Ideas for Business

So you’ve decided that your small business needs a blog. Now you’re ready to move and get it going. You’ve designed it, you’ve SEOd it, and now you’re ready to write it. Did you know the most important thing about your blog is yet to come?

What exactly is the most important part of your blog? Do you know?

The most important aspect to your small business blog are your blog post titles.

Yes, titles. Here’s why:

• Blog post titles are the first thing visitors will read on your blog. If your blog post title doesn’t capture their attention, they won’t read the blog post.
• Search engines place high emphasis on blog post titles in SEO. If you do it right, your blog posts could rank well based on the title alone.

These two things make your blog post titles the most important element of your blog. Its one goal is to get people to read your blog post. It must be interesting, informative, say what the blog post is about, optimized well for search traffic, and not be too long.

If your blog post titles achieve all of the above, they will attract readers and your blog will be doing the job you want it to do.

One of the report categories from MarketingSherpa that I’ve been reviewing for a long time, as in 5 or more years, is their coverage of Search Engine Marketing.  In particular, the Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report – SEO Edition.  (See last year’s review here).

The sub-title is appropriately a great indication of the theme for this guide: “Research and Insights for Creating and Capitalizing on a Rich End-User Search Experience. This is a far cry from the days of “Boost Your Search Engine Rankings and More!”.  As Online Marketers have matured, there is an increasing focus on optimizing for customers and customer experience vs. the sole KPIs of rankings and traffic.

Authored by Research Analyst Kaci Bower, MarketingSherpa’s 2012 Search Marketing Benchmark Report SEO Edition is broken down into an executive summary that outlines key findings from the survey from which the report is based, 10 chapters on everything from integrating Social Media & SEO to Mobile tactics to SEO Success Stories. There’s also an appendix that includes charts from the research.

If you’re a nut for data, charts and research based insights, this guide is priceless. The section on Planning and Tracking budgets as well as the Agency Perspectives offer helpful information for consultants and of course the SEO Objectives/Tactics, Local, Mobile and  Content Marketing sections offer plenty of tactics and insights for practitioners.

If you read Online Marketing Blog, you know we’ve been promoting the notion of “optimize for customers” over a sole focus on keywords. That perspective blends well with the customer-centric theme of MarketingSherpa’s SEO Report.

Just think about the richness of users search experience today in stark contrast to the bland search results made up mostly of just web pages several years ago. With Google in particular, Universal Search, Personalized Search, Social Search, Instant Search, Local/Mobile, Preview and even the currently suspended Real-Time Search all factor together to  give users what they’re looking for. The diversity of search experience is the basis for the research and recommendations in the 2012 SEO Guide.

One of the interesting insights from the research in this report includes the disconnect between marketers that consider SEO Strategy an important challenge to overcome, but not a a top objective.  That mismatch in priorities can be costly in terms of ineffective prioritization of tactics and inefficient utilization of resources. The real irony is stated in the report, “Interestingly, increasing measurable ROI ranked higher as an objective than developing an actual strategy to do so!”

Another key finding concerns the importance of Content Marketing, which was rated  as one of the most effective tactics for SEO but also one of the most difficult to implement. Content has been a hot topic for years, with many SEOs dismissing “content is king” as a whitehat SEO battle cry. But of course, relevant (optimized) content is effective for link building, sharing and certainly for inspiring prospects to become customers.  The SEO Report identifies many other top SEO tactics as well, segmenting by organization SEO maturity and industry.

I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea. MarketingSherpa has done a great job at providing data sliced and diced every way you can imagine with this year’s version of the SEO Report.  The survey findings presented according to level of SEO maturity is especially helpful for companies that have been utilizing SEO best practices for some time, but want to continue to advance their progress.

For organizations that are just starting to investigate a more holistic approach to SEO to professionals that want to incorporate SEO best practices in their areas of expertise (like Public Relations, Web Design, Interactive), the 2012 SEO Guide is full of data, examples and insights.

You can get a sneak peek at the Search Marketing Benchmark Report, SEO Edition and more information about the report overall on the MarketingSherpa website (affiliate link).

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2011. | MarketingSherpa 2012 SEO Benchmark Report | http://www.toprankblog.com

With the boom in brands publishing content and the explosion of user generated content from social networks, the competition to stand out is only going to get more challenging for companies that rely on the web to attract new business.  Online Marketers that adapt, evolve and scale through a more holistic approach to marketing online gain both short and long term benefits, distinct from competitors reliant on the latest tactic du jour.

The process of change starts with acknowledgment that change is needed and then extends to identifying goals, understanding target audiences & communities, developing an approach and tactical mix for reaching business objectives. Assessing a starting point is usually accomplished through an audit, research and benchmarking for future performance tracking.

When taking a look at our TopRank Slideshare account for past presentations I found one on Social Media & SEO from back in 2007 offering the following advice:

• Inventory your media & content
• Keyword optimize your media
• Research social media communities
• Make it easy for readers to save/share content
• Create profiles and grow a network of friends
• Participate in the community
• Measure results

That’s as solid advice today as it was then. As a advocate of the power of optimization (not just search engine optimization but optimizing online marketing for better performance) it’s interesting how much hasn’t changed in the past 4 years.  No matter what BS certain mainstream publications or social media pontificators say, SEO brings a competitive advantage to an online marketing mix.  It may not be the silver bullet it once was, but SEO is an amplifier and catalyst to Social Media and Content Marketing. What smart marketers know, is how and when to apply SEO best practices to extend the reach of their social media and content marketing efforts.

Last week I gave my first presentation at Social Media Breakfast Minneapolis St. Paul #SMBMSP on the intersection of SEO, Social Media and the importance of Content in Online Marketing. In order to scale the impact of Social SEO & Content, internal advocates need to become Social SEO Heroes that can lead, educate and support the organizational change necessary to empower business social media and SEO literacy.  This presentation starts with context and perspective, then provides a framework and even specific tactics for the Content Marketing Trilogy of  Discovery, Consumption and Sharing. I hope you find it useful and share your feedback in the comments.

I’m looking forward to giving a more Content Marketing centric version of this presentation at Content Marketing World: “A Content Marketer’s Guide to SEO and Social Media Strategy” on Thursday, Sept. 8th in Cleveland.  After that I’ll be giving the opening keynote at the 2nd Annual Minnesota Blogger Conference with a presentation on how I’ve used blogging to grow our business from a tiny lifestyle company to one of the best known agencies for online marketing in the U.S.. I hope to see you there.

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2011. | #Optimize Your Online Marketing With Social Media, SEO & Content | http://www.toprankblog.com

American Express OPEN Forum has an excellent article on Facebook ads (of course, I’m biased since they quoted me in the article). If you haven’t used Facebook ads yet, you’ll want to read the article. Here’s a summary of the 5 pointers.

1. Set goals and plan your approach – What do you want to achieve with your advertising? If you don’t know, then you likely won’t achieve anything.
2. Use creative target marketing tactics – More so than traditional PPC ads, Facebook ads allow you to drill down your demographic targeting. You can get real small in your efforts too and narrow it down pretty well. You can even send out pre-emptive birthday messages, and that kind of marketing rocks.
3. Use powerful text and images – Don’t just use your logo. Pick an image that draws attention to your ad and make your text powerful enough that it gets the click-through.
4. Test multiple ads – One of the biggest mistakes small business owners make is only running one ad. Create four ads that are similar and test which one works best.
5. Keep your page updated – Have your Facebook page ready to close the sale. Keep it updated so that you can be ready to respond to click-throughs.

These are great tips. If you’re wondering which one I contributed, you’ll have to read the article.

Have you ever had one of those days? You know, where things just don’t go right, you get hit from every direction, and you’ve finally had enough. Then … there it goes. You let that comment fly and it’s too late. What do you do?

Whether on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or your local forum, don’t delete the negative comments.

Think about it from your customer’s, or potential customer’s, point of view. They see your profile and dig in a little deep only to find that you’ve deleted comments. What are they going to think about your integrity at that point? And you can’t escape the fact that the comments have already been seen by some of your friends, fans, and followers. So word is going to get around.

So if you don’t delete the comments, what should you do?

That’s a good question and here’s my suggestion. Follow up, when you’ve had a chance to calm down and get your bearings straight, with a more rational comment that apologizes for your outburst and a promise to see that it doesn’t happen again. Don’t explain yourself. Just offer a brief apology and carry on.

People can handle you being human. What they can’t handle is you lacking the integrity to face up to being human.