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Archives for April 2010

A Baker’s Dozen: A Quick Update on Kati’s Kupcakes, The Winner of The Search a Small Business Holiday Giveaway [PODCAST]

April 25, 2010 By Glenn Gabe

Kati's Kupcakes New CMS and Website DesignIf you’re a frequent reader of my blog, then you probably remember the Search a Small Business Holiday Giveaway I launched this past December.  The purpose of the contest was to give an ultra-small business in New Jersey a free online marketing audit, which would produce plan for enhancing the company’s digital strategies.

I launched the contest because it didn’t seem fair that many small businesses lack the resources or budgets to tackle online marketing the right way.  Many SMB’s move at light speed to keep their businesses running and simply don’t have time to keep up on the latest strategies and tactics.  I opened the contest to any small business in NJ with less than ten employees (what I categorized as an ultra-small business).

The winner of the contest was Kati Angelini and she owns Kati’s Kupcakes, a gourmet cupcake business in Moorestown, NJ.  Kati’s Kupcakes creates specialty cupcakes, cupcake towers, wedding cupcakes, etc.  When I first spoke to Kati after announcing the winner, I could tell right away that she was passionate about her business, and was eager to learn more about SEO, Local Search, SEM, Web Analytics, etc.  It also became apparent to me that Kati represented the classic case of someone that had serious skills and was extremely talented, but lacked the exposure she needed to rapidly grow her business.  So, after my initial conference call with her, I got started on analyzing her business, her site, her current marketing efforts, etc.

What I Found and How I Helped (And We’re Not Done Yet…)
During my audit, I began to analyze Kati’s website, her presence in Local Search, her rankings in Natural Search, her tracking capabilities, etc.  It didn’t take long to understand the path we needed to go down.  In a nutshell, the content management system (CMS) Kati was using to run her website was wreaking havoc on her efforts.  The website had a rudimentary design, it was riddled with technical problems, her content wasn’t optimized (at all), she had no presence in local search, and lacked the ability to quickly add new content or blog posts.  For a local small business, the combination I listed above was causing serious problems for gaining exposure, rankings, quality visitors, and customers.  When you boil it down, Kati needed to show up when people were searching for her services.  At the time, she simply wasn’t.

The Marketing Spot with Jay Ehret
When I launched the holiday giveaway, Jay Ehret from The Marketing Spot reached out to me to learn more about the contest.  In case you don’t know Jay, he focuses heavily on small business marketing and branding and he also runs a podcast called Power to the Small Business.  Jay learned about the contest via Twitter (since we have been following each other for some time now).  Jay recently invited me to be on his podcast to speak about the contest, the changes we implemented for Kati, and the results from our initial efforts.  Both Kati and I were on the call and we had a great conversation with Jay about the project.  The podcast launched today and you can listen to it now by visiting the blog post (listed below) or by downloading the podcast via iTunes.

Listen to the Podcast About Kati’s Kupcakes:
Local SEO Clinic: Improving Traffic, Improving Business

Kati’s Kupcakes: Highlights From Our Initial Efforts
Although we are only a few months in, there have been some great improvements marketing-wise.  Kati still has a long way to go, but our initial efforts are definitely paying off. Again, you can listen to the podcast to learn more (it’s 30 minutes long).  Here are some highlights from the project and I’m eager to keep helping Kati grow her business.  By the way, you can hear Kati’s view of the projects on the podcast (including how they have impacted her business.)

  • I performed a thorough SEO technical audit, which revealed a number of technical issues impacting her performance in Natural Search.  There were also a number of content optimization problems on the site (to say the least).  The deck was 30 slides long…
  • We moved Kati’s website from a problematic content management system (CMS) to WordPress, which helped fix a number of technical problems inhibiting her efforts (usability, SEO, blogging, domain strategy, etc.)
  • Kati’s indexation (the number of pages indexed by the search engines) has increased from 12 unoptimized pages to 136 pages.
  • I developed a local search strategy for Kati’s Kupcakes in order for the business to show up for local searches.  This included making a number of changes and additions across several websites and databases.
  • I started training Kati on best practices for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  Kati is the person that would be creating new pages, new blog posts, etc. and needed to understand how to properly optimize those pages on her site.  This took the form of multiple one hour training sessions (and the training is on-going).
  • I explained the power of the long tail of SEO, as well as how to target it.  The long tail is incredibly powerful and businesses should avoid the long tail at their own peril. A bit dramatic?  Sure, but definitely true.  :)
  • Kati’s original website ranked for almost no target keywords.  Since March 1st, 622 keywords have led visitors to Kati’s website, 561 of those keywords were unbranded terms (not someone simply searching for Kati’s Kupcakes), and 128 of those keywords included a local qualifier.  For example, using a town, zipcode, or state along with target keywords.  Down the line, I believe that Kati’s website can rank for thousands of keywords, but 622 is a great start (and a huge improvement.)
  • We added Google Analytics for tracking site performance, which enables Kati to view granular reporting across traffic sources, campaigns, keywords, etc.  I am going to help Kati develop an analytics strategy, including identifying conversions and events to track, so she can quickly and efficiently identify which efforts are paying off for her business.


A Good Start, But There’s Still A Lot To Do:

Although we have made a lot of changes and Kati’s business is seeing a nice impact, we still have some things to do marketing-wise.  For example, there are several content optimization projects we need to perform on the site.  I also want to help Kati learn more about paid search and understand how it can supplement organic search.  I think Kati can have a stronger integration with Facebook and Twitter, and possibly start to use location-based services like FourSquare or Gowalla.  And I want to keep training Kati on SEO best practices so she feels comfortable with making changes that will help her organic search efforts.  In addition, I mentioned that I’ll be helping Kati develop an analytics strategy.  That’s probably our next major step.

So, if you are interested in hearing more about the contest and the projects we tackled, head over to the Marketing Spot and listen to the podcast.  Again, it’s about 30 minutes long, but contains some good nuggets of information for small businesses. Heck, put in on your iPod and listen to it during your next workout.  :)

GG

Filed Under: google-analytics, local-search, SEO, small-business, web-analytics, wordpress

Conversion Goals and Events in Google Analytics: What’s The Difference and When To Use Them

April 19, 2010 By Glenn Gabe

Conversion Goals and Events in Google AnalyticsAs online marketing evolves, more and more companies are realizing the power of effectively tracking their marketing efforts via web analytics.  I’m finding myself doing a lot more analytics strategy work for clients and I absolutely love it (on multiple levels). I’ve worked with a wide range of web analytics packages since 1995 and it’s amazing to see how the industry and technologies have progressed.

Assisting companies with Web Analytics is a core service of mine and I believe it’s critically important for understanding how your marketing efforts are impacting (or not impacting) your business.  When I’m developing strategies for clients, I always begin by identifying various KPI’s for the site at hand.  Then I develop a plan for tracking those KPI’s via a number of conversion goals and events.  After I complete this process and present my plan, it’s not long before I hear the following question:

“What exactly are conversion goals and events and what’s the core difference between the two?”

It’s a great question, and I’ve received the question so often that I’ve decided to write this post to thoroughly cover the topic.  For this post, I’ll focus on Google Analytics, although the core concepts are similar across web analytics packages.  How you set up and track your conversions and events across packages is the main difference.  Let’s begin with conversion goals.

Defining Conversion Goals
Conversion goals are success events that occur on your website.  They represent key actions that users take on your site and they are typically represented by reaching a certain page. For example, a simple conversion to understand is successfully buying something on an e-commerce website.  The “Thank You” page would be your conversion goal (page-wise) and can be tracked in Google Analytics by using the URL destination.  Now, that specific conversion (a purchase) would be achieved after going through a multi-step process to reach the goal (a conversion funnel), and I’ll cover that topic in more depth later in the post.  Note, you can also set up conversion goals that are engagement-based (time on site and number of pages per session), but I’m going to focus on conversions that are triggered by reaching a page on your site.

The Difference Between Macro and Micro-Conversions

When mapping out conversions for your website, you can identify and track both macro and micro-conversions.  An example of a macro-conversion would be a purchase on your site or someone contacting you via a submit form.  These are the critical conversions for your specific business.  But not all conversions are as obvious (and important) as a purchase.  For example, you might consider downloading podcast a micro-conversion for your site.  You might also track RSS subscriptions and registering for an email newsletter as conversions.  You can even track reaching an important page on your website as a micro-conversion.  The exact conversion goals you decide to track will be dictated by your specific website and the goals of your business.  That’s why you should develop an analytics strategy BEFORE setting up your conversions and events.

Conversion Funnels

Earlier I mentioned the multi-step process for buying something on an e-commerce website.  The four required steps in that process can be tracked as a conversion funnel in Google Analytics.  For example, Shopping Cart, Shipping Information, Billing Information, and Thank You Page.  Using a conversion funnel enables you to analyze the process for reaching a certain goal.  For example, do people significantly drop off after step two for some reason?  Analyzing a conversion funnel can arm you with data to go and fix various problems that are present in the multi-step process.  And fixing those problems can end up impacting a lot of revenue for your business.

A Sample Conversion Funnel in Google Analytics:

Conversion Funnels in Google Analytics

Virtual Pageviews and Conversion
What if I told you that you can track a conversion goal on your site by using a page that doesn’t actually exist?  Well, using what’s called a “virtual pageview”, you can do just that.  And there are times that using a virtual pageview makes complete sense.  For example, let’s say you used a service like feedburner to manage your RSS subscriptions.  Since your feed actually resides on another site, your RSS button could trigger a virtual pageview that can be tracked in Google Analytics just like the page actually was present on your site (when in reality, it doesn’t even exist.)  Taking this one step further, you could use that virtual pageview as the URL destination for a conversion goal.  Then you can view reporting for how many people are clicking through to your feed.  You can use this approach to track any click off of your website as a conversion goal.  It’s handy, to say the least.

Conversions Are Unique Per Session

I receive a lot of questions from marketers that see a discrepancy between pageview count and conversions (comparing the content reporting for the page that actually triggers the conversion with the number of conversions being reported in Google Analytics).  For example, seeing a page that has 425 pageviews, but Google Analytics only shows 75 conversions.  Theoretically, those numbers should match, right?  Not so fast…  The reason for the discrepancy is that Google Analytics tracks conversions uniquely by session.  So if a person reaches Goal A during a visit, a conversion is triggered.  But, if that person goes back through the site and triggers the goal again, it’s not counted as a second conversion.  Therefore, if you need to see how many times an action is triggered, use events instead.

Number of Conversions Per Profile

Once clients get excited about the various tracking possibilities, I’m often asked how many conversion goals can be set up in Google Analytics.  There is a limit of 20 conversion goals per profile.  In case you’re wondering, that’s a good amount of conversion goals and most sites will fall short of requiring that number.  Again, it depends on your specific site and business.  That said, you can always create additional profiles and add more conversion goals if needed.  For example, you could have two profiles with 40 conversion goals set up.  I doubt you would need that many goals, but it is possible to set up, if needed.  Goals are broken down in Google Analytics by “goal sets”, which include up to five goals per set.

Goals Are Organized by Goal Sets in Google Analytics:

Conversion Goal Sets in Google Analytics

EVENT TRACKING

 

Defining Events (and Event Tracking)

Events also represent important actions on your website.  The core difference between events and conversion goals is that events are typically tied to website elements and not reaching certain pages (or URL destinations).  Event Tracking has become more important in recent years as web technologies have evolved and websites now rely on non-pageview events more often.  For example, tracking AJAX or Flash-based applications that don’t rely on refreshing the page.  Instead, they load data on-demand via form elements or links.  Event tracking enables you to tag specific actions on your site (such as links or buttons) and then view granular reporting for those actions.  Examples of events include clicking a link to download a pdf, clicking the play button in a video, tracking specific form elements like radio buttons, clicking a link on a webpage that dynamically loads additional information, etc.  Event tracking is extremely versatile and the strategies I develop often include a number of events to track (again, the actual events are based on the site at hand).

Categories, Actions, and Labels
One of the core benefits of event tracking in Google Analytics is the ability to categorize each event.  When you tag an event, you can add a Category, Action, and Label in the code (with Category and Action being required).  This enables you to logically categorize each event that’s triggered.  For example, a rewind button in a video of a keynote presentation might be categorized like:

Category: Videos
Actions: Rewind
Label: Keynote2010

This would enable you to quickly view reporting for all video events, then rewind click actions across videos, and then which videos triggered those actions.  A structure like this comes in very handy when you a lot of videos on your site and you want to view how many people are rewinding specific videos.

An Example of Event Tracking Reporting in Google Analytics:

Event Tracking in Google Analytics

Tracking Flash Applications Via The GAforFlash Component
If you are interested in learning how to track flash applications, check out my two part tutorial about using the GAforFlash component.  Adobe has worked with Google on creating a component that lets you seamlessly track flash events via ActionScript.  I think you’ll dig both the component and my tutorial.  :)

Number of Events Per Session
Don’t go crazy with event tracking.  Just because you can track many actions on your site doesn’t mean you should.  There is a limit on the number of events that can be tracked per session in Google Analytics, which is 500.  That should be plenty for most sites, but be aware of that number if you are triggering events programmatically.

Events Versus Unique Events

As mentioned above, conversions are unique per session and there are times that events make more sense (such as when you want to track how many times per session something is triggered).  When you are reviewing the event tracking reporting in Google Analytics, the metric Total Events will give you the raw number of events triggered.  For example, if someone clicked an important link 25 times in a session, then that would show up as 25 events triggered.  However, you will also see a metric titled Unique Events in your reporting.  This will show the unique sessions that triggered events.  In my example above, a person clicked a link 25 times (which is 25 events), but that will show up as 1 Unique Event.

Summary: The Power of Using Both Conversion Goals & Events

I hope this post demystified conversion goals and events in Google Analytics.  Both are important tools to have in your web analytics arsenal.  If you are just getting started, my recommendation is that you thoroughly map out an analytics strategy.  This will help you determine when conversion goals and events make sense.  Without a solid strategy in place, you run the risk of tracking dozens of actions that have relatively little impact on your business.  Definitely stay tuned if you’re eager to learn more about goals and events. I plan to write more about each topic in future posts.  If you have any questions, please post a comment below. You can also read my previous posts about Google Analytics by visiting my tag page.

GG

Filed Under: google-analytics, web-analytics

Rethinking Your Viral Marketing Strategy: Why Building a Solid Online Marketing Foundation Should be Your First Priority, Not A Funny Video

April 6, 2010 By Glenn Gabe

Human Pyramid of Online Marketing ChannelsThere are times companies hire me to evaluate their online marketing strategies. Essentially, they want to better understand the potential impact of their efforts and if there are any holes in the strategy at hand.  When an idea for a viral marketing campaign crosses my desk, the first thing I like to do is gain access to the company’s web analytics package and start analyzing site performance.  Based on the hit or miss nature of viral marketing, my hope is that I immediately see a consistent level of quality traffic (based on conversion) from a number of traffic sources.  Unfortunately, that’s not always the case and it’s the first red flag.  Then, since viral marketing campaigns usually need a kick-start, I review how strong of a presence the company has on various social networks.  Again, my hope is to see a solid presence and strong engagement via blogging, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Once again, that’s not always the case and could be extremely problematic for the company I’m helping.  Based on what I explained above, here’s a question to think about (and one I’ll address in the rest of the post):

Why in the world would a company spend a lot of money, time, and resources on a viral marketing campaign without already having a solid online marketing foundation in place?

In my opinion, and based on my experience, the company pulling the trigger on the viral campaign without having a foundation in place could very well be setting itself up for failure.  If my analysis reveals a lack of consistent, quality traffic and a poor presence on social networks, then I believe the plan needs to be adjusted (in a big way).  I usually recommend that they spend the budget allocated for viral marketing on building a solid online marketing foundation instead.  Then, once the foundation is in place, the company can layer viral marketing on top of that foundation.  Let’s explore why.

Quick Note: I’m referring to viral marketing and not word of mouth marketing (wom).  I know there is a lot of confusion about the difference between viral marketing and word of mouth marketing and you can read this previous post of mine to learn more.

Consistent Quality Traffic, A Critical Element To Your Online Marketing Success
I explained earlier that I usually dig into a company’s reporting to better understand their current traffic sources and quality of traffic.  In my opinion, when it comes to driving traffic, there are too many companies focusing on short-term gain versus building a long term strategy.  There are some people that want a quick win, but that’s definitely not a great way to look at online marketing.  If you develop the right strategies, you can build a long term plan for driving consistent and quality traffic via a number of traffic sources (building the solid foundation I have referenced numerous times in this post so far).  For example, organic search could be driving targeted visitors across tens of thousands of keywords on a regular basis.  And by the way, there is no ad spend for that targeted traffic.  In addition, a well planned SEM strategy could yield high quality traffic across a wide range of targeted categories and keywords in paid search.  Also, SEM could supplement your SEO initiative, enabling you to provide air cover for SEO as you strengthen your organic rankings.  Also, if you want to consistently drive customers back to your site, then building a well-scrubbed in-house email list is a smart move.  I haven’t even mentioned RSS subscribers, Facebook fans, Twitter followers, other social networks, etc.  This foundation (which includes a number of online marketing channels), is worth its weight in gold.  If you don’t already have a foundation in place, then building it should be your focus, not creating a viral marketing campaign. You can get to the viral marketing campaign later on…

If  You Are Lucky, Viral Marketing Provides a Spike in Visitor Traffic, Then a Quick Falloff:Spike in Visitor Trending

Instead, Building a Solid Online Marketing Foundation Results in Consistent & Quality Traffic:

Consistent Visitor Trending

Viral Marketing Fails More Than It Succeeds
Based on what I just explained, you can understand why I’m sometimes shocked to see a viral marketing plan planned when a strong online marketing foundation hasn’t been developed yet.  Think about it, why wouldn’t you spend that budget on building a strong foundation versus spending it on a short-term viral marketing campaign?  And by the way, that viral campaign will likely fail performance-wise.  I’m not saying that viral marketing can’t be successful, but viral marketing fails more than it succeeds.  When most people think of viral campaigns, they tend to just remember the successful ones.  Nobody remembers the campaigns that bomb, which makes sense since those campaigns never went viral!  :)  Also, there are times that a successful viral marketing campaign was preceded by dozens of other attempts that failed.  The fact of the matter is that you never know what will go viral.  It’s hit or miss, and your business shouldn’t heavily rely on “hit or miss” as its core online marketing strategy.

Although I help companies with brainstorming ideas for viral marketing campaigns, I would never recommend a viral campaign if the other (and more powerful) areas of online marketing weren’t covered already.  In addition, even if you end up having your campaign go viral, that doesn’t necessarily translate to outstanding financial performance.  If your goal was just exposure or links, then that’s fine.  But, if your goal was conversion, then you might not be so thrilled with the results.  That’s why if you clearly understand your goals, you can better structure your online marketing campaigns to reach those goals.  That might sound obvious, but tying strategies back to your core goals can help keep you on the right path and avoid the inevitable: a funny video with 100 views on YouTube, a fan page with no fans, and an empty Twitter account only followed by a few spammers.

Social As Your Launching Pad
Earlier I mentioned the importance of social media marketing on the impact of viral campaigns.  The reason is simple.  If you want something to go viral, there’s not a better way to get the word out to a wide range of targeted people than via Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, etc.  But, it’s much easier if you already have a strong following when you launch your campaign. If you have that following across social networks, then you have a much greater chance of gaining traction.  And traction is exactly what you need in order to spark your viral campaign.  Without the spark, you might just end up in the viral marketing deadpool.  And that’s not a pretty place to be.  :)  By the way, read my post about The Twitter Effect on SEO to learn how Twitter can impact traffic, inbound links, and rankings in organic search.

Try Kick-Starting Your Viral Campaign With The (Lack of) Social Media Presence Listed Below:

Presence on Social Networks

Unfortunately, many companies haven’t spent the time to build a presence across social networks.  They might have quickly set up a Facebook page, a Twitter account, a shell of a blog, and subsequently they have nothing to leverage when their viral marketing campaign goes live.  Compare that situation to a company that already has 10K fans on Facebook, 7500 Twitter followers, thousands of blog subscribers, 400 subscribers on YouTube, etc.  Having that following across social networks will greatly improve your chances of getting the word out quickly about the viral campaign.  On the flipside, if you practice drive-by social media (or don’t participate at all), then you won’t have a foundation to leverage when your campaign launches.  Drive-by social media is the practice of quickly setting up accounts at social media sites and then dropping a message about your own content or campaigns.  It never works and is embarrassing for agencies and companies that do it… Instead, you should build fans, followers, and subscribers the right way, which will enable you to reap great rewards from your hard work.  And you just might see that message go viral…    The core point to remember is that you want to build your following BEFORE your viral campaign goes live and not as it goes live.

Build Your Foundation, Then Go Viral
So before you give approval on that sexy viral marketing campaign, make sure you fully understand what your current online marketing foundation looks like.  Are there cracks in the foundation, do you have little SEO power, should you restructure your SEM account, and are you currently engaging targeted people on social networks?  If you answered “no” to some of those questions, then don’t launch your viral marketing campaign yet.  Spend that budget on building your online marketing foundation and then layer viral marketing on top of it.  You won’t regret it.

GG

Filed Under: viral-marketing, wom

The Internet Marketing Driver: New Layout, New Platform

April 6, 2010 By Glenn Gabe

If you are a frequent reader of my blog, then you’ll notice that I launched a new layout today.  I recently decided to upgrade the technology running my blog, including both the hosting and blogging platform.  The new setup will give me more flexibility while providing a richer experience for my readers.  In addition, the new dimensions of the layout will give me more room to write.  And if you’ve read previous posts of mine, then you know that I like to write.  :)

Here are some notes about the new blog:

  • Since I’m using a new blogging platform moving forward, new posts will reside in the /imd/ directory (for Internet Marketing Driver).  It made the most sense to start new posts in a fresh directory while keeping my current posts in the /blog/ directory.
  • My older posts (hundreds of them) are still located in the /blog/ directory.  So, if you are looking for those older posts, it’s probably best to use the search functionality in the right sidebar.  You can also visit my tag pages to track down previous posts (also located in the right sidebar).
  • My RSS feed is now pointing to the new blog in the /imd/ directory.  So, if you are already a subscriber, you don’t need to do a thing.  You will see my latest posts via my current feed.

If you’re new to my blog and think I’ve only written a few posts (due to my older posts residing in another directory), think again!  There are hundreds of posts covering the latest in online marketing strategy located in the /blog/ directory and I’ve provided links to my last seven posts below.  Again, you can always use the search functionality on my blog or visit my tag pages to see previous posts.  Also, I plan to refine my blog setup over the next few months, so bear with me in the short-term.

I hope you enjoy the new layout, platform, and functionality.  Keep on the lookout for my new posts as usual.

Here are my last seven posts to get you started:

Mobile Visitor Trending and The Impact On Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Campaigns

Mobile Browser ScreenshotAll you have to do is look around you right now to see the power (and promise) of mobile technology. Everyone is holding some form of mobile device, whether that’s a smartphone like an iphone or blackberry, or a feature phone (which is a marketing term for a standard cell phone with relatively basic functionality). And as mobile devices gain traction, more and more people are accessing the web via mobile browsers to research information, buy products, sign up for your services, contact local businesses, etc. It’s becoming hard to ignore that fact. Continue reading>>

.htaccess for Windows Server: How To Use ISAPI Rewrite To Handle Canonicalization and Redirects For SEO

isapi rewriteIf you’ve read previous blog posts of mine, then you know how important I think having a clean and crawlable website structure is for SEO. When performing SEO audits, it’s usually not long before the important topic of canonicalization comes up. Canonicalization is the process of ensuring that you don’t provide the same content at more than more URL. It’s also one of the hardest words in SEO to pronounce. :) If you don’t address canonicalization, you can end up with identical content at multiple URL’s, which can present duplicate content issues. And you don’t want duplicate content. For example, you don’t want your site to resolve at both non-www and www, at both http and https, using mixed case, having folders resolve with and without trailing slashes, etc. Continue reading>>

SES NY 2010 Series: Augmented Reality and Mobile Marketing, An Interview With Rachel Pasqua of iCrossing


Augmented RealityThis is the second post in my SES NY 2010 series. The conference is only one week away and I’ll be covering it again via blogging and Twitter. As part of my coverage, I’m writing a few posts about sessions that piqued my curiosity. As I was scanning through the list of topics being covered at this year’s conference, it was hard not to be interested in the session about Augmented Reality (AR). AR is the hot new technology that merges real world data with computer generated elements, and it provides a world of opportunity for mobile marketers. Continue reading>>


SES NY 2010 Series: Getting Penalized and Banned in Search, An Interview With Michael Stebbins from Market Motive


Penalized and banned in GoogleIt’s that time of year again. SES New York is only a few weeks away and I’ll be covering the conference again via blogging and Twitter. As part of my coverage, I’ll be writing a blog posts previewing some of the sessions that I’m excited about attending. My first post is about a session titled “Post Mortem: Banned Site Forensics” and it will be co-presented by Michael Stebbins, the CEO of Market Motive, and Rand Fishkin, the CEO of SEOmoz, on Tuesday, March 23rd at 12:45. During the session, Michael and Rand will share some of the most egregious tactics that can get you in trouble, and also how to deal with getting penalized or banned. I had a chance to interview Michael last week about the session and you will find the interview below. Continue reading>>


Advanced Segmentation in Google Analytics: How to Set Up and Use Advanced Segments to Analyze Social Media Traffic


Advanced SegmentationWhen I’m helping clients analyze website traffic and performance, I try and help them avoid the time-consuming process of “report browsing”. Instead, I emphasize entering the process with a very specific goal in mind. You need a purpose when diving into reporting or else you run the risk of spending hours scanning metrics with nothing to show at the end but a headache and a bottle of Visine. I also emphasize focusing on actionable data, or information you can analyze and then make decisions based on. This is why segmentation is so important. I’ll explain more about segments below, but for now think of a segment as a slice of your site traffic (based on traffic source, type of visitor, etc.) For the example I provide in this post, visitors from Social Media websites could be a segment of your site traffic. Continue reading>>


How to Upgrade Your HDTV Firmware [SAMSUNG] – And Get Rid of Annoying Audio and Video Problems


Upgrade Samsung HDTV FirmwareIt’s no secret that HDTV’s have taken off. That’s for good reason, considering the incredible image quality that HD provides. So, as people buy HDTV’s and set up HD service with their cable providers, you might think everyone is extremely happy in TV-land. But running some searches in Google for HDTV audio, video, or image problems shows you that everything isn’t perfect. Like many other gadgets and electronic devices, HDTV’s run software (AKA firmware). That software often needs to be upgraded as bugs and other problems are addressed by the manufacturer. Therefore, if you end up running into weird issues with your HDTV, don’t immediately think that your TV is shot. You just might need to upgrade your HDTV’s firmware. And that’s exactly what I’m going to walk you through in this post. Continue reading>>


Domain Strategy and SEO – Build Strength in Natural Search While Minimizing Security Risks


Domain Strategy for SEODo you know how many domains your company or clients are using? Are they building SEO power to one domain or splitting that power across ten? Do they use an excessive amount of subdomains or are they siloing content on their core website? From a security standpont, is there sensitive content sitting on test servers freely available to competitors? These are all important questions to explore, and how you address these questions can end up having a strong impact on your SEO efforts. Continue reading>>

Filed Under: blogging, wordpress

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