Posted On March 19th, 2009 Author Kyle Racki
Filed Under External Articles, Marketing, 7
This post is heavily based off of the vlog from SEO Moz; Whiteboard Friday - How to Get Awesome Links
At one time, SEO for most businesses meant stuffing a few keywords inside meta tags. Things have certainly changed. Among many other techniques to boost ranking, the biggest being useful, keyword rich content, link building stands as the most effective way to drive traffic to your site. The basic concept is this; your site is being linked to by another site (AKA an inbound link) - not only does this help your site because user’s are directly visiting your site from this inbound link, but Google will increase your actual search ranking depending on the quality of the link. Which leads us to…
What makes a good link?
Three main factors make a good link, in order of importance.
1) Motivation - sometimes, the best things in life are free. In this case, that cliche certainly applies. When a site links to yours because they genuinely like your content and want to promote it, this makes for a better link than one that is simply exchanged or paid for.
2) Source metrics - The higher the linking site ranks, the better it is for you. For instance, if apple.com links to you, this is more valuable than a link from your grandmother’s blog (Like any grandmother has a blog).
3) Anchor text and URL - The words that is linked actually matter. If the linking site includes keywords in their link, this will boost your ranking for said keyword. For example, if someone links to Headspace, I would probably want awesome web design company as a link instead of click here.
How do I get awesome links
Good, natural content. This is the simplest way to do it, yet the hardest to pull off. If your site has great content, the inbound links will follow.
Content Licensing If your content or application has a creative commons license, then others have to link to you when they use your content on their sites. Example, a photo from a photo blog or a widget from a development company is used in a blog, it’s only right that the blogger links to the source - you. Kind of like how I’m linking to SEO Moz for using their content in this post.
Link bait and Viral content Similar to #1 - if your website or post is so interesting, funny, amazing, or controversial—the links will follow. Viral content gets quickly spread across sites like Digg, Del.icio.us, Stumble Upon etc. The challenge is making fascinating content.
Partnerships - This is obvious. If you have a sister company, another branch, or a strategic partner, exchanging links is both good and valuable.
Social Media and Good Directories - Although most social media profiles (Linked In, Facebook etc.) have little link juice, they are still worth posting. Also, good directories like Yellow Pages, Kijiji, or another qualitative list is good (not link farms).
There are more points in the SEO Moz post, but These were the points I found most valuable. Does anyone else have other methods of obtaining awesome links?
Posted On June 1st, 2008 Author Kyle Racki
Filed Under Business, Marketing, 0
- Know your audience
- Content
- Content Management Systems
- Hosting and Domain
- Bandwidth
- Web standards
- Search Engine Optimization
- Browser Testing
- Accessibility
- Design/Usability
- Open Source or Proprietary?
- Flash or HTML?
The previous post covered topic 6. This post will discuss point 7 - search engine optimization (SEO).
If they find you, they will come
The web is increasingly becoming the new phone book. And we all know who the Yellow Pages is in that analogy. That’s right, Google. It’s become so prevalent that the company name has become a verb, and if you’re company isn’t getting Googled, you’re in trouble.
The fact is, search engines are one of the most important ways to market your site, and a niche service in the broad field of internet marketing is that of search engine optimization, or SEO. This is relatively simple, as much as SEO experts would like you to believe otherwise. Despite the scientific sound of the term, search engine optimization is just that, it’s optimizing your website for search engines. It’s making your website ‘search-engine friendly.’
The pen is mightier
The key thing to remember is this—search engine spiders (the incomprehensible things that crawl through the web and find, or index websites) like one thing - words. The more content on your site the better, or more accurately, the more appropriate content in the more appropriate places, the better.
You see, most people when searching the web will never type your company name, and if they do, they are actively looking for you anyway, and thus not a qualified lead. Most people type in key words. If your looking for the nearest flower shop, your not typing “Aunt June’s Flower Shop”. You’re going to first look for the type of business; “flowers”, then you’re adding the location; “downtown Halifax”, just as you would if you were searching the phone book.
With this in mind, key words are vital to SEO. Try to figure out the key words that your users are searching with to find your competitors, and then try to weave these words in your website as much as possible. Of course, this is what an SEO expert does, therefore you’ll have to work with your consultant, be that your design and development team, or a specialized contractor.
Because of the nature of these posts I will not get into the technical details of how to incorporate words on your site. But here are a few dos and don’ts of SEO:
DO:
- Make the content of your site key word rich, yet still readable and fluent
- Keep your site updated on a regular basis (search engines love that)
- Use lots of links, both to internal site pages, and to other appropriate sites
DON’T
- Stuff your site with hidden keywords, it will get you black-listed from the search engines
- Put key words ahead of content, that is, don’t place more importance on getting key words on your site than writing good, meaningful copy
- Expect to be number one immediately. Even with best practices, it takes time and patience to see the results of your SEO
Oh yeah, perhaps that last ‘don’t’ is this: Don’t assume that the team making your website will automatically be concerned with your search engine ranking. Most of the time, designers are too busy designing and developers are too busy developing to be adding key words to your website. Ask up front how the team will optimize your site, and add an additional budget for it if necessary, even if it means hiring a web copywriter. Remember, even as a tree in the forest makes no sound if there are none around to hear it, a great site will have no impact on your bottom line if no one visits it.
Posted On May 29th, 2008 Author Kyle Racki
Filed Under Marketing, 2
This post is not meant to be particularly insightful or surprising—just a simple observation that may generate discussion. I don’t claim to be an expert in advertising, though I did work in an ad agency for a couple of years, and had some fun coming up with headlines while throwing a rubber ball against a wall. I definitely don’t make advertising my focus for Headspace, nor do I pay much attention to it as an industry (though I usually check out Ads of the World and every year I read the Communication Arts Advertising Annual ).
With that being said, I can’t help but notice a trend in advertising in recent years. That of personifying the inanimate,—using human beings to represent company products. True, using people to sell is not a new concept. Since as far back as the 1950’s, housewives would hold laundry detergent, real or imaginary customers told testimonials, celebrities would endorse big brands. It also used to be more common that inanimate objects were used as the metaphor, not the other way around (remember “This is your brain on drugs” back in the 80’s, with a fried egg as the metaphor?).
I’ve got three examples of a newer take on this, though I know there are more. Perhaps the most universally known and accepted is the Apple ads that use the 20-something cool-breeze to represent Mac, and a dumpy, middle-aged (albeit funny) man to play the boring old PC. Note how this differs from the age-old practice of having a company spokesperson; it’s common for people to represent companies, as in the case of Bill Cosby representing Kodak Film back in the 90s. However, in the case of the Apple ads, the actor is representing the inanimate product itself (the computer), which in turn represents the company.
The Capital One ads instead use a series of actors to represent other banks interacting with customers. Interestingly, in this case you’ve got humans representing companies, only they play the part of the competitors this time. The first in this series used the now familiar “Hands in my pocket” song to show that bankers always are always ripping off consumers, wrapping the metaphor with a pun. The series has since broadened its concept to use the bankers in other seedy ways (such as the exterminator, “You’ve got bankers”).
The third ad is one I saw today, which inspired me to write this post. It’s a French web company called Bouygues Telecom, and the ad concept is a man (the vistor) walking through a field by a woman (the welcome page). The hostess shows the man all of the different features of the website, like the search engines (a stuffy bunch of analysts), the travel sites (good-looking flight attendants) and online gaming (a war zone of aliens running around shooting lasers).
I’m not sure if this trend has any cultural significance, or if it just means that one thing never changes—people are always the most interesting way to sell. I only wonder what other innovative ways will human beings be used to move products. Do you have any other examples of personification in advertising, or do you have thoughts on the post?
Posted On December 21st, 2007 Author Kyle Racki
Filed Under Design, Marketing, 0
It’s been said that ‘advertising is a knock-knock joke, design is a conversation.’
Interestingly enough, many firms that began as design boutiques, eventually turned into advertising agencies. There was just more money in advertising. Why is it that advertising and design is perceived this way?
There’s definitely a quick-turnaround mentality with advertising. Like a summer fling, there’s no commitment. A company can choose an agency, get a campaign conceived, story-boarded, shot and published relatively quickly, and then wait for six months to see if there was a change in revenue. If it wasn’t successful, they try again, maybe with another agency. If it was successful, they ask the agency to shoot the same campaign, but to “mix it up a little”.
Design is a totally different mentality. By design, I don’t mean just the act of laying out a brochure, or sketching a logo. I’m talking long-term. Like a solid marriage, a company’s brand will evolve and refine itself over time. It speaks a language, it communicates. It has a personality and constantly, and more importantly, consistently, gets it personality out there for people to see, touch and hear. Many of the worlds biggest brands have not changed radically over the decades, they simply evolved. They still say the same thing, but maybe with a little more style. But either way, you know them when you see them.
Think of how Apple has invented and reinvented themselves over the years. They keep changing with the times, but they are still projecting the same image as before. And people will remember that long after the “I’m a PC, I’m a Mac” ads have run their course.
No disrespect to advertising. It has it’s place. In many ways it is a great way to remind consumers of a brand’s personality. After all, who doesn’t like a good knock-knock joke?
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