Why Search Engine Rankings Matter

You may have noticed we haven’t written a blog post in a few weeks. Once every two years we write an Olympics blog– one for the Winter Olympics and one for the Summer Olympics (this one hasn’t yet undergone a facelift– look for that soon). For a couple of weeks every two years, every spare moment is spent watching and writing about the Olympics. What does that have to do with your Search Engine Results Page (SERP)? Keep reading, and I’ll let you know.

In the current age of Pay Per Click, it can become easy to ask– does it matter where I rank? After all with the right PPC manager, I can appear on the front page any day I want. That may be true and, certainly, given enough money you can buy a spot in the Sponsored Ads.

However, PPC cannot buy you authority. People who know those are sponsored ads know that you paid to be placed there and that it has nothing to do with the quality of your site. Sometimes that may not matter. It depends whose attention you’re trying to attract.

Ranking for Olympic related terms is, as you can imagine, challenging. When we wrote our first Olympics blog– 2006TurinOlympics.com, it ranked in the top three for the phrase 2006 Turin Olympics. Not only did this lead to a huge amount of traffic, over 200,000 page impressions for the month of February in 2006, but it also lead to being quoted in the Washington Post.

Of course, then we had the domain working for us. But after the Turin Olympics, we decided to create the ongoing winter and summer Olympics blogs. That meant we would no longer be attempting to rank for a specific Olympics, but for the more general (and, therefore, more difficult) terms winter Olympics and summer Olympics. During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, we ran into a problem with our ranking. While we ranked well early on, our site completely disappeared the day of the Opening Ceremony and didn’t reappear for over half of the Olympics.

We were concerned we were going to have the same result with this winter’s Olympic blog. Sure enough, when we started out, our rankings were pretty low and so was our traffic. Once we started adding content, though, we were able to rise to 12th in the rankings for “winter Olympics” and to maintain a number 1 ranking for “winter Olympics news”– not bad considering five of the top ten positions were held by the official IOC site, the official Vancouver site, and NBC’s Olympics site. As our rankings rose, so did our traffic. And, apparently, so did our profile and authority in the eyes of others.

During the second week of the Olympics, we were contacted by a representative of the public relations firm running Proctor and Gamble’s Olympics campaign. Would we be interested in interviewing a couple of the women from the U.S. women’s hockey team? Um, sure. That resulted in this post about Jenny Potter.

When Sherry (my co-writer for the blog) emailed our contact to say thanks, she offered to set up another interview. That resulted in this interview with Kristy Yamaguchi. Not bad for a couple of “amateurs” writing an Olympics blog.

So, what’s my point? I know that the pr firm rep found us through the search engines. She didn’t pick a random company who was paying for sponsored links. She picked a website that ranked well for the terms she was searching. Our ranking gave us automatic authority in the eyes of others. In turn, that gave us the opportunity to conduct a couple of interviews that allowed us to create some unique content that will allow us to gain even more traffic. I hope you can see how this could be a good thing for your business.

Even if you’re not trying to conduct interviews or writing a blog on your website (although if you’re not, we really must talk), a top ranking for your keywords WILL promote you as an expert. If you’re searching for Houston widgets, which company are you going to do business with? The one ranked number one or even number four? Or the one ranked twentieth? Whether you, personally, think your ranking should make a difference in your potential customers’ eyes, it does.

Am I saying Pay Per Click is bad and that no one should go that route? Certainly not! More traffic is more traffic and a well-designed PPC campaign can be especially helpful as you’re building your organic search ranking or if you’re in a really competitive niche. But PPC will not help demonstrate that you’re an expert. Natural search results just might.

The Most Popular Twitter Tools And Why They Are So Popular

When it became clear that Twitter is a bona fide phenomenon, everyone jumped on the bandwagon to come up with all sorts of tools and applications. There are so many out there to choose from, wading through them can be quite a job in itself. One of the first things many new to Twitter complain about is that once you begin following and being followed, response can be overwhelming. So, many tools focus on organization and filtering. Others are time savers that let you make the most of Twitter without having to constantly be on it. To help you out, here are a few of the most popular Twitter tools and the cool things they can do for you and your business.

Tweetdeck is a kind of overall organizer that connects you with contacts over Twitter, Facebook, and other social media. With the browser you can create groups, filter tweets, and keep up with favorite subjects. The easy to navigate screens spread everything out in front of you so you can reply, direct message, retweet, add to favorites, etc.

Twhirl ranks almost as high on popularity lists as Tweetdeck, but also allows you to manage more than one account within one application. For those with multiple businesses, blogs, or just want to keep a private and a public account, this is for you.

Tweepler is a tool that helps you organize your followers and decide if you want to follow them back, or just ignore them. It gives you helpful stats about followers and generally streamlines the decision making process.

Twitpic allows you to post pictures on Twitter. You can post via your phone, their API, or the Internet. Useful for both social and business activity, this application pretty much speaks for itself. After all, a tweet is a maximum of 140 characters, and a picture is worth a thousand words!

Twitoria helps get rid of clutter by scanning your account to see who has been inactive for certain periods of time. It can also help you track down spammers.

Twitpay lets you give and receive payments via your Paypal account. It makes payments incredibly easy and mobile, no need to use your desktop or laptop.

Twitter to WP/ WP to Twitter; great for bloggers, Twitter to WP posts your tweets on the sidebar of your WordPress blog. WP to Twitter sends an automatic update when you post something new on your blog.

Twit(url)y tracks the urls that are currently being twittered about. Use this site to see who’s got the most talked about sites and what’s on the minds of Twitter users. It tells you who has the most active tweets in real time.

MrTweet calls itself “your personal networking assistant.” Use it to find which conversations are most important and relevant to you. It can help you track your relationships discover new networking opportunities.

These are just a small slice of the incredible tools available to make your Twitter account work harder for you. Adding just a few of the applications to the already powerful Twitter can make the difference between just doing well, and having huge success online.

Think Social Media is a Fad?

Think that social media is a flash in the pan that will pass, and you’ll just “hunker down” until it passes you by? Or that social networking is nice for teens but has nothing to do with your business? Watch this quick video and let us know if you still feel that way.

What Can You Expect from Social Networking?

Social media is being talked about everywhere these days and for good reason. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are bringing companies more business every day. In fact, Pepsi announced recently that for the first time in 23 years they are not going to be advertising Pepsi in the Super Bowl! Instead of doing Super Bowl ads Pepsi plans to spend 20 million dollars (yes, that’s million) on a social media campaign. This announcement highlights the shift for companies, both big and small, when it comes to spending marketing dollars on social networking.

Does Social Networking really work?

Asking whether social networking works is like asking whether any form of networking works? Why go to networking breakfasts? Why attend industry functions? If you don’t leave a networking breakfast with a contract, but you leave having made three good contacts, was it a waste?

Whether you’re talking about Facebook or Twitter or some other social networking site, it’s good to go in with an end in mind. What are you trying to get out of it? Are you trying to improve your brand? Establish communication with your customers? Take advantage of social networking’s viral aspect? Meet other industry leaders?

Each of these purposes will require a different approach. Twitter and Facebook are excellent for reaching out to your customer base and spreading your branding message. Linked In and Plaxo are better for reaching out to other business owners for forming strategic partnerships.

So, yes, social networking works, but only if you have a clear goal in mind and use the proper method to achieve that end. Approach social networking like any other networking event or like a trade show, and you’ll probably be happy with your results. Approach it like buying a billboard ad or sending out a direct mailing advertisement, and you might be disappointed.

What’s my ROI?

Trying to measure a Return on Investment, or ROI, for a company’s social networking strategy may be like asking someone to quantify happiness (although apparently some people try to do that). Measuring the effectiveness of your marketing is a big key to being successful. So, it’s understandable that a business needs to measure the costs of any marketing strategy it implements and then measure the monetary results to find out if the strategy is worth continuing. But how can you possibly measure the results of your participation in social media networks?

The good news is that the actual financial investment in social networking is pretty low. Unless you’re paying someone to do your social networking for you (or are purchasing advertising on a social networking site), you’re looking at more of a time investment than a monetary one. So, your dollar investment may not require a lot of return to justify what you spend.

However, as the saying goes, “time is money”. If you spend hours every day on social networking at the expense of other business activities, that needs to pay off. So, how can you measure whether you’re spending the right amount of resources on your social networking strategy?

Again, you’ll want to start with an actual strategy, complete with some measurable end.

Want to get out your brand message?

Perhaps the strategy is to increase the number of people following you on Twitter or the number of fans on Facebook. That’s something you can measure.

Trying to establish a particular contact within a company?

Map out how to get closer using Linked In. Did you manage to get linked in to a contact within the right company or within the right industry this month? Great! You’re on the right track.

Of course, there are some tools that can help you look at your numbers. You can use Google Analytics or other similar programs to track your traffic and see where it’s coming from– visitors to your site from a social networking site is a good indication that you’re doing something right. Each site generally has its own set of helpful tools, as well. For example, Facebook fan pages have an “insight” section that provides you information about the number of visitors, interactions and even demographic information about your fans.

So, what’s the bottom line?

The real return on investment for social networking is that it builds a community of people who go on to boost a company’s brand. It also provides a forum where a company can defend itself against detractors. In many ways, social networking sites are more of a public relations tool than a marketing tool.

The new media engages a company and its potential customers in a conversation. If people get value from your social media presence it will boost your company’s image and cause more word of mouth advertising to take place, and word-of-mouth is the generally the best possible form of advertising. While word of mouth traffic generated from social media is difficult to track in terns of ROI, it provides traffic that has already been convinced by “social proof” that your brand is worth viewing. These are potential clients who are already half sold on buying from you, so when you actually DO traditional marketing, you’re more likely to get a return.

Social media optimization is not about spending X amount of money and raking in Y amount of dollars through a clear connection. It’s about creating a positive, cooperative atmosphere that will eventually bring good results to your business. In order to maximize your profits, your company needs to build an excellent social media presence in 2010 and beyond.

Why Is Twitter So Popular?

To tweet or not to tweet, that is the question.

There’s no denying that Twitter is a social networking phenomenon. Let’s face it; once Oprah got on the Twitter train in April this year, you knew it was probably something you should check out. Despite the fact that it was originally meant to help teens keep track of each other, it has grown up considerably over the past year. In fact, the vast majority of the network’s users are adults, not kids. Only 11% of Twitter’s users are between the ages of 11 and 17. Twitter has become much more than just another way to find out if your friend is at the coffee shop or if Ashton Kutcher is vacationing in the Caribbean. Talk to a teen, and they’ll probably tell you that Twitter is lame; they’d much rather go on Facebook to have longer chats, exchange photos, and play games.

So why the adult interest?

The 140-character limit on posts would, at first, not seem to lend itself to anything more than “At the grocery. Lines are long.” But Twitter is about a lot more than just sending mundane messages into the ether. Though Kutcher beat CNN in a challenge to gain a million followers this spring, CNN acquired a ton of followers themselves. To date, they add up to over 2.8 million people receiving their breaking news. (Sure, Kutcher still has them beat at over 4 million followers, but that’s a lot of people who get instant updates without turning on the TV.) You don’t have to follow Britney Spears; there are news organizations like NPR and CBS, politicians like Barack Obama, John McCain, and Al Gore. Keep up with sports by following the Twitter feeds from the NBA, NFL, or MLB.

Though it may seem daunting to have countless tweets clogging your phone on a big news day, there are ways to narrow it down and even conduct research.

Do a search through a Twitter aggregator so you can stay tuned into the news only you care to read about. Twist, Tweetizen, and Twitturly are three aggregators that can help you narrow your searches by topic, filter lists based on keywords and tags, form groups to facilitate discussion on a particular topic, and keepa tally of how many times the news story, video, or picture has been posted or retweeted. Got a product you think is going to take off? Check out the buzz on Twitter, invite people to join your group, it’s all free advertising.

There’s big business to be found on Twitter.

More and more companies are jumping on the bandwagon to offer links to websites, coupons, information on new products, sale announcements, and more. There are rumors that advertisements will soon be included in the network. Twitter could charge a small fee and not have to look for content. It’s all provided for free by tweeters.

Twitter is even becoming a great place to find a job.

Companies that are looking for social-media savvy employees have decided that the best way to find them is to go to the source. As job boards become more saturated, hiring professionals are finding more of what they want on Twitter, and at a cheaper cost than advertising on the regular boards. Many HR professionals will accept tweeted questions like “what should I wear to the interview?” and tweet back an answer in reasonable time.

It isn’t all sunshine and roses for Twitter right now.

October numbers reported the first decrease of unique domestic users. It’s only 8%, which still leaves a whopping 19.2 million, but that’s enough to worry some investors. New features, like retweets and lists are in place to help reverse the trend. The question that has yet to be answered is why the drop, and is it truly a concern? It’s possible that it’s just a settling in period, especially with more youth users moving on to other social networking options. But with so many adults and businesses finding ways to work more efficiently and economically with this tool, it seems unlikely to fade away any time in the near future.

Twitter’s undeniable popularity is backed by more than fad and fancy.

There are few options out there that allow you to make a brief, instant connection with potentially 19.2 million people in such an easy, cheap and fun way. Whether you are job hunting, researching a product, or just keeping up with your favorite sports team, Twitter has an application to help you achieve your goals for both business and liesure.

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