Entries from December 2007 ↓

This is part of our ongoing education series. Our effort to educate those less familiar with Search Engine Optimization and Marketing.

Jill Whalen of High Rankings recently had a post on her forum about whether SEO is a skill or a prerequisite for any web designer or developer. This question raised a lot of comments and conversation. The main theme is, who is the responsible party? The Client to know about SEO to ask for it? Or, the Agency to educate the client about SEO?

Read Jill’s full article here. Below I have pulled several quotes from the article & forum post.

Quotes from the article & forum.

“It goes without saying that the average small-business owner in 2007 knows that they need a website. But do they know that they need SEO, or do they just assume that once they have a website it will naturally be found in Google for search queries for which it’s relevant? … A site that is invisible in Google may as well not exist, and yet, design agencies of all sizes do not educate their clients about this.”
–Jill Whalen

“I explained that web design and SEO are two different disciplines and sometimes a student of one discipline does not understand or know about all the implications for the other, nor should they be expected to. It transpired that he did not know that SEO and web design were different things, and he had assumed that the web designer should know and take into account these issues.”
–rolf (High Rankings fourm)

” … in a perfect world the designer should probably raise the spector of the search engines when negotiating with a business client, if for no other reason than to make sure both parties are on the same page. Starting out on the same page and knowing expectations certainly has a positive effect on eliminating possible misunderstandings and disappointments down the road”
–Rand (High Rankings Forum)

“What is unfair is to put yourself out as an expert and then fail to exercise that expertise on behalf of your client. At the very least, I believe you are legally required to perform the task contracted for in a manner consistent with the normal and expected standards of your profession.”
–mcanerin (High Rankings Forum)

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This is part of our ongoing education series. Our effort to educate those less familiar with Search Engine Optimization and Marketing. First 25 Door County Visitor Bureau Members to reply get a basic site report FREE now. Just fill out our contact form with name, phone and web address.

Search Engine Optimization is all about making your site and its content easily available to internet users and search engines like Google, Yahoo & Live from MSN. Through good SEO, you can achieve your online marketing objectives, including new sales and lead generation, newsletter subscriptions, quote request form sign ups etc.

The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, SEMPO, reports 75 percent of marketers are using search engine optimization to prove their web site visibility.

It’s important to note that a combination of SEO and pay per click advertising is an important recipe to a successful search engine marketing campaign. Google, Yahoo & MSN all have PPC platforms. Each are unique and all display in the right column of the search engine results pages, or SERPS.

Below are 6 reasons to invest in SEO.

Reach your Business Goals
Develop new customers, leads and sales. More than half of internet users search once per day, an average of 6.5 billion search queries a month. You want these users to find you.

Build Brand Awareness
SEO will increase your web site visibility. With your company name, logo, slogan appearing in front of more eyeballs only increases your brand awareness. And you don’t want to pay PPC prices for your brand name. This should be free. With a good SEO approach you will be found for your brand name, and be able to focus on being found for the generic equivalent of your product or service.

Avoid High Pay Per Click Costs
In the long run SEO beats out PPC. If you could be ranked organically for your products or services why pay increasing PPC prices every day, forever? All search engines are increasing PPC costs, it’s just not a cost effective long term approach for a search marketing campaign.

Increase Organic Results
Google, Yahoo and all the big engines report higher clicks on organic listings (main body of results pages) versus PPC sponsored listing in the right column of the page. This is not a secret. Don’t limit yourself with just PPC. Also, experienced users tend to click even less on PPC sponsored listings.

Increase Customer Satisfaction
SEO is about usability for the engines and the human visitor. Intuitive menus and navigation, friendly and informative content, site structure and good internal linking paths all lead to sales and conversions. Those who find your site easy to use will be more likely to buy and come back, increasing customer satisfaction.

Increase Return on Investment
Sixty-nine percent of SEMPO members surveyed said SEO brings the best ROI next to in-house marketing, and paid search. With the addition of web analytics, you can monitor your progress and make educated decisions based on what has worked and what may not.

First 25 Door County Visitor Bureau Members to reply get a basic site report FREE now. Just fill out our contact form with name, phone and web address.

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It’s 7 o’clock and I’m having dinner with my friend Ed on the 27th floor steakhouse of Binion’s Casino on Freemont Street. The prime rib is excellent, and every other person is wearing a cowboy hat or ironed jeans. Through the windows of the restaurant we see the flickering lights of the city below. This is Las Vegas baby, anything can and will happen.

Dinner ends and I catch a cab to SEOmoz’s Werewolf party. It’s the second day of Pubcon and the first social gathering for me. I’m new to the SEO conference circuit but not the industry. This gathering will be a good chance to rub some elbows with some big names in the biz and get the real scoop.

I arrive at the convention center to catch the end of the “Meet the Google Engineers” soiree. The room is filled with people chatting with engineers while viewing big flat screen monitors with the latest Google products on them. I notice that everyone has cool Google drink cups in their hands, a souvenir, so I make my way to the bar.

The cocktails are free, and I see the tip jar with just a couple singles in it. I toss in a five and tell the bartender to keep up the good work. The bartender lifts his head and smiles brightly at me. He proceeds to pour what seems to be half a bottle of Jack Daniels into my cup, and splashes a bit of Coke on the top. Wow, I thought to myself. I was not expecting that. This is turning out to be quite a night. Anything could happen.

I do a lap around the room, exit, and arrive next door at the SEOmoz Werewolf party. The room is filled with big rectangular tables, each with about 12 chairs, and black and white M&Ms scatted about the tabletops. People fill in, are seated and Rand Fishkin begins to tell us how to play the game.

How Werewolf, the SEO game is played
Werewolf is a card game. This is the concept. Each deck of cards has faces of search engine optimization professionals on it. Some are white hats, those that are good and can do no wrong according to the search engines. And a few are labeled as black hats, the term given to someone who regularly bends the rules of the search engines and may receive penalties for their bad intensions.

Once everyone gets a card the game begins. Each player puts their head down (as not to see anyone) and beats their hands on the table. The designated moderator of the game then chimes in. “Black hats, wake up.” If you where given a black hat card you team up with the other black hats and pick a innocent victim to eject from the game. Heads down again.

The moderator then asks for the player with the Danny Sullivan card to awake. This player can absolve anyone that was accused of being black hat. A get out of jail free card, so to speak. Then the player with the Matt Cutts card awakes. Matt Cutts can ask about anyone’s loyalty. He knows who is white hat and who is black hat.Once all is said and done, everyone awakes. Now is the chance for the accused to rebuttal and convince everyone that they should not leave the game. And it goes from there until either the black or white hats are left.

The party begins to get interesting
The game is a hoot. Everyone is getting into it, so much that there is a tournament of champions. I find myself at the champion’s table. By this time my cocktail is long gone, and people are cutting loose. I’m at the who’s who table of SEOs playing a loud obnoxious game of cards and I love it.

To my left is the one and only Matt Cutts of Google, a pretty big elbow to rub in the search space. I plan to play it cool, but before I know it the cards are dealt and I get the Matt Cutts card. That’s funny, I thought to myself, what are the odds?

As the game continues, I am able to ask if anyone at the table is a black or white hat. After all, the holder of the Matt Cutts card has this power. I signal Rand, who is moderating the game, and ask if Matt is a black hat. He replies with a big nod, yes. Oh, the irony is tickling me and I can feel the Google cocktail rumble in my stomach. What kind of sign is this?

All heads come up and a player three chairs down is accused of being a black hat. I’m safe, but not for long. Out of the blue the real Matt Cutts begins telling the table he is Danny Sullivan, and that he should not go out? It starts to get a little blurry here, because I know that Matt Cutts can’t be Danny Sullivan (very white hat) because I was dealt the Matt Cutts card and found out he was really and black hat, and thus was lying.

This is when I learned a big lesson.
Nobody will ever believe Matt Cutts is a black hat. (Game or no game) Or could do any wrong, for that matter. He’s too pure. He does not drink; he is Google’s anti-spam guy, and he like cats. I should have trusted to my intuition, but it was that Google drink bomb that had me blurting out, “He’s a black hat, He can’t be Danny Sullivan, I’m the real Matt Cutts.”

As everyone turned to me with faces of disbelief, I began to wonder if this was all a set up? Did Matt know the bartender that poured me the stiff drink? Do all the Googlers roll together? Did he somehow plan to give me his card? Does he really know all that happens, everywhere, not just with Google?

Needless to say, nobody believed me when I tried to plead that I was the real Matt Cutts. They all just pointed and threw me out of the game, while Matt just sat beside me and smiled.

Was this a set up? Does Matt Cutts really have that much power? Is he some sort of super hero? I guess I’ll never know, but at least I have this story. Cheers Matt, thanks for being a good sport and signing the card for proof. Until we play again, I’ll be sleeping with one eye open.

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What a week. Not only am I no longer a Pubcon virgin, but I have also been embraced by beautiful Las Vegas with all her bright lights, slot-machine jingles and raw, unbridled energy.

I see now how Hunter S. Thompson was so easily and effortlessly swept into a melting world of wonder and fancy when he wrote Fear and Loathing. In the spirit of Hunter, I too was on a job, researching everything, keeping my ear to the road, eye to the sky moving forward, never straight.

Danny Sullivan, (Godfather of Search, Search Engine Land) and me (Matt Joswick)

The Pubcon Webmaster Conference Sessions.
The show was four days long. Each day started with a keynote speaker followed by four different tracks of 1.5 hour long sessions. Each session was lead by a moderator and had a panel of 3 to 5 industry experts. Session topics included Search, Web 2.0, Net Marketing, SEO/SEM, Affiliates, Domainers, Video, Multimedia : aka: Webmastery.All the sessions where very informative. However, as informative as they were, the juicy tid bits I came to find were only passed on through confidence in face-to-face chats after sessions or at the nightly parties held most days. Sessions I attended covered Organic SEO, Link Building, Brand Management, Hosting Industry, E-Commerce, Writing for Engines, and much more.

Google booth on showroom floor.

It’s all about the People

A good conference but a great networking event. I went into the conference with the intention of meeting all the great search engine optimizers and marketers of whom I have learned from for the last several years. In any industry there are always people that are known for who they are, or the great work they have done. I thought they would be the ones to drop the best advice. And they did, but I realized quickly so many of the people I met during the conference were very clever, had great ideas, success stories and very cool. I am so excited to network with everyone I met.

Search Engine Guru Detlev Johnson (of Search Return) and me.

Special thanks to Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land and Detlev Johnson of Search Return who were so great to stand in for a photo. Big props to my new link building guru bud Jim Boykin, I have some vintage Bob Marley recordings for you. A Salute Todd Malicoat for being so cool, and looking exactly like my grade school buddy Brian Dimmer. Rand Fishkin and Gillian for putting on the Werewolf Party, and Matt Cutts for not letting anyone believe me when I said I was Matt Cutts. And to Stephan Spencer for representing Wisconsin and nice WP plugins.

And everyone else I had the pleasure of getting to know, here is some link love, Paul Bradish, Nick Wilson, Amad Ebrahimi, Glen Reeves, Manfred Trienbacher, Jan Gehrke, Wesley Cox, Derrick Wheeler, Christopher Kata, Adam Green, Keith Goode, Bruce Clay, Sarah Bird, Jan Becker-Fochler, Michele Smith, Jason Glaspey, Tony Aly, Monte Baumgartner, Paul Bruemmer, Amanda Stewart, Mike Blarowski, Ian Cowley, Vanessa Fox and everyone else.

More Webmaster Session Details.
I plan to cover more session topics in more detail once I get my notes together. Each session covered enough information to write for days about. Stay tuned for more post of this sort.

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