus on a site that has logical URL structure, many few keyword specific pages, and heavy link building strategies. A lot of what determines what keywords your page rank for aren’t the ones you stuff in the Keywords Meta Tag… but the keywords that drive back to your site in the anchor tags, keywords that are in your URL paths, and keywords that show up in the content on your site.

3 Ways to Increase Your Facebook “Likes”

This post is the result of a question posed on LinkedIn Answers asking about Facebook strategy to increase “Likes”.

My Response:

1) Leverage other mediums.

If you have another channel that engages your visitors then give them the option to “like” you on Facebook. Put the F icon at the top of your email newsletter. Give it prominent placement on your website homepage. Most people who have a positive experience with your brand will also engage with you via social media. Also leverage other social media. If someone is on Twitter, YouTube, Google+, then they most likely are also willing to engage with you everywhere else.

2) Give them an incentive to “like” your brand.

What is the value of following you on Facebook? If you’re a retail company, restaurant, etc. then provide exclusive coupons and discounts. If you’re a service company provide exclusive inside access to the latest products. Make sure your Facebook page is actually worth “liking”. Create a contest for liking your page with a giveway.

3) Leverage partnerships and reciprocation.

Your brand isn’t the only Facebook page that is trying to get “likes”. Help out your partners and related Facebook pages get likes. Are there organizations or groups that don’t compete with you but both of you could mutually benefit? Drive traffic to their Facebook page or company website and ask that they do the same. Most people/brands will be grateful and reciprocate without you even asking.

Twitter Strategy Should be Based on Reciprocity and Conversation

This post is the result of a question posed on LinkedIn Answers asking about Twitter strategy.

My Response (Selected as “Best Answer”):

Twitter strategy should build a base of engaged followers through reciprocity of sharing content and engaging in interesting conversation.

- Tweet 10-20 times throughout the day.
- Express gratitude for those that mention or retweet.
- Learn what the best Tweeple are doing.
- Give 10x more than you receive.
- Be interesting and relevant.
- Use hashtags for events, webinars, activities, and popular topics.
- Tone is educational and appreciative.
- Consistently provide value to all those who follow you.
- Both personal and business.
- Test and revisit what works for you.

Combine Marketing Tactics to Promote Your Event

This post is the result of a question posed on LinkedIn Answers asking “What ONE marketing strategy or technique has yielded you the best results when marketing and promoting your event?”

My Response:

I’m not convinced that you can do just ONE marketing tactic and consistently market a great event. However, there are a number of things you can do, in combination with each other, than could really drive up your attendance.

Leverage Personal Relationships – If contacts at your company know some people personally, then a simple personal email will typically almost always work if the target is available that date/time.

Email Lists – If you have a list of contacts who would be interested in the event, send them an email and ask them to register. If you can give them incentive (such as an exclusive preview or free content) then you’ll surely grab their attention to register.

Social Media – If this is a public event then create a mini social media campaign on whatever networks you have. Create a Twitter hashtag around the event, create a FB “Event” and invite all of your followers, announce it on Google+, or post it on your LinkedIN Group. Get the word out.

Cool Technology – Half of events are successful because of the unique experience. Okay I made that up, but my point is people like to interact with technology and see things done in clever ways. Allow people to scan QR codes. Track their badges and sign them up for door prizes. Have them interact with your products/services via the latest tablet or touch screen.

Follow Up – If you’re like most companies you probably put on that event to make some money. Make sure you’re collecting the attendees information and if they agreed, follow up with them by sending your best content. Email works great here. If you keep sending them valuable content after the event, you can extend the event experience and add more even value.

Focus on SEO Keywords that Drive Sales

This post is the result of a question posed on LinkedIn Answers asking about whether you should focus on branded keywords for search engine marketing.

My Response:

When you select what keywords are going to be your focus for SEO, it’s all about targeting the ones where the “searcher’s intent” accomplishes what you want them to do. If your company is ABC Company and someone types in “ABC Company” into Google.com, you can likely assume that they already know about you and are trying to update their account, research your products, or maybe contact your company. The keywords you want are the ones that drive sales, registrations, or downloads.

But the point is for ‘branded keywords’, you should be easily found. If you have an obscure name, one that is misspelled often, one that competes with an everyday term, or a product trademark that hasn’t get gained traction, then you’ll definitely want to add these branded keywords to your bucket. In the meantime, you can supplement the traffic with Paid Search, but you should be visible.

Your domain, anchor keywords, and content on your website does help but remember you don’t want your page to appear stuffed in any way. What you want to do is choose bucket of the most beneficial keywords and then develop your content, navigation, links, meta/alt/h1/h2 copy around those keywords. A substantial catalog of back links containing the anchor text will certainly help but there a couple more things to consider in deciding whether or not to focus on growing a keyword’s popularity.

I like to focus on a balance of branded and non-branded keywords. Of course you’ll want to go after the keywords that are going to give you the greatest return, but balance that out with long-tail keywords and of course, the low-low-hanging fruit where people already know who you are.

Align Your Advertising with Your Landing Page

This post is the result of a question posed on LinkedIn Answers asking about whether the advertising should match the landing page.

My Response (Selected as “Best Answer”):

In my experience, to create the best user experience, your ad and your landing page should align graphically and with similar copy text. You certainly don’t have to use the same exact copy as that may not make sense. The ad limits you to 25, 35, 35 characters. Why limit yourself on a landing page when you don’t need to? I typically try to worry less about the quality score and more about the experience you are creating for the user. In the end, that’s what Google wants. They created the Quality Score so you don’t create an ad about “shoes” and send people to a page about “dogs”, aka spammers. If your ad has a good CTR and drives to a page with a good conversion rate, then you’ll be fine. Of course I’d encourage you to shoot for better than fine with optimization by testing multiple ad copies and multiple landing pages (maybe some A/B or Multivariate Testing?).

I like to tell the visitor in the ad copy call-to-action what to expect and what I want them to do on the next page –> “Buy this product”, “Download this whitepaper”, “Watch this video”, “Register for this webinar”, etc. Then when they get to the next page you can reiterate what you are trying to get them to do. Another best practice I live by is to focus on ONE conversion per ad. Don’t send them to your homepage with dozens of links. Give them 1 thing to do and give them all the reasons why they should do it. Of course, make sure that what you want them to do is valuable to them and is worth their time and effort. If you are asking them to give you their email, make sure they get something VERY valuable for that exchange.

The Ultimate Marketing Goal is to Add Value

This post is the result of a question posed on LinkedIn Answers asking about the ultimate goal for any marketing activity.

My Response (Selected as “Good Answer”):

I like to take a step back and ask the question “Does this marketing activity solve the target’s problem or add value to them?”

Especially with online marketing, people’s attention span are so short and they make quick nanosecond judgements of ads about whether that company or product is the answer. They seem to respond better if the marketing proposes solutions or at least points them to more information.

If a marketer can design their marketing activity to not just shout the company’s message, but to start the conversation about the company’s story and provide tools, articles, people, or valuable content, they would have in my opinion accomplished the “ultimate goal”.

Marketing activity, in my opinion, should be the showcase window that develops a brand into a reputable thought leader and demonstrate it’s unique answers and resources.

Use Online Media to Find Your Target Audience

This post is the result of a question posed on LinkedIn Answers asking about whether online media actually reaches the people being targeted.

My Response (Selected as “Best Answer”):

Online media can certainly target the correct group of individuals whether you’re going after a small B2B group or a large B2C audience. The trick with getting more efficient is optimizing your online media spend to as close to the end of your sales funnel as possible. If you buy your online media, such as display ads, on a CPM (impression) basis, then you’re going to get a broad range of prospects that may or may not be in your target. You’ll most likely run out your marketing budget before you can get to those targets unless your advertising is on very niche websites.

If you can get further along the funnel and close the loop in your reporting, you can start to target through very specific mediums. The next level would be buying CPC (clicks) advertisements. This strategy only spends your marketing dollars if someone is interested enough in your advertisement to click on the banner or link. If you make your copy and call-to-action very very specific, then you can eliminate a large portion of the audience that isn’t interested. You only pay for their interest. This is why many companies, big and small, find search engine marketing so effective.

Finally, the dream of online marketers, is to target by individual, online demographics, or simply put someone raising their hand via their “digital footprint”. Some sites are getting closer to this type of targeting. Facebook allows you to target by any content on a user’s profile. LinkedIn is also has this type of detailed targeting that looks at industry, title, company, skills, work experience, background, job description, etc. More and more online publishers are realizing that if they are to receive marketing ad spend, then they need to produce results.

You can certainly achieve success today with online media. I’ve personally experienced it in both the B2B and B2C space. The more relevant and targeted you can become by only paying for the leads you need, the better your ROI will be.

Social Media is Changing the Internet Marketing Game

This post is the result of a question posed on LinkedIn Answers asking about social media is changing internet marketing.

My Response:

Social media is another channel that companies can use to communicate with their customers and prospects. If done well, it can drive visits back to your other web properties, such as micro-sites, landing pages, or your main website. Social media is also about going where the people already are. Much of the target audience may be already utilizing social media for business or personal use. If a company wants to be part of the conversation, then they need a presence. Websites and day-to-day business hasn’t drastically changed for companies. It’s more about another medium of to communicate. In order to stay ahead of the “(social media) game” companies need to test. What works for one company may not work for another, and the reverse is also true. Start slow and find out the best way to build an audience and add to the conversation. Whether it be contests, product launches, business tools, or customer support, a company can see additional benefit from adding social media to their digital portfolio.

Have a Social Media Presence AND Valuable Content

This post is the result of a question posed on LinkedIn Answers asking about whether you’d be more inclined to purchase a product or service if the company has social media accounts.

My Response:

I’m not convinced the answer should be simply “more inclined” or “less inclined” as a blanket statement about social media. I think companies should strive for a positive experience and if the person is in the buying stage, then social media should be aimed at adding value to that experience. If social media is the channel, great. If not, other channels can be just as effective. It also depends on the company. If you’re comparing two retail websites… One company answers your questions timely and accurately via social media and one doesn’t. I would guess the one addressing their customers would slowly gain more customers, everything else being equal. Also, if you’re buying a retail product and one offers discounts or coupons versus another, then I think people would be more likely to buy from the one with coupons (I would). For companies offering services.. I’d want social media to add value to those services. The value could be access to their support (i.e. customer care), knowledge (i.e. thought leaders) or access to their content (i.e. tools & information). If the company’s social media gives these resources then I would be more inclined to go with them. I guess my point is, it’s not so much about whether or not the business has a social media account, but rather how they use that account to deliver value to their audience. If they deliver value in a effective and clever way, then of course I’d choose them over a company who isn’t providing as much value, but it isn’t about Twitter or Facebook… it’s about the value of what they post.