Since 2009 Google has been experimenting with a kinder gentler social search. Social media is playing a fundamental part in how websites and internet content gets shared. Thus far Google’s Social media attempts have been a fairly clumsy and ham fisted affair. Google Buzz has drawn public scorn and law suits over privacy violations. Google Search has barely made a ripple in the social tide. Then there’s Google Wave, well let’s not speak ill of the dead. All the while Facebook is generating more internet traffic than Google and encroaching on their advertising dollars.

On March 30th 2011 Google announced “+1”, its new social bookmarking/sharing/recommendation widget thingy. This is not a new concept, but Google’s +1 is placed directly into your Search Engine Results Page (SERP) to the right of each listing.  That’s what makes it a bit different and potentially more effective than the other social bookmarking sites like Reddit, Digg and StumbleUpon. And similar to Facebook’s “Like” button, your social network peeps will see it,……sooner or later.

According to Google; +1 is the digital short hand for “this is pretty cool”. Basically it’s a web page approval indicator to share with People in your Gmail, Google Talk chat list, folks you follow in Google Reader and Buzz and the good people in your “My Contacts” group. In the future, the crowd you are connected to on non-Google services like Quora, Flickr and Twitter will also witness your +1ing.

Google will inform site owners by email when the +1 button is available for their web pages. Until then, +1 buttons can only be found on SERPs for English language sites and next to paid ads. The +1 button will be a natural ranking signal for search results when clicked. It will also be displayed for the searchers own network in their Google Profile. You will be able to see your friends +1’d activity through their profile and on the SERPs page as a little icon image beneath the +1’d listing.

All searchers must have a Public Google Profile and if it isn’t public by the end of July this year, it will be deleted by default. Searchers who have a Google account but no Google Profile will see the personalized +1’s but won’t be able to add them, and those who don’t have a Google Profile or aren’t logged into Google will see aggregated +1 data.

The +1 buttons will be integrated with Google Ads and listings. Google says +1 will not affect Quality Scores but it will influence the click-through rate (CTR) and advertisers should see a pickup in clicks. Also, organic and paid search shares a commonality with +1. That means that if your AdWords landing page was +1’d in organic listing, the +1 will show next to the ad.

According to Google all ads will be getting +1 buttons and can’t be turned off.  The clicks on the +1 buttons next to the ads will NOT count as a paid click but advertisers will be able to see their +1 statistics. Soon, anyone registered with Google Webmaster Central will be able to see +1 stats for their organic search listings as well.

Eventually the +1 buttons will be linked directly to search results. Google Co-founder and new CEO Larry Page sent out a company-wide memo, alerting employees that 25% of their annual bonuses will be tied to the success or failure of Google’s social strategy in 2011.

The stakes are high, and even if +1 fizzles away into ambiguity Google’s social strategy will clearly effect search engine optimization (SEO). The internet is turning into the socialnet and it’s no longer just what you know and sell but who you know, who knows you AND how likable or interesting your content and products are.

I have no idea if Google’s new social experiment will survive. The name “+1” is just awful and there are many questions about algorithm vs human (social) in regards to search results. If I search for apple pie and my wife’s’ aunt Betty’s recipe blog is listed on page one (which it shouldn’t) but, because she’s +1’d it and is in my network doesn’t that go against “organic” rank and the Google algorithm? In time, will all my search results rank according to what my friends have to say about it? And if it does and proves more useful to me, does that mean Google’s search algorithm was wrong all this time? Or I hate the results and there’s no going back? What about spammers?

Are you using the Beta version of Google’s +1? How do you like it? Or if you’re not using it do you think you will? Write back, obviously I need the help.

Do you ever sit in front of Google searching for your web site listing under your favorite key terms?  Do you feel a sense of anxiety when you notice your competitor ranked ahead of you on those key terms?  You do?  Great. Now STOP doing that!

I have encountered countless customers who create unending angst for themselves by indulging in the competitive SEO search.  There is nothing wrong with being competitive as long as it makes sense.  The problem is the search “strategy” that results from the “competitive search” often doesn’t make sense.

I recently had a customer tell me that key term X was a term they needed to be found on because their competitor was on that page and that they knew, for a fact, that their customers search on this term.  Although, both of these assertions might partially be true, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you should do something about it.

Here are some questions one should ask themselves before acting on such an anecdotal theory:

• What does my keyword research tell me?  Is there high search engine traffic with low competition?
• Is the key term something I actually sell (i.e. “fringed tulip bulbs”) or is it a broad term that has cross-industry meanings (i.e. “Bulbs”, flower or light?) that has a low probability of converting (sale)?
• Do I have a good understanding of the key term traffic that is already coming to my site?  Am I doing everything I can to make sure that the content on my site helps that traffic convert or is it bouncing off my site? Most of my customer’s sites generate over 3/4 of their traffic and online sales from long-tailed key terms (i.e. “tulip flower bulbs”)
• If I do find a broad key term that is relevant to my business and I think I can compete for it do I really have an understanding of what my competition is doing to drive traffic and gain rank for their site? (i.e. ad spend, direct mail, email marketing, etc.)  It may seem like you are comparing apples to apples but really you might be competing with someone who is outspending you 10:1.  That could possibly be why they have a crappy looking web site but get “good rank”.

What most don’t realize is that they already have a large amount of qualified traffic coming to their site but they do little to make sure it converts. Some of the reasons visitors “bounce” off pages on your site are:

• Not enough information to make a decision.
• No call to action. “How to Buy”
• Price or Shipping is not competitive.
• Content is not relevant to their search. (I want light bulbs not flower bulbs)

What have we learned in today’s blog post?  Go with what you know, not what you think you know. What are my web site analytics telling me?  If you follow the competitive SEO siren song thinking you can OPTIMIZE your site to get ahead of your competition on a couple broad key terms, I can promise you, you will be disappointed. Be smart about where you want to rank in the search engines, develop a plan to convert your existing traffic, then execute your plan.

Search engines want relevancy in their results… period.  Keep in mind that a search engine’s number one customer is its users.  If a user has to sort through irrelevant and spammy results, they most likely won’t come back. Therefore search engines are constantly changing their algorithm in an effort to eliminate spam and give their users results that make sense. In fact, Google just did an algorithm update at the end of January. So, what does this mean for your optimization efforts? You have to keep it relevant and you have to keep it real. There are a lot of misconceptions about how to optimize a website and specifically key term optimization.
Below are five common things I hear from customers regarding key term optimization and my general response to those comments.

1.) “My site launched two weeks ago, why am I not yet ranking for key term xxxxx?”
Sorry, key term optimization is not magical.
Contrary to popular belief, key term optimization requires work! Though many believe that optimizing for a key term or key phrase is as easy as placing that term(s) once in the meta title or meta description/key terms, it is not as simple as that. Key term optimization also takes time.  Optimization is a combination of having that key word or phrase not only in the titles or meta description, but most importantly within the content of the site. If a key term or phrase is within the content of the site, the search engine can begin to determine that your site might be relevant on that term and begin to rank. Bottom line – you should be developing content for your customers and the use of key terms and optimization will come naturally.

2.) “I was told I just need to put the key term in those meta tag things and I would be all set.”
Titles and meta tags are NOT the holy grail… not anymore.
This would be true… if it was still 1995. Including key terms in your meta tags (meta description and meta key words) was a popular practice that was effective in gaining rank in the early days of search. However, search engines quickly wised up and realized that people were stuffing their meta tags with completely irrelevant key terms, gaining rank on those terms, and producing spammy search results. Remember, search engines want relevancy. Therefore they quickly adjusted their algorithms to not focus so much on the meta in order to clean up results. This decrease in the use of meta by the search engines has only increased over the years and in fact, most search engines no longer even look at the meta key terms. Titles are still an important part of optimization as visitors to the site can see that information, and meta descriptions can still be used as part of search engine result listings. Check out 5 Common SEO Misconceptions for more on meta tags.

3.) “I really want my site to rank for xxxxx because I carry this small product line that I would also like to promote on the site.”
Don’t spread yourself too thin; be relevant.
Not all key words or phrases are equal. Often times people get stuck on one key word or phrase that they believe is absolutely necessary for optimization because they are trying to be all things to all people. However, if no one, or generally few people are searching on a term, it does not make sense to try to optimize for that term. On the other hand, if a key term is too broad, it can be almost impossible to get natural optimization on that term. Choose a focus for your website and work on developing content on that focus. You also want to make sure that your website can compete with the others coming up within the search engine results in terms of price, shipping, and selection.

4.) “I want to optimize for ‘gift basket’ because I know it gets a lot of search.”
Going broad doesn’t pay… go for the long tail.
Sure, the term ‘gift basket’ gets a lot of search… it also currently has over 13 million competing sites.  The chances of a site – especially a newer site – being able to climb to the top of those other 13 million sites are slim at best. A site cannot be all things to all people; choose your focus and narrow the related terms to a manageable list of terms that make sense for your site.  Use long tail key terms. While long tail key terms may not get as much search as a broader key term like ‘gift basket’, your site is much more likely to rank for a long tail key term as long as it is relevant, and you have the content to support it. More importantly, visitors that come from long tail key terms are more likely to convert to a sale because of the relevancy of the search – the customer knows what they are looking for and is ready to buy.

5.) “That list of key terms is great, but I would also like to optimize for these other 30 terms.”
Don’t water it down.
Your site has only so much real estate for optimization, select a list of 15-20 key terms that you feel make the most sense for you site based on what you are selling, research those terms to make sure they are getting search and look at the search engine results pages (SERPs) to determine if you can compete. Then focus on using those terms within your content. Those key terms should be used within the content and titles of the site where it makes sense, not because you are trying to stuff them into as many places as possible. Titles should be relevant to the content on that page. Keep in mind that your website will also begin to naturally rank for many other long tail key terms based on the other content on your site.

Bottom line… don’t get stuck on one key term or phrase that you feel your site has to be found on. Do the research, look at your competition, and make informed decisions on how to best use key terms for optimizing your website. And, first and foremost, develop and write content for your customers – most likely, once you do that, everything else will fall into place. If you have any questions or comments about keywords leave a reply we’d be happy to discuss it with you.

85% of shoppers looking for your goods and services will do so through search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. Optimizing your website pages will attract the search engine spiders and rank your site higher in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). The higher you rank the greater the traffic to your site and the possibility your targeted customers will make a purchase. That’s the purpose of SEO.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is involved, complex, evolving and at times confusing. There are many misconceptions about what exactly SEO does or does not do for your website. There are bad practices, illegal activity, content farms, link farms, spam and out of date information running rampant on the web, mostly from unscrupulous internet marketers promising misleading goals for cash. The misunderstanding of SEO for your small business can cause great harm to your sites’ ranking and bottom line. Here are five common misconceptions I often hear about SEO. Some are deceiving, some half truths and others just out dated practices. For the most part I am speaking about Google and it’s guidelines on SEO’s best practices, which is ever changing.

#1 Buying AdWords Will Help Ranking
PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising and SEO are two separate things. Google AdWords and Google’s free search results are entirely independent of one another. Spending money on AdWords won’t impact your ranking in Google’s free search results. Similarly, canceling your AdWords account won’t lead to your website being banned from Google’s search results. If buying advertisement manipulated organic search results the internet as we know it would be an entirely different animal soon to be extinct.

#2 Content Should be Written for Search Engines
To some extent this is true. The text on your site must contain the most important keywords – the words that potential customers will be typing into search engines to find your site. But if you are only concerned about keywords for search engine robots then your text will be a drab read indeed. Remember at the end of the day your customers are the ones that matter most. Write compelling content for human beings and edit for the search engines.

#3 Any Inbound Link Will Do
Inbound links are links that are placed on other sites and point to yours. Relevant, reputable links to your site are extremely beneficial to your SEO. But on the other hand irrelevant and link spamming (e.g. paid links, blog spammers, guestbook spammers, etc.) can be very harmful to your site. For instance if you manufacture light bulbs and GE links to your site as a reference or partner, that inbound link would be beneficial to your sites optimization. On the other hand, your uncle Tony owns a pizzeria and links back and because of the lack of relevance to your business that link would hold less sway. To another extreme, if you set up fake sites just for links or engage in link farming and are caught by the search engines you could be penalized or banned. Just recently JC Penny and Overstock.com were found by Google to be doing just that, and dealt with accordingly.

#4 Search Engines Can’t Read Images
This can be filed under partly true statements. Search Engine spiders don’t read pictures or images well (although the technology behind this is getting better) but they do read the image’s Alt tag or alternative text. ALT tags are the little labels you see when you put your mouse over an image which is written in the back end of your website. Optimized Alt tags can make a big difference in your website’s page rank especially if images are a good way to convey your offerings. It is recommended that you use Alt tags on as many images as you can.

#5 Meta Tags are Essential
Back in the late 90’s early 2000’s yes Meta Tags were essential to a websites ranking, and because of its high value many webmasters stuffed the code with keywords in order to “game” the system. They were so successful Google decided not crawl Keyword Meta Tags at all, “not in the least bit” says Matt Cutts Google’s Search Engine Guru. But others like Yahoo and Bing may still see some worth. Google does look at meta descriptions to an extent but this is only a minuscule part of SEO. The Title tag does have some relevance but this is not by any means the priorities of search engines like so many people still believe. It’s worth adding them in the event that a search engine will use meta tags in their ranking formula but put this at the bottom of your SEO to do list.

Google uses over 200 indicators to qualify websites and their priorities are constantly in flux. This highly complicated mathematical computerized algorithm is not only a closely guarded secret but understood by very few people. We are always on the lookout for new information and are constantly sharing ideas about SEO with our clients and contemporaries. If you have any questions regarding SEO or would like to share your insights on this or any other matter please write in the comments section below or get in touch with us on our Facebook Page or through Twitter @Cazbah_net. We would love to hear your thoughts.

Videos are a great way to differentiate your business and YouTube is no longer regarded as just an entertainment site. It has grown into an invaluable business resource. With some time and creativity your videos can open new opportunities for your small business that would make a Fortune 500 company cringe with envy. Here are ten reasons why YouTube is a must for small businesses.

1.) It’s Free
Unlike television ads or radio spots YouTube and for the most part social media is free. To become a visible entity on the web it takes time and effort, not money and connections like in traditional media. This medium can be leveraged so a small start up has the same potential to go viral as a much more recognized brand and that can happen very quickly with videos. YouTube is the most watched website for videos and your YouTube channel is like having a second website without the cost of hosting and upkeep.

2.) Drive Sales
A video on YouTube is a great referral to your site. Your video can be seen by many people, optimized and shared through different social media tools like Facebook and Twitter. Because each video will have specific keywords or Tags associated with it. It will be found by the folks who are looking for you and your products via search engines like Google which owns YouTube and has about 70% of the search engine market. A powerful medium to showcase your products and build leads.

3.) SEO
As I mentioned, a YouTube Channel is like having a second site and lends room for you to describe your company and the products and services you provide. Along with the Channel you can describe each video individually with tags to help weed out the folks looking for cute kitty shenanigans. Tagging your video for SEO purposes will give you a great advantage of being found in general search. Each SERP page provides results for videos. For instance if you sell “baseball cards”, that key term in general search will have millions of results but, on video only thousands apply.  Because the SERP page prominently shows video results there is much less competition and therefore giving you a greater chance of being found on page uno. That will lead to much more exposure to your brand.

4.) Huge Audience
YouTube exceeds 2 billion views a day. More than 700 billion videos were examined in 2010. Users published more than 13 million hours of content and are the third most visited website in this known universe, bested only by Facebook and Google, respectively.

5.) Product Support
Provide your customers with useful videos on the most common problems and questions. This will reduce your company’s support costs. A video tutorial on the proper usages of your products beats a convoluted directions page on your website any time. They can watch and pause as they’re assembling as well — all with free YouTube videos.

6.) Training
Use YouTube for product training. If you have a sales force and distributers around the globe, a short series of training videos will save you a ton of money on traveling costs. Simply upload your training videos to YouTube and grant your salespeople access. This will also be useful to new in coming employees as the material is already archived and ready to go.

7.) Engagement
You have the option to let viewers comment on each video. This gives your small business a unique opportunity to correspond with potential customers directly on your channel. Also, sharing your video via social media gives it even more exposure and chance to communicate with folks on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.

8.) Customer Testimonials
A video testimonial from an excited loyal customer can go a long way. Simply having written testimonials on your website leads to the question  of who actually wrote it. Anybody can write, but with video, perspective clients can see and hear the real deal with their own eyes and ears. The trust value and authenticity of your customer recommendations sky rocket. And you’ll have them forever and use them for specific market strategies. You cannot put a price tag on this, it’s that valuable.

9.) Insight
For every video you upload, YouTube offers free analytics data via the Insight feature where you can see statistics on views, demographics, community and subscribers. Most importantly, there’s discovery data that shows you how people are finding your videos, including the links they followed to get there. In addition, you can see how many views you are getting through the YouTube player page, embed player and mobile devices.

10.) Fun
Putting together a company video whether it be a holiday message or a just for the hell of it lip dub video can be loads of fun and boost company moral. We are seeing more and more small businesses having a blast with video and their company brand. These entertaining videos are conveying an important message that they are fun to work for, buy from and do business with. This highlights the social human nature behind the logo and gives a welcoming feel to any future business relationship.

There could be a blog post written for each reason above, probably a whole book. The website for your business is just part of the entire online opportunity. With YouTube videos you can give a no doubt message to your audience. Please don’t have your site built, fold your arms and wait. Take your HD video camera out and start recording the amazing things that are going on in your company right now. Be proactive in your small business marketing.

Last week, a client – a long term client at that, stopped in to  our office for a discussion with his Account Manager. They were to work on a few aspects for an upcoming marketing effort for the fall and wanted to cover the details together.

While he was waiting for his Account Manager to finish a call, he whimsically wrote on our project board “ Do my stuff every day” .

He laughed.. we laughed and they went on with their meeting..

I thought later about it and his comment is really on point. Our clients gain success because we do stuff on their behalf.. ‘every day’

Ok, so it would be a stretch to say we are directly doing “stuff” everyday on every account – but we do stuff collectively which benefits all our clients in numerous indirect ways.

Things like  -

Developing improved functionality on our hosting platform, to ensure the technology serves our clients well such as PCi compliant security enhancements. Conducting training events for the Accounts team, which we refer to as “Cazbah University”, which allows them to share best practices across the team.

Cross linking social media accounts, to gain maximum benefit from each and every update.

Providing time for our folks to gain certifications, such as Google’s’ “Advertising Professional” program

Updating internal procedures to remain in step with the dynamic changes occurring daily on the web (and yes – the changes are both dynamic and daily!).

Researching exactly how Google’s Bots actually function and leveraging that knowledge across the board for our clients benefit.

Most interesting, our perspective is unique, because we are able to view online performance across many industries and vertical markets, spread across the entire country (worldwide even). If the industry is up – we know it.. If it’s down, we know it also.

As a result, our clients gain knowledge through us and allows them to see their industry in a different light.

We’ve been at this specialty small business online marketing game for the better part of 10 years now, and we have hundreds of successful specialty small business customers, for whom we generate literally tens of millions of dollars in new revenue from the web…

So here’s what really chaps my set-upon; I would have to say that every customer (to a one) that we’ve gotten (and still have by the way) over the years, has had at least one (if not several) bad experience with another web development company or so-called guru or expert, before we’ve had the pleasure of their business.

In most cases this has cost them tens of thousands of dollars in fees for a mediocre website and whatnot, plus the loss of revenues, i.e., the money they should have made but didn’t. This can easily get into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Being completely objective, which is difficult for me to do in this particular case, this is a blessing and a curse:

The Blessing — There are an ever increasing number of hucksters out there putting out an incessant commentary on the virtues (not that they would know virtue if it bit them) of Internet Marketing, in all of its varied forms and functions.

That’s good, because whether they realize it or not, they are advancing the cause, so-to-speak, by raising the awareness of the relatively uninitiated small business owner or entrepreneur for all things Internet. If there is anything we can use more of it’s awareness.

The Curse — These maleficent marketers who shill, bait and switch, sell a pig in a poke, have no concern for the bad faith and jaundice they create in the industry as a whole. I can’t tell you the number of times we hear things like, “You guys are all the same.” Or, “I just talked to a group that does exactly what you do.” Or, “I spent 2o grand with the company who did my website and now they want even more money to fix it. Why should I trust you?”

Needless to say most small businesses are gun shy when it comes to Internet Marketing or the companies who profess expertise in this area. Can you blame them?

For this reason, I’ve come up with the following questions to help small businesses in their vetting process when determining an Internet Marketing company to work with.

How many customers do you have?

How many customers like me do you have?

What is your Federal Tax ID?

How long have you been in business?

Can y0u give me a list of a dozen customers, with their website addresses, that I can call and talk to personally?

Do you have employees (i.e., the kind you can touch), and if so how many?

Can you give me a demonstration of your work?

Who will I be working with if I choose to become a customer of yours?

Can you show me first hand examples of the results, SEO, Conversion, Sales that you have achieved?

Do you have your own technology? If not, who’s do you use?

Do you have any certifications, Google Analytics, Addwords, etc?

What are you going to do for me EXACTLY?

What is this going to cost, EXACTLY?

And of course; Does your mom still do your laundry?

For our part, I welcome all of these questions and any others that you can think up. We’ll continue to keep killin’ it for our specialty small business customers, under-promising and over-delivering every single time.