>> Improving AdWords ROI, p.39 >> SEO Plugins for WordPress, p.

38

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26 Cover Story

The New Content Experience

Driving Engagement for Profit
With more content on the Internet being delivered to
consumers faster and in more ways than ever, Web marketers may
have to reconfigure certain aspects of their business plans to create
an entirely new user experience.

12 Rethinking Reputation Management Departments

The impact of social media has changed the way small businesses
should go about their online reputation management. 6 ‘Net Briefs: Google’s
Caffeine Boost, YouTube’s
32 Link Buyer Beware Video Editor, Bing’s First
Buying links can be an effective part of your SEO strategy — if you play by Year, Social Uprising,
the rules. Security and Privacy,
Prime Time Video, Twitter’s
34 ASP Meets PHP Bombshell
32 An impressive group of solutions written in ASP are heating up the
open-source software battle.
9 Mobile Minute: iPhone 4,
Social to Go, AdMob is
Banned
35 Business Marketing with Foursquare
With more than 700,000 “check-ins” taking place every day on the social 16 Top 50: Ad Networks
network, there’s no reason why more users shouldn’t be checking out to Explore
your business.
18 SEO Corner: Step-by-Step
Search (a three-part series)
36 SEO Shift Happens
The basic concepts of search engine optimization are still essential in 20 Conversion Cache:
today’s changing landscape, just not by themselves anymore. Best of Landing Page
Optimization
38 Easy SEO for WordPress
36 Along with writing great content, consider these five very useful
22 Findability Makeover:
I’m on Twitter...Now What?
WordPress plugins to enhance your blog’s SEO efforts.
47 Website Magazine
39 Improving Your AdWords ROI Success Corner
If you are convinced that AdWords is overpriced and ineffective, that could
be the symptom of a bigger problem. 48 Commentary: Your
Business in 2020
41 Seven Steps to Enticing Product Descriptions
This simple process will help you master the art of e-commerce
copywriting that will drive sales and boost search positioning.

43 Google Rich Snippets

38 As structured data becomes more widespread on the Web, knowing how
to present this information gives marketers and publishers more control
over their search results.

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F R O M T H E E D I TO R With Peter Prestipino

Inside the Online World The Magazine for Website Success

For many Internet professionals, “content” is an enigma wrapped
999 E. Touhy Ave., Des Plaines, IL 60018
in a riddle. It does not take much brain power to realize that you
Toll Free: 1.800.817.1518
need to produce content for prospects to consume, but how you International: 1-773-628-2779
go about doing that is another story entirely. Have no fear, Website Fax: 1-773-272-0920

Magazine readers, we’re going to show you how to thrive in the

PUBLISHER:
new content experience.
Susan Whitehurst
Standing out in a hyper-competitive, saturated content market is no easy susan@websitemagazine.com
task and is once more complicated by evolving business models that trade EDITOR-IN-CHIEF:
content as a commodity. Yahoo’s announcement in mid-May that it would Peter Prestipino
acquire Associated Content for $100 million has substantial ramifications for peter@websitemagazine.com

Visit these the Web — such is the world when you have 380,000 print and multime-
SENIOR EDITOR:
upcoming dia contributors pumping out content for profit and exposure.
Mike Phillips
industry mike@websitemagazine.com
trade shows: In today’s information-heavy economy, content is your most valuable asset
ASSOCIATE EDITOR:
— you just need to know how to invest your time and money wisely in its
IUE2010 Linc Wonham
(Internet User production. Website Magazine’s feature article this month focuses on The linc@websitemagazine.com
Experience) New Content Experience, and addresses how to simultaneously drive
July 24-28 *CONTRIBUTORS:
awareness, provide education or entertainment, and generate profit.
Ann Arbor, MI Tim Ash
iue2010.com Bruce Clay
This issue of Website Magazine also includes several thought-provoking, in- Josh Ewin
An Event Apart formative articles on important trends and techniques to help ensure your Heather Lutze
July 25-26 Web success. Our regular columns Conversion Cache, SEO Corner and Timothy Seward
Minneapolis, MN Nick Stamoulis
aneventapart.com Findability Makeover are not to be missed. The month’s editorial lineup also
Karon Thackston
includes Karon Thackston on writing e-commerce product descriptions, Pierre Zarokian
CRM Evolution 2010 Pierre Zarokian on the current strategy shifts in SEO, Tim Seward on the cost
August 2-4 of online advertising and more; including reputation management, rich
ART DIRECTOR:
New York, NY Jesse Erbach
http://bit.ly/cANbO6 snippets, and a special piece on Foursquare for business by Senior Editor jesse@websitemagazine.com
Mike Phillips.
Etail East PRODUCTION MANAGER:
August 9-12 Enjoy this issue of Website Magazine and remember that you can share your Janet Crouch
Baltimore, MD www.grafikadesign.net
http://bit.ly/bPw0nG stories of ’Net success with our editors online at WebsiteMagazine.com.
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT/ADVERTISING:
Search Engine Best Web Wishes, Troy Pickett
Strategies troy@websitemagazine.com
August 16-20
Kelly Springer
San Francisco, CA
kspringer@websitemagazine.com
searchenginestrategies.com
Peter Prestipino — Editor-in-Chief, Website Magazine
Peter@WebsiteMagazine.com

Website Magazine, Volume 5, August 2010, (ISSN# 1942-0633) is

Want more? Scan That
Throughout Website Magazine, readers are able to scan two-dimensional bar-
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mobile device. You will then be able to scan the barcodes and access the resources.
published 4 times per year in February, May, August and
November with 8 special issues (January, March, April, June, July,
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*The opinions expressed by contributors are not necessarily those
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www.websitemagazine.com

4 | | AUG UST 2010

 HAPPY
BING-DAY!
Microsoft’s search engine Bing recently
turned one year old, and it has
maintained steady if not spectacular
growth since being launched last June.
ComScore has it accounting for 11.8
percent of U.S. Internet searches in the
most recent monthly data, while Hitwise
has a slightly more modest number of
9.43 percent. Both figures, however, are
considerably higher than the numbers

Google’s Caffeine Boost posted in May, 2009, the last data for
Microsoft’s search product before it was
Consumers are encountering a much different search results page thanks to re-launched under the Bing brand. The
Google’s new Web indexing system, Caffeine. Make no mistake – the impact on real opportunity for small business
Internet businesses will be substantial moving forward. Google claims Web search advertisers hoping to increase their ROI
listings are now 50 percent fresher as Caffeine enables index updates on a continu-
with Bing, however, should come when
ous basis rather than every few weeks. The result is an environment where more
universally accessible content (video, image, audio and reviews) is available and it the Microsoft-Yahoo! search deal is
is intersecting with real-time search in a prominent way. The new index will force implemented later this year.
Web professionals to step up content development creation and their social media
creativity to stay ahead of the competition and relevant to consumers.

Now Playing Creating videos to market your products

and services became much simpler thanks
to the introduction of a new set of cloud-
On YouTube based video editing tools from YouTube.
Web marketers and content publishers
can now build a library of online videos and increase opportunities for
brand exposure at the same destination.
YouTube users have the capability to cut from videos, create montages
of different clips and add or change accompanying music using YouTube’s
commercial library of licensed songs. While in itself a significant develop-
ment, there’s also the possibility that the new video editor may be inte-
grated into Google’s Chrome operating system to provide a completely
Web-based tool for businesses looking to expand their use of YouTube.

6 | | AUG UST 2010

SOCIAL UPRISING Not Just for
May was a telling month about the global power of social media, but it Daytime
didn’t start out particularly well for category leader Facebook and its CEO,
Mark Zuckerberg. An outpouring of criticism over the social network’s
Anymore
privacy policies was followed by a sweat-soaked,
The demand continues to grow for online
pseudo-apologetic stage appearance by
video, which is great news for providers
Zuckerberg, all of which resulted in a
Quit Facebook Day grassroots movement like Hulu and Blip.tv and their advertisers.
scheduled for the last day of the month. According to a recent published report, the
But research firm comScore reports that number of people in the U.S. who watched
Facebook gained more than 8.5 million Internet video during television viewing hours
unique monthly visitors in May, rose 14 percent in the last year. That figure is
rendering the estimated 30,000
now at around 65 million viewers tuned in to
defections irrelevant. In the
their computers and mobile devices instead
U.K., social networks (11.88%)
gained a higher percentage of of their televisions in the evenings during
Internet traffic in May than the week, and they are increasingly watching
search engines (11.33%) for a broader range of content. Content then
the first time in history — all becomes the key piece to the puzzle as
indications that social may advertisers position themselves for the
be on the way to overtaking launch of Google TV and other platforms
search as the smart choice
that will allow consumers to view virtually
for advertising spend from
anything on a single device.
marketers around the world.

HOT-BUTTON ISSUES
While Facebook has brought privacy to the forefront of Internet users’ minds, security has not been far behind as the most
hotly debated Web topic in recent weeks. Numerous Google employees were recently anonymously quoted as pointing to
breaches in the Microsoft Windows operating system as the cause for attacks from
Chinese hackers back in January, indicating that a companywide migration to Mac, Linux
or Google’s own Chrome OS was forthcoming. Microsoft almost immediately responded
with a post on its Windows blog that vigorously defended the product, and numerous
Internet security companies have subsequently come out with their own support for
the Windows operating systems. A week later, Microsoft launched a timely series of
television commercials touting the primary features of Internet Explorer 8: security
and privacy.

A U GU ST 2010 | | 7
 The Whole Package
Cisco Systems is trying to make it a little easier for small businesses to
meet their growing IT demands in the face of over-extended budgets.
Executives recently announced that Cisco is turning its small-business
storage platforms into multipurpose devices with several features geared
toward companies with less than 100 employees. In addition to hard drives
and backup and encryption capabilities, the new NSS 300 Series Smart
Storage systems can include a Web server, e-mail server, FTP server,
RADIUS authentication server and other free features if customers choose
to turn them on. Cisco said it believes that many small businesses don’t
have these types of servers and will welcome the ability to implement them
without having to buy and deploy a separate hardware platform.

Twitter’s Bombshell
Twitter dropped a bomb on the real-time search and social media community with

Better Days the introduction of its T.CO URL shortening service. Twitter has been routing
links within Direct Messages through its own link shortening service for security

Ahead? measures for several months, but they were previously wrapped with a twt.tl URL.
When the new T.CO service launches for all tweets later this summer, users will
According to forecasting and analysis have a way to automatically shorten URLs when posted directly through Twitter.
firm MagnaGlobal, worldwide online Since the micro-blogging service will be routing links through their own analytics
advertising revenues in 2010 are system to gather metrics, its recently announced Promoted Tweets advertising
predicted to grow 12.4 percent higher platform cannot be too far behind. Twitter users may continue
than their 2009 totals. The projection to use alternate URL shorteners, but the company plans
for 2011 is another 11.7-percent rise, with to wrap all shortened links that are
growth leveling off at 11 percent for the
submitted. In one fell swoop, Twit-
next three years and global online ad
ter may have single-handedly
spending to reach $103 billion in 2015.
squashed all URL short-
Paid search is expected to account for
ening services.
49 percent of the world’s total online ad
spending in 2010, up 16.5 percent from
last year. The channels that make up
the remaining 51 percent of the 2010
totals will constitute an 8.7-percent
rise since 2009. In the U.S., paid search
will represent 48 percent of the 2010
revenue, projected to reach $13 billion.

8 | | AUG UST 2010

 wm mobile [minute ]

Social to
New data from comScore shows that mobile usage of social
networking applications is exploding — to the tune of a 240
percent increase from April of this year, compared to April, 2009.
Mobile visitors to social networking sites via browsers grew
90 percent, to 30 million users. This data points to the importance
of a social and mobile strategy for businesses, including apps.
The same study found that mobile application usage overall
increased 28 percent, including news apps (124%), sports
information (113%) and online banking (near double usage).

iPhone 4
Perhaps Apple’s worst-kept
secret was officially let loose in
June, with the announcement
of iPhone 4.
Among the most progressive changes in the
device are multitasking, HD video recording,
on-the-fly video editing and the ability to video
chat with both front- and rear-facing cameras
and the new FaceTime app. ADMOB IS BANNED
During Steve Jobs’ unveiling, a crowded FROM THE PREMISES
Wi-Fi connection kept the device from showing
Apple’s proposed new developer terms would prohibit any
its stuff on several occasions. While not directly
apps that include AdMob mobile ads from all of Apple’s mobile
linked to AT&T’s notorious call-dropping repu-
devices, including iPhone and iPad. Instead, Apple will use iAd,
tation, it does hint at some potential problems; its own advertising platform.
including the notion that multitasking could Omar Hamoui, founder of AdMob, had this to say on his
choke an already-burdened network. Who blog: “This change is not in the best interests of users or devel-
doesn’t have this problem? Android — due to opers. In the history of technology and innovation, it’s clear that
the fact that its network is spread among competition delivers the best outcome. Artificial barriers to
competition hurt users and developers and, in the long run, stall
several carriers.
technological progress.” He added, “…we’ll be speaking to Apple
to express our concerns about the impact of these terms.”

A U GU ST 2010 | | 9
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 Website Magazine’s
Small Business Lab
Rethinking Reputation Management
By Peter Prestipino, Editor-in-Chief
Working Together
Why the busy intersection at the
corner of social media marketing and
search engine optimization (SEO)?
Learning how to work together pays
dividends. The results of a balanced
approach to social media participa-
tion and SEO in a ‘fresher is better’
content landscape is that more infor-
mation will be exposed, increasing
the likelihood of awareness.
“Social media remains one of the
fastest growing vehicles for online
branding and engaging in consumer
conversations,” says Eric Papczun,
vice president of SEO and feeds at
Performics. Papczun went on to
address how online reputation
management is not only about proac-
tively highlighting social commentary
but balancing negative and positive
opinions. “A solid and well-optimized
presence on Facebook, Twitter and
other social networks can help a
brand own more of the search en-
gine results page (SERP) real estate.
Accordingly, this keeps positive
brand content on higher ranking
positions and pages, reducing the
reach and potential damage that
disgruntled consumers, unfavorable
media sites and other negative
content can impose on a brand.”
12 | |
The impact of social media on today’s Web is unmatched; dare I say, even by
search. When it comes to “going social” with our websites and business there are
as many benefits as there are drawbacks, however. Along with the multitude of
brand advocates you will acquire, you are sure to encounter more than a few, very
vocal detractors along the way — such is business on the Web. What’s more, the
social Web moves fast — much faster than any one person can keep up with.
Enter reputation management, a practice that has not gone unnoticed by busi-
nesses both large and small.
A business and personal reputation is measured Reputation Management in Reverse
by your consumers’ perception of the brand’s It’s time to rethink reputation management solu-
products and services. However, so much focus is tions as they have been offered in the past. Ask
spent looking inward that we often miss all the ac- yourself: How closely am I looking at my compe-
tivity going on elsewhere — the origin of many, if tition’s reputation? The likelihood that it’s only in
not most opportunities and threats. As such, using a cursory fashion is quite good.
reputation management solutions and services Identifying the companies you are actively
that accurately and affordably help manage brand competing against should be the first step, but
equity and awareness is a wise investment. there are several others. Here are a few to help
Online reputation management software is the you rethink reputation management. Keep in
new must-have solution, and businesses are buy- mind that while you can set up an ad-hoc solu-
ing in. The Marchex Reputation Management tion on your own, commercial reputation man-
platform was named a finalist in the American agement and monitoring solutions provide the
Business Awards’ New Product or Service of the deepest insight.
Year category, for one. SuperMedia’s SuperPages
will make available the Yext reputation manage- Track: To locate competitors, head straight to
ment tool to its advertisers over the next few the search engines; enter search terms represen-
months. These are just two examples of notewor- tative of your business and make notes of those
thy happenings in the reputation management vendors found most often, and their correspon-
space, among dozens of other perfectly suitable ding websites and social media properties.
vendors clamoring for your attention. Spend time noting not just the website URL, but
But what of those without an existing reputa- the company name and the names of their prod-
tion? Most small businesses have not nearly ucts and employees, too (take a detour to
enough brand equity to consider investing in a so- LinkedIn to find them). Once the list is com-
lution that monitors what their few customers and plete, make those search terms and phrases the
prospects have to say about their business. ones to track.
Continued on page 14
AUG UST 2010
 Website Magazine

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A U G U S T 2010 | .com | 13
 New Kid on the
Reputation
Management Block
MyRepMan from Moon Valley Soft-
ware uses an interesting two-sided
approach to monitoring and manag-
ing a merchant’s online reputation.
A detailed report of the merchant’s
current standing online includes
listings across more than 50 local
search sites, IYPs, category-specific
sites, mentions through blogs, news
sites and tweets, and captures re-
views from sources that provide
them (e.g. Yelp, Yahoo! Local, etc.)
and paid-placement advertising,
which the merchant can instruct
MyRepMan to track. "There are many
other existing services but they are
more focused on what others are
saying on social networks,” says
Damian Rollison, Director of
Research and Development at Moon
Valley Software. “What we are
showing users are places they can
control and extend the brand.”
Once the merchant has a good
overview of its online presence, the
service goes to work by amplifying
that presence — submitting business
profiles to sites based on their
predetermined priority and providing
monthly progress reports to keep
the merchant informed along the
way. Users of the platform can
also run a comparative report that
identifies competitors and measures
your reputation against theirs.
14 | |
Continued from page 12
Follow: Should the competition already have an
established audience on social media, most of the
legwork is already done. For example, follow some
of the competition’s followers on Twitter, taking
note of those accounts. Then, after a week or so,
check to see if any of those individuals have fol-
lowed you back. If so, send a direct message an-
nouncing who you are, why you chose to follow
them, and your intentions. It is not an uncommon
practice for heavy social media users of Twitter to
set up an autoresponder to greet and reply to a new
follower — another opportunity to communicate
with a new prospect.
Active Social Marketing in Practice: Let’s say your
restaurant and a neighborhood competitor share
Twitter followers. If you notice on Twitter that a
group of fans was meeting for lunch at the com-
petitor’s place, consider sending that group a note
(perhaps with a coupon included) inviting them to
your restaurant. You will need to constantly moni-
tor the real-time universe for reaction but good op-
portunities are present.
Engage: Posting user-generated content online
today is easier than ever. Within seconds, cus-
tomers can post reviews, kudos, comments and
complaints directly from their mobile devices and
applications to any number of sites. Since most
content is consumed right away, it makes sense to
constantly interact with your existing audience and
look to expand your social network when oppor-
tunities present themselves. Myriad social tools on-
line offer the ability to interact with followers and
competitors. Using them means gaining valuable
insights about the competing business and provides
a chance to make informed choices when it comes
to developing strategies to increase market share.
Engaging consumers in context, based on their cur-
rent feelings or interactions with your brand is the
only way to build mind share and loyal customers,
so watch intently and tread carefully.
AUG UST 2010
Active Social Marketing in Practice:
Let’s say your restaurant and a neigh-
borhood competitor share Twitter
followers. If you notice on Twitter that
a group of fans was meeting for lunch
at the competitor’s place, consider
sending that group a note (perhaps
with a coupon included) inviting them
to your restaurant. You will need to
constantly monitor the real-time
universe for reaction but good
opportunities are present.
Monitor: Once you identify the competition, follow
their core audience and engage them them, it’s time
to monitor the reaction. Most reputation manage-
ment services provide sentiment analysis to provide
insights into the mood and tone of comments and
conversations you have successfully stirred up.
The final step? Repeat the process. Track new
competitors and their followers, engaging that au-
dience frequently and building your social network
with one competitor’s downfall after the next.
Whether you have brand equity and brand
awareness or not, it has been proven time and again
that knowing what customers and prospects are
saying and feeling about your business is of impor-
tance — the same holds true for what is being said
about the competition. Consider today the first day
of Reputation Management 2.0.
50 When the economy
TO P

stumbled, so did the The Interactive Advertising

AD NETWORKS TO EXPLORE

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1.
2.
3.
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bidvertiser.com
burstmedia.com
AdMob.com

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5. AdMob.com
houseCoopers (PWC) released U.S. Internet advertising sta-
6. valueclickmedia.com
tistics in October, 2009 for the first half of that year revealing
7. tribalfusion.com
a 5.4-percent decline from the same period in 2008. By all
8. chitika.com
accounts it was a bad year. But the tide has perhaps turned.
9. kontera.com
In mid-May of this year, the IAB and PWC highlighted year- clicksor.com
10. 247realmedia.com
over-year gains (Q1 2009 vs Q1 2010) and they were actu-
11. fastclick.com
ally quite impressive — a 7.5-percent increase.
12. clicksor.com
“The year-over-year growth we are seeing reflects mar-
13. vibrantmedia.com
keters’ confidence in the value and effectiveness of interac-
14. clickbooth.com
tive advertising,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and
15. collective.com
CEO of IAB.
This month’s Top 50 includes those advertising networks 16. marchex.com
that continued to provide an effective means to grow traffic 17. buysellads.com
and build brand awareness during some tough times — per- 18. tattomedia.com
haps because advertisers sought out cost-effective alterna- 19. QuattroWireless.com
tives and innovators. 20. eyeblaster.com 7search.com

Outside of the big four in online advertising (Google, 21. azoogleads.com

Yahoo!, Microsoft and AOL — five, if the Fox Audience Net- 22. 7search.com
work is included) are hundreds of micro-advertising and 23. yume.com
vertical networks that offer Web marketers and advertisers 24. casalemedia.com
an opportunity to supplement traffic and drive awareness 25. specificmedia.com
for their websites and brands. 26. zestadz.com
Many of these networks are specialists; including dis- 27. undertone.com
play (TribalFusion.com), PPC (7Search.com), behavioral 28. contextweb.com
(Collective.com), social (Adknowledge.com’s Cubics offer- 29. adknowledge.com
ing) or affiliate-friendly solutions (Chitika.com). Because of 30. adify.com
their agility in their area of specialty they are able to innovate 31. spotxchange.com spotxchange.com

and bring something quite unique to the advertising market 32. adready.com
— a viable alternative to the big four. Those seeking specific 33. cpxinteractive.com
verticals will not be disappointed with the inclusion of net- 34. sportgenic.com
works such as SportGenic.com (sports) and TravelAdNet- 35. traveladnetwork.com
work.com (travel.) 36. mobclix.com
Perhaps most interesting on this list is the introduction of 37. centro.net
mobile and video advertising networks — two growing mar- 38. greystripe.com
kets. Video has formally made its way into the Internet ad- 39. audiencescience.com
vertisers’ toolbox and there are networks to satisfy those 40. tremormedia.com
needs, including SpotXChange.com and Yume.com. These 41. brightroll.com
networks and the others in August’s Top 50 continue to 42. millennialmedia.com Jumptap.com
thrive thanks to innovation and expertise in their niches and 43. targetspot.com
can provide great value to forward-thinking advertisers. 44. trafficmarketplace.com
45. bluestreak.com
ABOUT THIS RANKED DATA
46. adconion.com
Website Magazine’s Top 50 Rankings are measures of a website’s popularity. Ranks 47. pulse360.com
are calculated using a proprietary method that focuses on average daily unique vis-
its and page views over a specified period of time, as reported by multiple data
48. encirclemedia.com
sources. The website with the highest combination of factors is ranked in the first 49. Jumptap.com
position. Conducting research, making formal comparisons and talking to existing
clients and users before making any purchase decision is always recommended. 50. premiumnetwork.com

16 | | AUG UST 2010

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 SEO CORNER With Josh Ewin

STEP-BY-STEP SEARCH
PART II, SITE STRUCTURE
In Part I of this Step-
By-Step Search series,
we took keyword
research to the next
level with Derek
Vaughan and learned
A TIP FROM BRUCE CLAY
Here's a good trick: If you have very high-query words with
In this installment of the series, we very low click-throughs, that becomes a clarification word.
will be learning from none other For example, "cars" has a very high number of queries, but low
than Bruce Clay. With a laundry clicks; as opposed to "Mustang" which has a high click-
list of awards over the past 14 through rate, but low query volume. So, combining these two,
years, the name Bruce Clay has you can cover the query Mustang and Car and Mustang Car
become synonymous with search in multiple query scenarios.

Josh Ewin is Director how to conduct engine optimization.

of Marketing for So how exactly do you silo your website to improve site
comprehensive
DedicatedNOW.com, Part II – Site Structure visibility with the search engines? According to Clay, “Key-
a managed dedicated keyword research — To understand why site struc- word selection should be the start of the siloing process be-
hosting provider a vital component to ture (i.e. navigation and linking) cause you can align the right visitors with the right keywords,
and co-founder of is so important, we must under- reduce bounce rate and increase conversions.”
any search engine
HostingArmor.com, stand Page Rank. Search algo- Since we’ve introduced the concept of theming, a word
a website security marketing campaign.
rithms place emphasis on the about how search engines see themes and related site content
scanning service.
“authority” that a page or do- is in order. Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) is an indexing
Throughout Mr. Ewin’s
main builds over time through linking — if other sites link to method that identifies patterns in the relationships between
12-year career in
online marketing,
a particular site, this is a clear indication to the search engines terms and concepts. Words used within the same context (i.e.
he has assisted of that site’s importance. What’s more, if several sites in a par- ‘sports car’ and ‘Audi R8’) have a relationship. Using that re-
hundreds of companies ticular niche or industry link to another site, that is again a lationship, we can organize our keyword list into themes of re-
with search engine clear indication to search engines of that site’s importance in lated keywords. From those themes, our site structure begins
optimization, creative that industry. to emerge.
planning, content Getting relevant, incoming links is important. But what There are tools to help derive keyword relationships; like
development, market might even be more important is what you do with that au- Google’s Wonderwheel, available on the left side of Google
research and analytics, thority once established. search results. Wonderwheel will show related keyword
website optimization Page rank flows like a river. Any page with authority can phrases that can be used to build subpages within each of your
and affiliate program
also impart authority — both to other sites and to other pages categories. As you build out related keywords based on their
management
within the same website. By sculpting where it flows, we can relationships, you will end up with many long-tail keyword
concentrate that authority on particular pages; improving phrases. Achieving rankings for one- or two-word queries (i.e.
Bruce Clay has been search traffic as a result. ‘online dating’, ‘Web hosting’, ‘Blackberry’) are important, but
a recognized leader you really generate clicks and sales from three- to five-word
in the search market- Siloing and Theming queries (i.e. ‘Jewish singles Washington DC’).
ing arena since 1996
Several years ago, Bruce Clay of BruceClay.com devel- Focusing on one keyword phrase per page gives search
when, after a long
oped a strategy known as “site siloing.” The term comes robots a strong indication toward the content of that page. Site
career as a technical
executive with
from the grain silos you might see on a farm — they can be owners, however, tend to want to rank for everything; and as
leading Silicon Valley seen from far away and contain a single content (i.e. wheat a result, rank for nothing. Clay gives us a great example about
companies, he grain, corn, etc). On your website, “silos” are groups of pages how this tendency can harm, rather than help:
launched one of the that contain similar, themed content. For example, if I have “I have a site that is all about white houses; I should rank
first consulting firms a website about cars, I might have a category called “sports well for white houses. But if I add a section for blue houses
devoted to search cars” that would contain pages, articles and other content and 40 other colors, it dilutes the meaning of the site.”
engine optimization all related to sports cars. By collecting my content into Targeting three- to five-word long-tail queries has its
(SEO). For more themed silos, I can direct Page Rank and improve rankings benefits. They are less competitive and easier to rank for as
information about due to the relationship between my pages. Site traffic can in- a result. Additionally, as a user gets further into the sales
Bruce Clay, Inc. visit
crease several times over just as a result of using the site silo- cycle, his queries become increasingly specific. For exam-
bruceclay.com.
ing method properly. ple, if shopping for a new car, I might start with “luxury

18 | | AUG UST 2010

 Figure A
sedan.” As I get further along in my search and have a bet- that authority. Notice how
ter understanding of what I want, I might search for “Mer- the subpages only link to HOME

cedes CLS55.” So, by targeting that long-tail keyword, the the main silo page. Page
user can be captured deeper in the sales cycle when they rank can flow anywhere. If I
are more likely to buy. have in-bound links from CATEGORY 1 CATEGORY 1 CATEGORY 1

Let’s take an example of a single category; Mercedes another site to one of my CATEGORY 1 CATEGORY 1 CATEGORY 1
sedans. If I’m targeting the Mercedes line of sedans, I may subpages, any authority on
CATEGORY 1 CATEGORY 1 CATEGORY 1
come up with the keywords “Mercedes”, “CLS”, “S Class”, that subpage gets passed to
CATEGORY 1 CATEGORY 1 CATEGORY 1
“AMG”, “SL500” and “CLS55 AMG”. There is a hierarchy my main silo landing page.
CATEGORY 1 CATEGORY 1 CATEGORY 1
here, if you look closely. “Mercedes” would be my category And, where authority goes
or “silo landing page” and I could have sub-pages within this rankings follow.
category; one for each of the terms “CLS”, “S Class”, “AMG”, If you have pages that you need to link to but do not want
“SL500” and “CLS55 AMG”. With this hierarchy, I’m ready to pass page rank to, you can use the no-index tag to keep the
to build my silo. page you’re linking to from being indexed and receiving that
While directory structure is important for site usability, page rank:
the search engines don’t need it. More important is how we
<html>
point our links and distribute page rank throughout the silo
<head>
and the site as a whole. We want to keep related page rank
<title>...</title>
(i.e. links relevant to our theme) within the theme. So, our
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX ">
subpages should link to the main silo landing page only. By
</head>
doing this, we’re driving authority and relevance to that main
silo page, as seen in figure A. This structure is a rule of thumb; if you have pages that
Notice how the homepage only links to the main silo you need to link to from a subpage for usability and conver-
landing pages. As a result, page rank is focused on those sions, don’t feel constrained by this structure; but try to keep
pages only. Remember, if I have a page rank value of X for linking to unrelated pages at a minimum.
any given page, the collective page rank I’m passing to all of In the next part in our series on, we’ll take the next step
my pages is X. So, if I am linking to three pages, each page in our campaign and begin driving targeted backlinks to our
will receive one-third of that page rank. If I’m linking to 30 website with the help of Rand Fishkin, co-founder of SEO-
pages, each linked page receives a much smaller portion of Moz, a popular provider of SEO software.

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A U GU ST 2010 | | 19
 CONVERSION CACHE With Tim Ash

Blenders and Brilliance

I often hear heated Many conversion consultants of knowledge about what is wrong. Simply sit three to
arguments over the brush aside multivariate test- five people in front of your page and ask them to speak
merits of various testing ing as akin to simply mixing out loud while trying to accomplish a pre-defined task.
up the features of a landing You can even work with a hand-drawn wireframe or
approaches and page in a blender and seeing post-it note prototype. Tools like Loop11.com can be
consulting practices. what combination works best. used to recruit online participants and design tests.
They insist that multivariate UserTesting.com will quickly and inexpensively recruit
testing requires little thought people and record their sessions for your review.
Tim Ash is CEO of and is unlikely to produce good results. They stress their
SiteTuners.com, a own brilliant breakthrough ideas as being at the heart of any Multivariate Testing vs. A-B Split Testing
landing page significant increase in conversion. Battles fought over which is the best landing page testing
optimization firm that In reality the matter is much more nuanced. approach can be heated and passionate. Some people claim
offers conversion that the ease of split testing makes it much more likely to be
consulting, full-service Thinking vs. Testing frequently used and, therefore, more valuable. Others swear
guaranteed-improve- Not everything should be tested. There are many obvious by the advantages of large-scale multivariate testing.
ment tests, and elements (or at least commonly understood things in the
tools to improve conversion improvement community) that should immedi- Split tests have several advantages:
conversion. SiteTuners’ ately be changed about a landing page. Most know it is com- • Ease of design — Simply decide how many versions you
interactive Express mon sense, but have not bothered to do anything about it. want to test, and then split the available traffic evenly
Reviews of a landing The most common reasons for ignoring known landing among them.
page can quickly page problems are that you are too busy, embarrassed about
identify major creating the problem in the first place, or too familiar with • Ease of implementation — Many content management
conversion issues. Ash the page to see it clearly. Once you can get past those issues and software packages support simple split tests.
is a frequent speaker and are ready to roll up your sleeves, there are several • Ease of explanation — No complicated analyses or
at Internet marketing avenues you can pursue to dramatically improve critical charts are needed to present results to others.
conferences. He is a landing pages:
contributing columnist
• Useful in low-traffic situations — If your landing page
• Best practices reviews — Often, using well-known best only has a few conversions per day, you simply cannot
to several industry practices can quickly eliminate the most glaring prob-
publications and
use more advanced tuning methods.
lems. SiteTuners offers an inexpensive live interactive Ex-
websites, and is also press Review of your site via an online meeting. The
the author of the best-
Multivariate testing has its own advantages:
recording can be shared and circulated to others on your
selling book “Landing team. The recommendations can be put into practice • Ability to try large number of unique pages — Some
Page Optimization.” immediately and will often result in a double-digit per- systems allow you to test millions of page versions if you
centage improvement in conversion rates. have enough traffic.
• Using tools to find problems — Sometimes you might • Speed of data collection — Running a multivariate test
not even be aware of the problems with your landing page. is much faster than running a comparable number of
They come in many variations including usability, copy- split tests back-to-back.
writing and messaging, graphic design, value proposition, • Taking context into account — Some multivariate tools
trust and credibility. There is an explosion of new tools take context (variable interactions) into account and
available to help diagnose problems. They include Click- consider how well combinations of your page elements
Tale.com, CrazyEgg.com, CrossBrowserTesting.com, and play together.
our own AttentionWizard.com visual attention prediction
tool. Most of these tools are free or very inexpensive. Take a holistic approach and use a bit of brilliance com-
• Using people to find problems — Many times, the only bined with occasional blending to get the best results out of
reason you can’t find problems is that you are too close to your landing page optimization program. To ignore any of
them. You may have even had a hand in their creation. the available tools or approaches would be like playing golf
Since you are very familiar with the page, you cannot see with only a single club in your bag — and just as unlikely
it from the perspective of a new or casual visitor. Con- to produce a good outcome. So get over the arguments and
ducting some informal user testing will provide a wealth the posturing and get to work!

20 | | AUG UST 2010

 F I N DA B I L I T Y M A K E O V E R With Heather Lutze

I’M ON TWITTER...NOW WHAT?

More and more of my
clients have jumped
Patricia Fripp, a well-known profile page as a mini website — a professional look with
on the social media
speaker and executive speech calls-to-action are very important. Also, testing different
bandwagon but have coach is asking herself this looks and feels can go a long way in this forum.
no idea what they very question. In March, 2009,
(2) Time Management Tools are a Must!
Patricia decided to join the
should be expecting Set up a tool for monitoring and conversation manage-
Heather Lutze has
Twitter community and has
ment. I recommend a few free tools — Ping.fm, So-
from their efforts. since grown her “followers” to
spent the last cialOomph and Hootsuite. Remember, taking an hour
10 years helping
more than 3,800 as of June,
to program 30 tweets for the next month can save
business owners get
2010. She is diligently tweet-
several hours of social media updating in the future.
their enterprises
ing and doing everything right, from a Findability/Twitter
standpoint — if you search using search.twitter.com you will (3) Set Up a Measurement System
noticed on the Web
see her using her main keyword “executive speech coach” in Choosing a measurement system will depend on the
by their target
her tweets. But the effort is not matching the results. goals you have set for your Twitter account. In Patricia’s
audiences. She is the
case, this means driving traffic to her website then con-
author of “The “I have bursts of enthusiasm about social media. I assume
verting those visitors into leads. For this type of meas-
Findability Formula: keyword-rich tweets are not going to hurt but I am not
urement Google Analytics is the best tool. In addition to
The Easy, Non- aware of any booked business from Twitter.”
setting up tracking codes for each link, extensive
Technical Approach — Patricia Fripp
amounts of data can be collected and measured. For
to Search Engine
This Findability Makeover is about taking Twitter efforts example, in Patricia’s case, she found:
Marketing.” Visit
and turning them into real results. Whether it’s cash i. 57 visits to her website from Twitter
FindabilityFormula.com
business, sale leads, networking or just fun; as a business ii Average time-on-site from Twitter visitors is 1
for tools and resources
you cannot just throw yourself into social media without minute, 26 seconds
to increase your
understanding the end game.
site’s findability. iii. Average visitor sees at least 2 pages
Objective: Get more clients from Twitter by driving traffic iv. 60 percent are first-time visitors
to the main website (www.Fripp.com) and incentivizing with Of course, one of the pieces of information missing in
articles and giveaways. Hook users in and keep them hungry this data is conversions –— how many people who
for more Patricia Fripp insights. visited Patricia’s website took action (filled out a form
or made a purchase)? By tracking conversions, Patricia
Problem: Patricia Fripp has a large and growing following will be able to start measuring what tweets were more
with lackluster business results. How does she turn this likely to drive converting traffic.
community of “followers” into new clients? (4) Tweet Twice Per Day, Testing Calls-to-Action,
Keywords and Links
Twitter Action Plan: Every Twitter follower wants different information. It is
1. Check The Fundamentals First very important to try different tactics (calls-to-action,
2. Analyze and Make it Better keywords, links, etc.) to determine what your target
audience wants the most.
Step 1: Check the Fundamental Elements of
Your Twitter Account
Step 2: Analyze and Make it Better
Before looking ahead, we have a solid foundation. Check
Now that Patricia has been tweeting for a while, it’s time
these fundamental elements of your Twitter account first.
to start analyzing what updates are the most successful. Pa-
(1) Professional-looking Background tricia’s main objective for Twitter is to get leads, yet her self-
Patricia’s background was great a year ago, but I recom- identified success metric with Twitter seems to be re-tweets.
mend she update it with a call-to-action, statements of A big reason her enthusiasm may wane with Twitter is
clear benefits of working with her, and a prominent because her updates are optimized for re-tweets instead of
phone number and website address. Think of a Twitter bottom-line results.

22 | | AUG UST 2010

 Before analyzing an account, it’s very important to
determine the metrics that demonstrate success of the busi-
ness goal. In this instance, we want to measure traffic
received from Twitter to Fripp.com (as tracked by Google
Analytics) instead odd re-tweets. As such, we are measuring
the tweets that included a link to the Fripp.com website Findability is about being present when the community
to determine their success in driving traffic to the main searches for you, but it also means giving them a valuable
website. This will provide insight into how to optimize the interaction once they click. Tracking and market intelli-
account for better business results. gence can go a long way in delivering your target audience
the information they find meaningful in your Twitter
(1) Measure for the Right Results account. Being able to connect meaningfully with your au-
Hootsuite will measure the number of clicks you receive dience by producing targeted, well-crafted updates is the
on links in tweets. However, it is important to note that best way to optimize your Twitter account to not only attract
Hootsuite only measures clicks, whereas Google Analyt- followers, but drive conversions.
ics can measure a great deal more — pages per visit,
unique visitors and conversion metrics (if a visit resulted
in a sale or lead).

(2) Analyze Updates to Take Tweeting to the Next Level

Let’s take a look at the most successful Tweets in Patri-
cia’s account, based on traffic sent to Fripp.com. Based on Linking Text to Revenue
click counts and the content in these tweets we can deter-
mine successful elements to continue incorporating. Let us turn your delicious
a. Include Links as Much as Possible: The best way to track
content into money
success is by measuring the next step people take after
seeing a tweet — accomplished by including links and
tracking user clicks. Also, consider building specific land-
ing pages for Twitter clicks based on the tweet.

b. Use Popular Keywords: “Marketing for Speakers,”

“Speaking Skills” and “Speaking School” seem to be very
effective Twitter keywords for Patricia’s audience. We
recommend using them more.

c. Refine Subject Matter: “NSA” (National Speakers Asso-

ciation) is included in each of the tweets that generated
zero clicks. If you are tweeting for a specific event such
as “National Speakers Association Winter Conference,”
check for an associated hashtag (i.e. #NSA10.) It is pos-
Infolinks In Text advertising is a great way
sible more clicks could have been generated, as Twitter- for you to monetize your website or blog.
savvy event attendees knew to look for that hashtag for Join today and get the industry’s highest
information about the event. revenue share - guaranteed!

d. Don’t be Too Sale-zy: Try a softer sales approach, a few www.infolinks.com

more calls-to-action or even a free giveaway. Based on
Special offer: Sign up with Infolinks, write “Website Magazine”
clicks, 12 free podcasts is much more compelling to this in the comment box, and get a $40 credit to your new account!
audience then a direct speaking pitch.

A U GU ST 2010 | | 23
 THE NEW
CONTENT
EXPERIENCE
Driving awareness, providing entertainment
and generating profit
By Peter Prestipino,
Content: It’s what we consume — sometimes intentionally, other times
Editor-in-Chief
subliminally. But we are inundated with it every minute in today’s informa-
tion economy.
But what is “content”? On today’s fast-paced Web, content arrives in
many forms and through many channels — audio, video, research papers,
images, product descriptions and consumer reviews — it’s all content. And,
it’s increasingly taking center stage. Google formally rolled out its new Caf-
feine index in early June, 2009 (see page 6), and the search engine is now
showing 50-percent fresher results from its largest collection of informa-
tion ever assembled. At the Caffeine launch, Google stated that, “... every
second, Caffeine processes hundreds of thousands of pages in parallel. If
this were a pile of paper it would grow three miles taller every second.”

26 | | AUG UST 2010

A U GU ST 2010 | | 27
 COMPELLING,
USEFUL
INFOGRAPHICS
The value infographics bring to
Web professionals is the ability
to present dry, statistical content
in a compelling format. CBS
Sports, for example, developed
an interactive visualization using
Tableau Software to aid its
fantasy football enthusiasts in
selecting the best running back
for the 2009 season. Visitors are
able to identify the best running
backs by comparing players,
their projected opportunities and
the defensive matchups they
will face throughout the season
(as seen below). This infographic
crunches vast amounts of data
into one, easy-to-use and
interactive block of content.
28 | |
In other words, there is more content available on
the Web than ever before, and it’s being delivered
to consumers at blinding speeds. To make your
content stand out in a saturated market (and en-
sure that it ultimately influences sales and con-
versions), you will need to rethink content as an
asset — then retool for the new content experi-
ence. Of course, this might require reconfiguring
some aspects of your business and marketing
plans but you will find that content is the best
means to accomplish any number of critical tasks,
from sales to support.
You will quickly discover that meaningful re-
sults come not from simply pumping out an end-
less stream of content but by producing content
that entertains or educates (or both at the same
time). In today’s fast-paced, big-profit world,
consumers want opinions, analysis and tech-
niques. They want insights and answers, and
they will look to you or your competitors for that
information.
Consumers increasingly want to feel connected.
And the single best way to accomplish that is to
create not just content but content that offers a
complete and immersive experience. If, like me,
you groan at every mention of “produce quality
content”, you will want to keep reading. What fol-
lows are practical, actionable ways to create con-
tent that engages, entertains and educates, and
brings consumer awareness to your business and
its brand for the purpose of profiting.
AUG UST 2010
Infographics for Entertainment
and Education
Several years ago when search engines feverishly
began indexing images and displaying them on
search results, a new category of “universal” search
engine optimization (SEO) emerged. In many re-
spects it was a precursor to the real-time index so
closely examined today. The possibilities were end-
less for Web professionals interested in grabbing
additional reach on search engine results pages
(SERPs), and consumers were intrigued by the
more engaging, immersive experience that resulted.
The same holds true today.
What many quickly discovered, however, was
that the value to the bottom line brought by the use
of images (one medium in the new age of univer-
sal, user-generated content) was minimal; unless it
connected users to a deeper brand experience.
Enter infographics — visual representations of in-
formation, data or knowledge.
Information, particularly in the knowledge
economy, is complicated to express quickly or
clearly as concepts can often be unwieldy, at best,
and outright messy and confusing at their worst.
No more.
Making an infographic such an inviting item of
content are its various forms, including charts, di-
agrams, tables, maps and lists; and the fact that it is
ideal for summarizing reams of statistical informa-
tion in an appealing and easy-to-digest way. Info-
graphics can be diagrams to show how a system
works, illustrated graphics to show relationships
between sets of data, or even something as simple
as a flowchart to signify progress. When used prop-
erly, infographics can provide a new way for users
to process information that you want to convey in
a convincing manner — that connecting with your
brand is the right thing to do.
Instead of turning over stacks of raw data to
your designer and asking them to work their magic,
know there are a few tools available that make cre-
ating your own infographics a fast, if not fun un-
dertaking for content developers.
One of the best is Tableau Public (tableausoft-
ware.com), a free software that can be downloaded
to create some amazingly intense visualizations
of data. A gallery is available on the site and it
accurately demonstrates the variety of infographics
 MOBILE CONTENT USAGE
Nielsen’s recently launched “App Playbook” report revealed that of
the application categories used in the past 30 days, productivity
apps were used by 30 percent of smartphone users; video/movie
apps were used by 25 percent; communication apps were used
by 31 percent, and shopping/retail apps were used by 29 percent.
that can be created. For example, Stephen McDaniel What this reveals is that while games, social networking and
of Freakalytics used the software to display complex
relationships between multiple metrics looking at weather apps dominate, there is substantial usage currently in
stock market patterns relative to economic condi-
tions from 1901-2008 (bit.ly/bMbA0M). But data other areas. And, the growth will continue.
isn’t just for geeks. CBS Sports used Tableau to cre-
ate an infographic to help fantasy football enthusi-
asts select the best running back for the 2009 season Website Magazine’s June 2010 issue “Mobile Apps: The Gold Rush
(bit.ly/a553V9), and it was interactive, to boot.
Infographics, for the most part, have gained is On”, argued that the best applications are those that provide
mainstream adoption. It may be time to add the
utility for users — people use iTunes or Pandora because they
medium to your content strategy when you see the
likes of The New York Times Visualization Lab (a entertain; Google Maps because they don’t want to get lost, the
Web-based tool that uses Many Eyes technology
from IBM Research — bit.ly/bHli8S) enabling its Weather Channel (the most-used app cross-platform, according to
users to create their own visualizations using data
from multiple news sources. Nielsen) so they know when to bring their umbrellas. While you
Remember that images, illustrations and info-
graphics are but a few powerful opportunities avail- might not create an application that meets or exceeds the utility
able to help develop a more immersive content
experience. There are many others.
of the most popular applications, with a little creative thinking you
can provide a unique experience to your users that is immersive
White Papers and profitable for all. Access the June issue on mobile applications
and Thought Leadership
Those seeking information on solutions, trends at WebsiteMagazine.com.
and technologies are the ideal audience for a con-
tent marketing strategy. Our question throughout
is not just what kind of content to create but what
format will resonate best. The answer, particularly
for those in business-to-business industries, is
white papers.
Think of white papers as nothing more than
a highly strategic means to persuade a consumer
to make a purchase (albeit subtly), or a straight-
forward manner to propose a solution to a
problem. This is, however, where most content
publishers get stuck. Writers and content devel-
opment teams must tailor content to a specific
audience; addressing their concerns and satisfy-
ing their interests if greater brand engagement
and helping that prospect move down the sales
funnel is the aim — which, in marketing, should
always be the end game.
White papers, when all is said and done, are no
more complicated to create and distribute than
any other medium. But subtlety is of paramount
importance. Content developers must be able to

A U GU ST 2010 | | 29
SOLICITING SOCIAL
COMMENTS
Making a convincing argument for
building a social media presence is
not difficult — consumers are
using social networking sites en
masse. However, simply setting up
a profile and feeding it blog posts
will not provide an immersive ex-
perience. Instead, focus on interac-
tion through user comments.
User commenting is on the rise.
Have a look at popular social
updates and it’s not uncommon
to see dozens, if not hundreds of
user comments. And, it’s an ongo-
ing experience. When users com-
ment on a story they will return
to see how others react to their
opinions, even invite their friends
to join the conversation. This drives
engagement and branding and can
be one of the best ways to utilize
social media — by encouraging
users to be truly social.
Soliciting comments can be
challenging, but aided by contests,
submitting polls or asking open
questions about popular
industry news items, consumer
opinions or testimonials. You might
even consider running contests
or giveaways based on user-
submitted comments.
The key to any social commenting
initiative is to help users provide
value to each other. For example,
ask your consumers about ways
they use your product — you
might find some interesting in-
sights. In this case, consumers can
educate each other on the many
benefits of your product beyond its
initial purpose. This can also
provide valuable research by dis-
covering ways to better refine your
products to fit consumer needs.
30 | |
demonstrate their knowledge and emphasize the
uniqueness and advantages of one solution over an-
other in a gentle yet convincing manner — the
reader must receive an education first and be con-
vinced of the right solution underneath.
To do this effectively, much like other content
development processes, you need to understand
the target audience and consider the time and
method of reading such papers. More often than
not, white papers tend to be overly exhaustive re-
views of some trend or another that can be more
confusing than useful. The way to counteract this
malignant practice is to provide engaging, suc-
cinct overviews.
Summaries and abstracts work well and can
be used in a variety of other content marketing
campaigns. More importantly, however, they pro-
vide material that gives that busy executive a rea-
son to jump to the end paragraphs and
conclusion where you are able to describe how
your product resolves the problem at hand —
ideally with empirical evidence, case studies or
expert testimonials.
Thanks to white papers’ ease of dissemination
it is optimal to keep the complexity to a mini-
mum. Industry jargon and strange acronyms
alienate prospects and can inflict long-term
damage to a brand. However, providing succinct
and useful information and solutions can pro-
vide a tremendous lift and secure long-term
brand equity and provide lifetime value to
consumers. But where should white papers be
distributed and what should you expect from
their consumption?
White papers are powerful tools to build your
brand and express knowledge and expertise but
don’t expect them to be a source of high-quality
leads — at least at the outset of their distribution.
Often, consumers of white papers simply look for
explanations and perhaps even ideas. Only when
the time is right will all that sophisticated, sublimi-
nal branding come into play. The goal should be that
when consumers think of a product or a solution
they will recall your white paper and turn to you for
more answers to their problems. Sales cycles can be
exceedingly long in some cases, particularly for
those selling higher-priced items. So, tempering
your expectations and planning marketing cam-
paigns accordingly is the best course of action.
White papers can and should be distributed
anywhere your audience is visiting. That’s easier
said than done, however. Perhaps the optimal lo-
cation is on your own website, often done through
media and press centers. Doing so lets you control
AUG UST 2010
what information is collected and easily gauge buy-
ing intent versus browsing behavior.
There are also a variety of Web destina-
tions where your content can be freely shared.
Communities such as Scribd.com, Docstoc.com
and SlideShare.com are some of the most popu-
lar resources. Each of these services enables you
to upload your documents and embed them on
your own site. Because the documents are actu-
ally hosted by their sites, bandwidth consump-
tion is reduced and you get a leg up when
building your website’s online media center.
For some, turning to topically focused Web des-
tinations with established audiences is perhaps the
most viable opportunity to distribute content.
Should your content be news-worthy or data-dri-
ven, then making an approach for editorial coverage
from a news or media portal is optimal. Find web-
sites where executives and decision-makers gather
for your industry and offer your expertise directly.
Rethinking Video
as an Immersive Experience
Consumers’ affinity for content outside of articles,
text product reviews, white papers and even enter-
taining images is growing, as can be seen in the
continued use of audio and video.
Comscore’s April 2010 video metrics revealed
that, while the number of video viewers slipped
slightly month-over-month (perhaps due to the
start of summer), 178 million U.S. Internet users
watched online video during the month. Over 30
billion videos were watched in April and Google
Sites represented 43.2 percent of all videos viewed
online. Google sites such as YouTube will give you
the best opportunity for exposure but there are
many others in a variety of categories.
Community-driven food portal iFood.tv is a
perfect example of a niche video portal with a
loyal and engaged audience. The user-generated
content (UGC) site is growing quickly as a
destination (increasing visits and unique visitors
by 50 percent in April 2010, according to
Compete.com), making it an ideal target for
home, health and hospitality vendors to access
their primary audience. There are many other
destinations that follow the same UGC model as
iFood.tv. Look around and you might be sur-
prised at the number available.
The distribution of audio and video need not
be restricted to those destinations you do not con-
trol, however. Deploying a media center on your
website to provide additional details, showcase tes-
timonials or provide how-to guides are underuti-
 SELLING eBOOKS
The rise of e-books and e-readers opens new doors for potential business-to-business
authors. One can self-publish their own e-book and sell it online or market the business
documents they’ve worked so hard to create — the opportunities are limitless. Below
lized but available opportunities for creating a are some e-book publishers, document marketplaces and digital libraries where buyers
richer level of user engagement. Keep in mind that and sellers exchange B-to-B content.
the end goal for our businesses is to drive users
back to our websites — where we control the mes-
sage and, ideally, the user’s conversion path. So, you
might consider providing YouTube with short,
teaser segments and then direct users to your web-
site for the conclusion of a video series for deeper If you are looking to publish and sell that business e-book, Lulu is one of the first places
brand engagement. you should investigate. Using simple publishing tools, authors format and upload their
Another option to consider is using video in own digital content and then take advantage of Lulu’s global marketplace, social
mobile applications. Consumers, above all else,
want to be entertained. They want an experience
networking and author services, free customized online stores and retail listings on
not found anywhere else and you want to hold their Amazon, Barnes & Noble and many more. The generous 80/20-revenue split also
attention. The way to achieve that in today’s hyper- empowers authors to profit from their work.
competitive mobile landscape is to add another di-
mension to mobile applications. Whether that
comes in the form of offering both free and paid ap-
plications (the higher-level providing additional
features) or simply adding video or audio into your
applications, it can do a world of wonder for the While this company offers a range of professional editorial and self-publishing tools
popularity and usage of the applications you build that authors would expect from a traditional publisher, iUniverse’s marketing services
for your business. are probably its strong suit. Their special recognition and awards programs are
Instructional content provider HowCast merges designed to create more opportunities for retail presentation and placement that goes
these two worlds near perfectly. The portal’s iPhone
application has been downloaded over one million well beyond the Internet.
times and its new application for the Android
promises even greater exposure.
Automated iPhone application platforms are
well aware that more content (and multi-media
content) not only aids in the acceptance of your Issuu is an e-publishing platform that enhances and customizes digital editions of your
app by Apple, but can also increase the depth of a
content that can be marketed and sold to target audiences. Used by some of the top
user’s interaction with that application and, ulti-
mately, your brand. AppMakr makes it easy to in- publishing companies and other brands looking to reach new audiences for their digital
tegrate audio and video feeds into the applications business content, Issuu’s Pro Solution starts at $19 per month.
that users of their system create and upload to
iTunes. More content, particularly content that in-
creases the amount of usage, improves the likeli-
hood that you can even charge a premium for
content, prompting users to spend more time with
the application.
This is both a digital publishing library and marketplace where users can read, publish,
buy, sell and share content. Anyone can publish in a range of formats including reports
Dominate Daily and presentations, e-books, catalogs and more. The YUDU Plus and Pro products are
The challenges are many for content develop- the professional self-publishing options for writers, authors, businesses and marketers.
ers. While content remains king, today the king has
many faces. No longer are you as a Web marketer
or Internet professional forced to create content in
one way, attracting one type of audience in the
process, at one point in time in the users’ buying
cycle. Today, ideas can be expressed in unique, in- Your business documents are made available through one source on this site and in-
novative and immersive ways; brands can be built dexed by Google and Bing, then shared through over 200 of the largest Web services to
through entertaining or educating an audience; and increase the visibility of your work and your company. Edocr ensures that any document
products can be sold — because the vendor has
taken time to consider the audience’s preferred uploaded has a greater return on the investment of producing it, whether you are a
method of content consumption. small to medium-sized business owner or part of a global corporation.

A U GU ST 2010 | | 31

BEWARE
If You Know What to Look for, Buying Links Can
Become an Effective Part of Your Overall SEO Strategy
Attend any SEO industry
conference and you will hear
two things: 1) Link building, There is no sense disputing the first
point. Building quality links to your
while extremely tedious site requires many long hours that
work, is essential to moving will pay off in the long run — de-
spite the fact that it doesn’t always
your website up the SERPs, feel that way. Technically, the second
and 2) Link buying is not point is also indisputable, as anyone
who buys links to avoid the hard
a viable alternative to work of painstakingly building a
portfolio will wind up on Google’s
traditional link building. radar, and possibly on its blacklist.
However, there are certainly some suggestions we can
provide that will eliminate a small measure of the tedium
from traditional link building, which can be found in the
sidebar to this article. But this particular discussion will focus
on link buying, and how moderation, discretion and a few
important tips can help you effectively incorporate this con-
troversial tactic into your overall link-building strategy.
As it always has, the conversation starts with directory
links. Although some of today’s SEO’s might consider them
somewhat antiquated, directories are still among the safest
and best resources for establishing a site’s reputation with
the search engines.
“The only three links we would ever buy for our clients
or recommend that they buy are the Yahoo! directory, the
Best of the Web directory and the Business.com directory,”
says Greg Shuey, Director of Off Page Optimization for
SEO.com. “I just listened to Google’s Matt Cutts explain-
ing the reason why these sites aren’t penalized, which is
32 | | AUG UST 2010
LINK BUYER
By Linc Wonham, Associate Editor
because of their ‘strict editorial processes.’ Each one of
these links will really help build a site’s credibility for about
$300 a year.”
Not surprisingly, Google’s endorsement for buying links
ends there, and the same goes for Shuey and anyone else
wanting to maintain their good standing in SEO circles. But
it is by no means the end of the conversation, as link buy-
ing and selling has grown into an industry all its own. The
key to making it a legitimate component of your link-build-
ing strategy is doing it sparingly — and knowing when a
link is worth the cost and the risk involved.
“If someone is going to purchase links,” Shuey warns,
“they have to do it in conjunction with other link-building
tactics. If it’s the only thing they do, they’re going to be toast.”
The criteria, then, for any link that justifies spending
your money and risking your online reputation should be
considerably harder to meet than links obtained tradi-
tionally. There are five categories to examine, and a paid
link should rate favorably in all of them even to be con-
sidered. The first category is the relevance of the content
on the website providing the link to the content on your
own site, followed by the SERP ranking of the site pro-
viding the link. Where relevance is less of an issue for the
links you get through friends, associates and general net-
working, it is of vital importance for a paid link, as are
very high rankings in search results.
The third area to explore is the amount of monthly
unique visitors that go to the site providing the link, as
high search rankings do not always guarantee that a site is
 In Link Building, There’s is well worth the effort it takes to find the

No Substitute for Hard Work communities that are going to be most

interested in your products and services.
For some helpful tools and resources for
Buying links can be an effective supplemental strategy in a link-building building links through forums, go to
campaign if it is done cautiously and sparingly. In fact, no method of building http://bit.ly/9kKZpd.
links should dominate the overall effort, as the best way to appease the search
Nonprofit Organizations
engines is with a portfolio of high-quality links obtained through as many Nonprofit and charity organizations are
different means as possible. excellent vehicles for building inroads into
your local community and beyond, often
Below are just some of the proven writing and distributing press releases at leading to increased traffic and possibly
methods of building links, and where to http://bit.ly/b3Fc7I. valuable links for your website. One way to
find more information on each one of them initiate a relationship is by offering your
at WebsiteMagazine.com. All of these Blogs services for free or by making a donation,
strategies require long hours of hard work, Blogs are another great way to get the both great ways to build your business’
but they also come free of the financial cost relevant links you need, especially since reputation. For other ideas, visit
and professional risk of link buying: you control the direction of the content on http://bit.ly/abYKX6.
your own blog. Featuring compelling guest
Press Releases/News Outlets bloggers is also a very effective way of Social Bookmarking
Sending out press releases to news organ- expanding your audience and gaining high- Social bookmarking takes a lot of time,
izations and PR sites is a great way to quality links. Read the comments about the but there may not be a better way to gain
attract visitors to your site and to build new value of blog content for building new links favor with the search engines today than
links. There are numerous free sites online at http://bit.ly/9ZXcDH. through building great links across the
to help facilitate the process, but it’s also not many social media channels. To find out
a bad idea to get acquainted with your own Community Forums more, read the section on generating links
local media resources. Find out more about Posting on forums and discussion boards at http://bit.ly/9SkfWt.

heavily trafficked. Fourth is the placement of the link, and

a good rule of thumb is to avoid the more suspiciously
viewed sidebar and footer links in favor of links on the
homepage or another page where the content is most rel-
evant to your own.
The final factor to look at, of course, is the price of the
link, and only you can determine its relative value for your
own budget. Another general rule, however, is to avoid dis-
counts on dozens or more links at once — which is simply
inviting trouble from Google. You should be purchasing one
link at a time and no more often than one per week, anyway.
A number of networks have emerged to help find links
for sale, but if a pattern of buying is detected by the search
engines your website can be penalized or even banned from
results pages. Some are better than others at helping find
natural-looking, undetectable paid links, but one network
with a good track record of meeting the basic criteria is
TextLinkAds. Other companies worth exploring include
LinkAdage, LinkMetro, LinkWorth and LinkMarket.net.
Another company with an impressive multifaceted
link-building approach is TextLinkBrokers. “Buying links
is a must if you’re going to be profitable online,” says CEO
Troy Ireland, “but we focus on planning and coordinating
the best overall strategies for our clients. We offer such a
variety of different ways to get links that the goal is to find
out what Google wants and to deliver it realistically and
ethically. Link popularity is 85 percent of the battle in SEO,
and we give our clients higher rankings faster and for
longer periods of time.”

A U GU ST 2010 | | 33
ASP meets PHP
An open-source software battle
If you are looking to test the efficacy of a particular market sub-cat-
egory or even a total strategy shift for your business, why not look
toward an open-source software solution written in ASP? For one,
you might argue that the best and most popular software tends to
be scripted in PHP, leaving those restricted to using ASP out of the
mix entirely, right? Not so. Below are a few of the top open-source
ASP solutions (and a few of their PHP counterparts) to reveal the
depth of the software and the activity of communities that sup-
port them.
Weblogs: Everybody knows that WordPress is now “the” stan-
dard of PHP-scripted weblogs and, in some instances, CMS sys-
tems too. But what about those requiring an ASP format? Oxite is
an open-source, standards compliant and extensible content man-
agement system that can run anything from personal blogs to web-
sites on a far larger scale. Another open-source blogging platform
for ASP.NET 2.0 is dasBlog (dasblog.info). In addition to being an
attractive solution from front-to-back, dasBlog requires no data-
base; using file-based content management instead. The winner
here is WordPress, thanks to an impressive standard feature set
that grows quickly and volumes of plugins to satisfy any func-
tionality request.
E-Commerce Software in Action
Open-Source Style
If you have worked with different e-commerce systems, you understand
that the core functionality remains pretty much the same across plat-
forms. For this reason, keep in mind that the “right” software solution for
you is the one that is intuitive, efficient and extensible — that it’s easy to
manage for your needs, is coded properly with minimal bugs (and secure)
and that new functionality is continually adopted through the use of plug-
ins or add-on modules. Should the software system you select meet
those requirements, the rest is up to you. Check out the general similarities
in the front ends of two popular open source e-commerce solutions, in
Magento and nopCommerce.
34 | | AUG UST 2010
By Peter Prestipino, Editor-in-Chief
CMS: There are hundreds of solutions to help manage content
assets scripted in PHP, but the open-source options in ASP are far
fewer and certainly less well known — but not by much. Dot-
NetNuke is powering some 500,000 sites in production, accord-
ing to the company, and is one of the leading Web CMS and app
development platforms for Microsoft .NET. Another respected op-
tion is Umbraco, a CMS written in c# on the Microsoft .NET plat-
form. The software is fast and flexible and has established its own
rather active community and following. Joomla and Drupal are
powerful content management platforms for those requiring PHP
with active communities, but despite their strong track records are
not extraordinary enough on their own to warrant an entire shift
in platform. The winner here is everyone — as there are hundreds
of solutions on the market (just check out CMSmatrix.org) writ-
ten in both PHP and ASP.
E-Commerce: The open-source options are even fewer for In-
ternet retailers but arguably no less robust when it comes to ASP.
NopCommerce is an open source e-commerce solution that is
ASP.NET 3.5-based with a MS SQL 2005 (or higher) backend data-
base. DashCommerce is another leading ASP.NET open source e-
commerce application that offers all the standard features such as
product catalogs, shopping carts and order fulfillment mecha-
nisms. OsCommerce and Zen Cart are but two of the most popu-
lar, historically, but Magento is an up-and-comer that is certainly
making waves. As of March, 2010, the software maker currently
had over 60,000 merchants using its software.
There are limitations in every organization, so understanding
what they are (the programmer or designer never learned PHP, or
the business requires a Windows Server over Linux) is of para-
mount importance to your success. There are no losers in this soft-
ware battle, only winners (that means you). Selecting the right
software that balances marketing objectives with business limita-
tions is the best way to take a measured response to testing out
software for your business.
BUSINESS MARKETING WITH
FOURSQUARE
Foursquare, the popular social networking
and activity application, recently announced
that more than 700,000 “check-ins” are
taking place every day. That’s a lot of activity
and it’s all centered on businesses and
brands — an opportunity not to be missed.
So, what is Foursquare, and how can it
help your business?
In its simplest form, Foursquare works like this:
Consumers launch the app from their phones (or via
SMS for non-smartphones), then check in to a busi-
ness when they arrive. By checking in, consumers can
see if any of their connected friends are at the same lo-
cation or nearby, share and discover insider tips about
the location and earn points. Points are accumulated
and badges earned, then used to assign a status for
the individual, with the top point-getter being
crowned “Mayor.” What this does is create a com-
munity — an active and competitive community —
around the business itself. Users are engaged and en-
couraged to visit the location time and again. Essen-
tially, Foursquare helps drive foot traffic, branding
and create consumer advocates.
The Foursquare Community
Foursquare users are brand advocates by their very
nature. Of course, they might not think of them-
selves that way — in their minds they are satisfying
their own egos. But that satisfaction is derived vis-a-
vis the business being patronized.
The goal of every Foursquare user is to become
Mayor of their favorite local businesses — restaurants,
night clubs, golf courses ... just about anything. To do
this, the user must check in from the location itself.
So, the more they frequent a business, the better
chance they have to become Mayor. Of course, there
are other reasons for people to use Foursquare and
make a run at Mayor other than simple ego stroking.
And that’s where the businesses come into play.
Foursquare for Business
If you knew that a certain person was a fan of your
business and was perfectly willing to encourage his
friends to become fans too, wouldn’t you want to
reach out to that person and make absolutely sure
that they kept coming back? With Foursqaure, this is
precisely what you can do.
One of the most popular and effective ways for
businesses to use Foursquare is to offer real-world re-
wards to their business’ Mayors and other frequent
By Mike Phillips, Senior Editor
patrons. For example, a restaurant can offer a free Twitter
cocktail every time a user checks in, delivered right
through the app. Or, perhaps the free cocktail is of- Places
fered after every fifth visit, encouraging repeat busi- Launches
ness. The possibilities are only limited by your
imagination and perhaps your budget. Also, remem- Twitter has announced
ber the Mayor. Be sure to offer the best deals to that the release of Twitter
individual. Not only will this encourage advocacy, but Places — the ability to
also create a competitive spirit around the title. It geo-tag tweets on the
might just start some rivalries where the only way to fly and from a browser.
get ahead is to frequent your business. In addition, Foursquare
Your business might already have a Foursquare and Gowalla users can
presence, so search on Foursquare.com to find out. integrate their accounts
You will find a link to “claim” your venue. From there, with Twitter Places. So,
get started setting up your specials for users. Business if you click on a Twitter
owners can also promote their Foursquare presence Place you will also see
in-store — the website offers downloadable PDFs and check-ins. Considering
can send official window clings for display (above). Twitter’s massive
Foursquare can bring a significant increase in traf- audience, this is even
fic and, ultimately, sales to any brick-and-mortar busi- more reason for busi-
ness. And Foursquare is about to reach even more nesses to get busy
users. In June, 2010, The Wall Street Journal started with Foursqaure. Also,
providing “add-to-Foursquare” buttons at the bottom Twitter is releasing API
of restaurant reviews and other cultural coverage. functionality that lets
When a user clicks the button, the venue mentioned developers integrate
in the article is added to a to-do list on the user’s Places into their
Foursquare account, along with a tip written by a WSJ applications.
editor and link to the original article. It’s a safe bet to
assume that WSJ will not be the last major media out-
let to promote the service.
In the end, the service offers a built-in commu-
nity that is eager to engage. Help your customers
check in, then check out.
A U GU ST 2010 | | 35
Shift Happens:
SEO Alone is not Enough By Pierre Zarokian

When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), one truth is everlasting: The land-
scape is continually changing. And often, when it changes, the resulting shift in rankings
can be seismic. Google’s announcement of Caffeine (see page 6) is one example. The
new partnership between Microsoft Bing and Yahoo! aims to provide a long-term com-
petitor to Google and will impact search results across many major Web properties.
For an example of search’s ever-changing environment, improving search engine rankings. Link building — in-
look no further than a popular search on Google. Search bound and outbound — adds strength to your site in the
for “Xbox 360” and you will see more than just organic re- eyes of search engines, giving your site credibility and
sults from websites that mention those keywords. A broad respect. Site structure is also important — if it’s easy for
range of content appears, including news, paid advertis- search engines to index your content, rankings are not only
ing, shopping feeds and social media results, including more easily achieved but longevity can result, too.
user updates from Twitter. This means that publishers
and merchants need to concentrate on more than just Social and SEO
increasing organic search placement for an Internet As it stands today, no shift in search is more important or
marketing plan to succeed. prevalent than social media. Every day, millions of people
communicate with social media tools like Facebook and
Search Basics Twitter. Reaching these people can be a critical component
Several factors have traditionally produced consistent SEO of any successful online marketing campaign. However,
results. Content is still king, in many ways. Compelling every social media strategy needs to be more sophisticated
content with proper keyword density and keywords high- than simply starting a Twitter page and posting your com-
lighted in titles and meta tags remains very valuable to pany’s latest specials.

36 | | AUG UST 2010

 Social media and SEO marketing programs can
strengthen each other. A high-quality social media campaign
that is interactive and engages audiences can improve search
engine rankings on two fronts — both in organic listings
and as a source of inbound links. At the same time, apply-
ing smart SEO practices to social media content — such as
keyword-rich updates — will increase the reach and visibil-
ity of your social media campaign.
It is important to use your social profiles as a way to
attract attention by making sure that the right keywords are
highlighted within them. This way, when a user searches for
your brand, business or industry, your profile will appear in
results. A nice side effect is that the more results containing
your brand, the less room for your competition. It’s also im-
portant to be active on your chosen social media sites. Along
with making your own posts, build friends and followers
by being involved in communities with similar interests.
Social bookmarking tools like Digg and Delicious will help
promote your own activities along with helping you share
useful information with your followers.

Video and Feeds

Feeds have also become a valuable tool in the new SEO
landscape. This includes RSS feeds with the latest company
news, press releases, blog posts or social media updates. It
can also include product feeds — another reason why it’s
important that your products and shopping carts can be
easily indexed by search engines.
A relatively new concept is video SEO. Since acquiring
YouTube, Google presents many video results in regular
searches, often on the first page. Applying SEO concepts
to videos can not only increase their placement in
various searches but also improve the overall ranking of
an entire website.
Getting Personal, and Local
Search engines are constantly looking for ways to differen-
tiate themselves from the competition. One way has been
attempting to deliver individual users with as much per-
sonalized content as possible. Localized search results have
become increasingly expected by users in recent years, as
they seek information relevant to their specific geographic
area. Even as a small business, it might make sense to have
offices (or even phone numbers) in different parts of the
country or world to help improve search results in local-
ized searches.
Beyond localized searches, search engines are continu-
ally looking for ways to drill down searches with results as
individualized as possible. The new Google Personalized
Search is just one example of this. Not only are search en-
gines taking factors such as location into account when de-
livering results, they are also considering previous search
history and other sites users have visited in the past. The
reality is that, in many cases, no two searches will produce
exactly the same results.
Because of concepts like personalized searches, it’s im-
portant to feature customized content. Microsites that are
targeted to specific areas of interest, demographics or geo-
graphic regions are one way to do this. You might build a mi-
crosite for teens, or city and state pages for different parts of
the country. These sites also give places to post fresh content
on a weekly or even daily basis — something that search en-
gines like to see.
The bottom line is that basic SEO concepts are still crit-
ical, just not by themselves. In order for SEO campaigns to
be truly effective they need to be paired with smart market-
ing campaigns that involve every aspect of a company’s on-
line brand. As with any marketing campaign, it’s very
important to think about your target audience when de-
signing an SEO campaign and how and where you can most
effectively reach them.
Pierre Zarokian is founder and CEO of Submit Express
(http://www.submitexpress.com/), which has been at the fore-
front of SEO tactics for more than a decade. He was also hon-
ored by the San Fernando Business Journal as one of the
publication’s “Forty under 40”— entrepreneurs and other busi-
ness professionals who have made significant contributions to
their industries at an early age.

A U GU ST 2010 | | 37
Easy SEO for
WordPress
Once you make the commitment to blog on a regular basis, take
the next step to ensure all of your hard work is rewarded: Focus
on the search engine optimization (SEO) aspects of your blog.
Whether your intent is to communicate information to existing
customers or to build relationships with new prospects, a shared
goal should be attracting as many targeted visitors as possible
from search engines.
In my opinion, the content or articles that you write for your
WordPress blog (or any blog, for that matter) is the most im-
portant part of your SEO efforts. Write content for humans
first — your visitors — never just for search engines. The
way I see it; if you are lucky enough that a poorly-written ar-
ticle generates search engine rankings, and therefore visitors,
but those visitors leave immediately because the blog post
was written exclusively for search engines, what good has
come of it? In all likelihood you have done more damage
with indecipherable content than reaped rewards with a high
ranking. Always think of your visitors and readers first and
the search engines a very distant last place. In this era of shar-
ing content through social media sites and other venues, use-
ful, well-written content will rank highly on its own merit.
WordPress is one of the most popular blogging plat-
forms on the Internet largely because of its thousands of
available plugins — a handful of which are built to aid in
SEO. Along with writing superb content, consider these
five very useful plugins for your blog. They can all be
found at WordPress.org/extend or in your WordPress
dashboard.
1. All in One SEO Pack
One of the best plugins and with nearly five million down-
loads, also an industry standard. This plugin will allow you
to write custom meta information for all your posts and
pages. This should be one of the very first plug-ins you in-
stall when starting a WordPress blog.
38 | | AUG UST 2010
By Nick Stamoulis
2. Contextual Related Posts
This plugin will display a series of related blog posts at the
end of each published post by seeking those with relevant
tags. This not only helps with internal link building but
the user experience is also enhanced. Readers now have
the potential to stick around longer and read other areas
of your website.
3. SEO Smart Links
Interlinking your posts is a great way to strengthen the SEO
elements of your WordPress website. SEO Smart Links will
interlink your posts and pages as you write and publish
them. This is a great little tool that can have a major impact
on your blog’s search engine rankings.
4. WP-DB-Backup
Nothing will kill your SEO efforts faster than losing all of
that informative content. This tool will e-mail a file of your
entire database whenever you want — so if something
should happen and things go downhill you can quickly get
everything back up and running as soon as possible.
5. Google XML Sitemaps
When you add new posts and pages to your website every
day, you want to let Google know about your sitemap
changes. This plugin will update your sitemap automatically
as you build onto your website. Google will then quickly
index new content as it becomes available.
Successful SEO starts with producing top-quality con-
tent but it doesn’t stop there — it is an ongoing process in-
corporating many different strategies. And while other,
proven tactics (such as link building) must not be ignored,
WordPress users can take advantage of these plugins to get
a head-start with a successful SEO campaign.
Nick Stamoulis is the President and Founder of the full service
SEO and SEM company, Brick Marketing. Stamoulis also writes
daily in his SEO blog the Search Engine Optimization Journal.
For questions, please call Nick Stamoulis at (781) 350-4365 or
e-mail nick@brickmarketing.com
IMPROVING
ADWORDS ROI
As the CEO of an online marketing agency, I attend quite a few marketing conferences each year. There I
meet a surprising number of people who have tried AdWords and given up, or are only dipping their little
toes in the water. And the reason I hear most is that Google AdWords is overpriced.
The plain truth is that AdWords is indeed over-
priced — if you aren’t doing it right. But it doesn’t
stop there. A lack of AdWords success could be a
symptom of a greater problem.
Because Google pits you directly against your
competitors in a war for clicks, AdWords is a rough
scorecard of the strength of your business and mar-
keting model. If you can't consistently afford the first-
page spots for your core keywords — and your
competitors can — you are losing key battles.
Google processes more than two billion searches
per day, holds 66 percent of the worldwide search
market share and reaches 80 percent of global Inter-
net users through their content network. In other
words, this is a war you cannot afford to lose.
There are five common characteristics of adver-
tisers we see fail — AdWords will always be too ex-
pensive for them. I’ve highlighted the reasons below.
While reviewing these, take note of possible holes in
your own marketing funnel. Even if you are presently
successful with your AdWords ROI, there’s probably
some room for improvement.
AdWords is overpriced for those
with inadequate business models.
A business model is loosely defined as the way
your business goes about making money. This en-
compasses everything from product offerings and
By Timothy Seward
pricing to follow-up marketing and customer service.
Keep in mind that, with the Internet, everyone gets to
compete on a national or even international scale. A
business model that can do just fine locally will get
annihilated nationally.
You need an Olympian-level business model if
you are going to be one of the top five companies in
your industry nationwide. This requires tremendous
work to constantly refine your product offerings and
backend systems. Successful advertisers are willing to
break even or lose money on the initial product be-
cause their backend marketing system is so reliable
that they multiply the revenue from every customer
over the subsequent 12-24 months.
AdWords is overpriced
for those with poor cash flow.
Even if you have the strongest business model in the
game, you may be losing with AdWords due to an un-
realistically conservative cash flow.
It would be wonderful if you could pay $100
today and get $200 of profit tomorrow. For some ad-
vertisers with one-time transaction products, this can
be the case. However, many advertisers must be will-
ing to go negative on their ad spend while waiting for
the customer lifetime value to catch up.
It might take 6-12 months before recouping the
initial advertising investment. This is particularly true
A U GU ST 2010 | | 39
 for businesses with a long sales
cycle or subscription billing
products. AdWords success
is often a cash flow game
where the best funded get
the upper hand.
So, when wondering how
competitors can afford to pay
those “ridiculous” prices in
AdWords, the secret is, they
can’t — at least not initially.
They just have more cash flow
than you. (It may also be that they are
flat-out losing money. We’ll get into that later.)
AdWords is overpriced
for those who don’t test.
Any inadequacy can be overcome through rigorous
testing. As training strengthens the athelete, so does
testing improve marketing.
Tools are readily available for straightforward data-
driven tests. At a bare minimum, you should be test-
ing ads and landing pages. Once a winner is
discovered, another test should be soon to launch.
Testing is a continuous process.
Be aware that you are not simply testing one ad or
landing page against another. That’s an amateur’s ap-
proach. All of your top traffic ad groups and/or traffic
sources deserve their own unique tests; as the “losing”
landing page might actually work better for some of
your traffic. You need to be data-driven at every level and
set up your marketing funnel for maximum success.
AdWords is overpriced for those
battling for top position.
As stated earlier, sometimes businesses can’t afford what
they’re paying for AdWords traffic. It may be that the
click cost for the number one position is higher than
any business in the market can profitably afford. Bid-
ding wars at the top can drive prices to unreasonable
levels. This is sometimes referred to as “ego bidding.”
Who wouldn’t want to be at the top? When companies
are not tracking their return on ad spend, ego can take
over — leading to crazy bids to stay on top.
At every point along your continuum of AdWords
success, pay only what you can afford to pay, given your
cash flow and margin constraints. This requires con-
version tracking back to every keyword and ad group.
There is no other way to determine profitability.
AdWords is overpriced for those
with poor account structure.
Let’s assume you have a proven business model with
strong cash flow and have experienced success with
40 | | AUG UST 2010
other forms of advertising. In this case, the solution is
simple: use AdWords better. The good news is that if
you have taken care of all the above, managing your
AdWords account effectively is the easy part.
There are dozens of errors that novices make; a
group that probably includes many of your competi-
tors. Poor account structure is at the top of the list.
Structure your account so that you can display the
most relevant ad for every keyword search. This
means ad groups are all comprised of tightly related
keywords.
AdWords is a unique beast in that prices will go
down as your campaigns are increasingly well man-
aged. Magazines certainly don’t give you a price break
if more people call your 800 number, but Google
does. They want their users to have a good experi-
ence (and to keep clicking ads), so they reward you
with lower click costs if your ads are relevant. A good
account structure with frequent ad split testing will
enable you to have the most relevant ads possible for
each keyword.
Negative keywords also play an important part in
keeping costs down. Negative keywords act as filters
on your standard keyword list to block unwanted
traffic. So, if you are advertising on “night stands,”
you might show up for “one night stands.” Simply
add “one” as a negative keyword to filter out this un-
wanted (and non-converting) traffic. Advertisers can
typically cut costs by 20 percent with a thorough list
of negative keywords.
Needless to say, many other competencies are re-
quired for running an effective AdWords account.
While you can certainly get started with zero experi-
ence with AdWords, you will never compete in
crowded, high-volume markets without being at the
top of your game. Success with paid search marketing
requires a good deal of training, finesse and experi-
ence. Plenty of free training can be found online and
there is no shortage of agencies that would be happy
to take the burden off your hands.
The key is to not give up on this traffic source. Use
AdWords as your own scorecard of success. There is
no feeling like seeing your ad above the competition
— and knowing you can afford to be there. Success is
a moving target with the changing competitive land-
scape, so there’s no time like the present.
Timothy Seward is the CEO & Founder of ROI Revolu-
tion, Inc. Learn more about ROI Revolution’s paid search
management services and request a free strategy session
at www.roirevolution.com/websitemagazine.
SEVEN STEPS
to Writing Enticing Product Descriptions
By Karon Thackston
If you want a challenge, try writing e-commerce product de-
scriptions. Within a typical 60 to 70 words, you must con-
cisely convey the benefits and selling points of your product
while including search engine keyphrases that engage your
target audience ... all while working within the constraints of
your content management system (CMS).
How do the pros do it?
We understand that balance and organization are vital.
Using the following simple, seven-step process will help
you quickly master the art of e-commerce copywriting. Once
you do, you will then be able to generate enticing copy that
drives sales and boosts search engine positioning.
1. Get Familiar with the Target Audience
Amazingly, most people completely ignore their target cus-
tomer when writing product descriptions. However, the site
visitor is the key to shaping copy; the tone it takes and which
angle is used to communicate the benefits.
For example, if your target audience consists of gourmet
chocolate lovers, you will want to focus on the distinctive-
ness of your products’ flavors, the quality of the ingredients
or perhaps the luxurious texture. But what if your target
audience consists of — in part or in whole — those seeking
gluten-free treats?
Added ingredients in gourmet chocolates may cause
problems for those with celiac disease. These consumers are
regularly forced to stick with ordinary, plain chocolate
candies due to their condition. By doing a little research,
you will find that gluten-free items are some of the most
sought-after, up-and-coming grocery products. You will want
to make certain this segment of your gourmet site visitors
understands that you have products that meet their
dietary needs.
Knowing your audience as a whole and understanding
each segment within that audience is imperative to creating
e-commerce copy that hits the mark every time.
2. List the Biggest Benefits
The steps in this process are progressive. So, while keeping
your target audience and its needs in mind, make a list of the
benefits that are most important to your customers. You may
want to include various segments in your list.
Continuing with the example above, let’s create a mini-list
for a boxed collection of international chocolates.
Gourmet Chocolate Lovers — Distinctive ingredients im-
ported from across the globe.
Health-Conscious — Organic ingredients, premium dark
chocolate, high-quality nuts.
Special Dietary Needs — Gluten-free. Other collections avail-
able might include sugar-free, vegetarian, vegan and kosher.
A U GU ST 2010 | | 41
 All Customers — 100-percent pure ingredients; no artificial
colors, flavors or additives.
Gift-Givers — Attractive, boutique-style gift boxes wrapped
in a silk bow. Gift card included at no additional cost. A style(s)
appropriate for both personal and business gifting.
3. Predict the Future
Good copywriters look past the buying experience toward the
future. After the customer purchases this product, how will
his or her life be different or better? What will be the specific
end result of a purchase?
In the case of gourmet chocolates, the end result for those
purchasing for themselves might be breathing a sigh of satis-
faction as these divine confections melt in their mouths. For
gift-givers, the end result could be a positive impression on
the recipients (whether business or personal) with a truly dis-
tinctive collection unlike any they have ever received.
Whatever the end result, it is important to give your site
visitors a glimpse into the future so they can see how pur-
chasing from your company will improve their lives.
4. Know the Limits of Your CMS
Content management systems (CMS) can be frustrating. Be-
fore you set out to write product copy 150 words long with a
catchy headline, you will want to verify what can and cannot
be accomplished in your system. Some have limited room in
the copy field. Others force the headline by pulling informa-
tion from the product specifications. For example, the head-
line on each product page might be automatically fed from the
title of the product.
Knowing what obstacles and limitations must be overcome
will make the process of writing copy much easier. A few com-
mon areas to check include:
• Maximum word or character count in the product copy
field
• Additional fields below the fold (i.e. if you run out of space
in the product copy field, you can add a link for ‘more
information’ that drops the reader to a space further down
the page)
• Forced information (headlines that are automatically
inserted, product copy automatically fed to category
pages, etc.)
5. Incorporate Search Engine Keyphrases
Depending on your site design and your CMS, product de-
scriptions could conceivably be hundreds of words long. How-
ever, you are most likely looking at around 60 – 80 words.
That doesn’t leave much room to incorporate keyphrases.
While longer Web pages benefit from the use of multiple
search terms, I recommend sticking to one keyphrase for short
product descriptions. Start with the framework of your page
including the title tag, description meta tag, file name, page
name in the navigational structure, breadcrumb trail, forced
page headline and other elements. Then move on to the con-
tent. Use search phrases in:
• Headlines — If your headline is not forced by your CMS,
make a point to include your keyphrase; provided it does-
42 | | AUG UST 2010
n’t detract from the message. It is usually very simple to in-
corporate a keyphrase into a headline, but — if for some
reason it just doesn’t flow — leave it out.
• Product Image Captions — Too many e-commerce sites
simply shove “Product #12345” below graphics. Instead,
underneath the hero shot of your product enter a short,
keyword-rich sentence that briefly describes the item. This
assists your visitors with learning about your product and
gives a little nudge to your rankings.
• Product Copy — Even within 60 – 80 words you should be
able to comfortably include your best search term at least
two or perhaps three times. Read the text out loud. If it
sounds redundant, take out one instance of your keyphrase.
6. Write the Copy
It’s time to put all the pieces together. Start by reviewing the
previous five steps. We have our target customer base, bene-
fits, end results and keyphrase. Combine everything you have
to create a compelling product description that will capture
plenty of clicks.
While there are dozens of ways to write copy for any given
product, here is one version of sample copy for our gourmet
chocolate product. Our keyphrase is [gourmet chocolates].
Tour the World with International
Gourmet Chocolates
Do a little culinary globetrotting with our collection of
gourmet chocolates. Only 100% pure ingredients from
across the globe are used. Organic Hawaiian coconut,
Australian macadamia nuts and other exceptional treats
blend with the richest dark cocoa from West Africa for
distinctive gourmet chocolates that truly indulge the
senses. This assortment of 16 truffles is gluten-free,
elegantly packaged for personal or business gifting,
and wrapped with a silk bow.
7. Tweak, Test & Track
Satisfied? You shouldn’t be. There is always room for im-
provement. Change a word or two in the headline or alter the
focus to one particular segment of your audience. Gradually
make small tweaks to your product descriptions and test them
against the original version of the copy. Track your results in
order to gain the best conversion ratio possible. This is an all-
too-often skipped step that — when done correctly — fre-
quently results in tremendous gains.
Once you understand the components of good product
copy, it’s easier than you think to put together descriptions that
garner more sales. Keep this simple outline handy and you
will quickly gain speed when writing high-converting e-com-
merce copy.
Karon Thackston is author of the forthcoming e-book, Word-
tracker Masterclass: Ecommerce Copywritiing, Proven Strate-
gies for Boosting Sales & Search Rankings, available in
September, 2010.
 Google Rich Snippets
Representing Content the “New” Right Way
Artificial intelligence may evolve to a point
where computers understand meaning.
But for now, structuring data with se-
mantic markup makes the Web a better,
smarter place.
While you may have an intimate understanding of your
Web pages and the content they represent, it is Google (and
other search engines, too) that will help users find your
page(s) by showing them a sample of the content — a “snip-
pet,” if you will — on the search result pages. And these snip-
pets are very important, as they are a major factor in whether
or not a user clicks on the result.
Think of the summarized information as a new presen-
tation model that applies Google’s algorithms to highlight
structured data embedded in your Web pages. So can you
influence what Google displays in these snippets? Yes, you
can — with Google’s Rich Snippets.
As an SEO, Internet marketer or webmaster in general,
you can influence the results by annotating your pages with
structured data in a standard format. By incorporating some
standard annotations in your pages, you not only make your
By Peter Prestipino, Editor-in-Chief
structured data available for Google’s search results, but also
for any service or tool that supports the same standard.
Focus initially on providing semantic markup (rich
snippets) for people data featured on your website, then
move to providing additional information for review data
and event data.
Rich Snippets for People
The most exciting use is associating data with people. Since
most websites feature some information about key employ-
ees or stakeholders, it only makes sense to start here.
Each individual can have a number of properties to as-
sociate data with, including name, title and address, but
WebsiteMagazine.com
To display Rich Snippets, Google looks for markup formats (microformats,
microdata and RDFa) that can be added to most Web pages. In some cases,
it's as quick as wrapping the existing data on your pages with a few additional
tags. Website Magazine has put together a guide to working with these
various markup formats for the various rich snippet categories. Visit
http://bit.ly/dzSdlO for more information
A U GU ST 2010 | | 43

there is much more valuable data that can be shared. An
image link, the person’s role (not just the title), a Web page
link and even affiliations are all candidates. Also, thanks to
Google’s ability to recognize XFN properties (friend, con-
tact and acquaintance properties), social relationships can
also be identified.
Rich Snippets for Business
and Organizations
Another content type to append with semantic markup
is the information for your business or organization.
Name, URL, address (including sub- properties such as street
address, region, postal code and country name), a telephone
number and the specific geographic coordinates can be
included.
Rich Snippets for Reviews
One of the most interesting aspects of using Rich Snippets
on review content is that both individual reviews and review
information in aggregate can be marked up. For example, in
some instances it might prove useful to show the
aggregate number or reviews whereas others might be
more interested in showing an editor’s rating or re-
view of a particular product or location.
Individual reviews can receive the Rich Snippet
treatment with properties such as the name of the
item being reviewed, its rating (due to the many
possible ways to indicate ratings, Google has pro-
vided some guidance on this — http://bit.ly/9kFtlp), the
reviewer or author, the date the item was reviewed and a
description and summary.
Those wishing to profile aggregate review data on the
SERPs can include the item being reviewed, a rating, total
number of reviews for the item, votes and a summary. For
those who are thinking to include both, Google recom-
mends choosing one format. If a page contains both indi-
vidual and aggregate review data, only the aggregate
markup data will be displayed.
44 | | AUG UST 2010
Review sites and social networking sites (Yelp was one of
the original adopters during an initial rollout) are those that
will benefit the most by using Google’s Rich Snippets for re-
views, at this point, but all signs point to Google extending
to additional areas in the future. When that happens, being
prepared will pay significant dividends.
Rich Snippets for Events
Receiving exposure on event information is a great reason to
use Rich Snippets. Information such as an event's title, date
and venue can help a listing stand out in the search results.
Google currently uses the data only for pages containing col-
lections of events, but websites displaying events should con-
sider adding the snippet to their pages. There are several
other event fields to include, such as geographic coordinates,
event type (festival, concert or lecture), duration and even
an image or photo.
Rich Snippets for Recipes
Don’t think of Rich Snippets as exclusive to B2B industries.
In fact, Google supports Rich Snippets for B2C too, such as
recipes. The properties that can be added to rich snippets
for recipes are some of the most extensive and detailed. In-
formation such as the type or recipe, prep time, cook time,
nutrition and even instructions are just some of the prop-
erties that can be included and displayed on the search re-
sult pages.
Finally, Google has provided the Rich Snippets Test-
ing Tool to help webmasters check their markup — mak-
ing sure the structured data can be extracted from the
page. The tool displays the markup found on a specific
Web page and a preview of how that page might appear in
search results.
Google’s Rich Snippet feature has been rolled out grad-
ually over the past year (initial release was on May 12,
2009) but sparks little conversation across the industry.
As structured data becomes more widespread on the Web
and on Google, it is time now to get excited about the pos-
sibilities and get started marking up your pages. Rich
Snippets offers a way for marketers and publishers to ex-
tend some level of control and customization on search
results pages. And any edge on Google SERPs is a signifi-
cant one.
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A U GU ST 2010 | | 47
 W E B C O M M E N TA R Y With Mike Phillips, Senior Editor
YOUR
BUSINESS
IN 2020
In June, 2010, Steve Jobs introduced the latest version of the iPhone. During his presentation of the new
device's video chat function, he mentioned a memory of his childhood; watching The Jetsons. This, he said,
was what he envisioned the future to be like. He dreamed of technology like the iPhone 4 that would allow
us to video chat in the palm of our hands. And now, it's a reality.
That got me thinking.
We all dream of the future. Usually these dreams
are fantastic visions of flying cars and Rosey the Robot.
But how often do you sit down and think of the future
of your business and your industry? Once a year?
Once a month? How about every day?
Steve Jobs and Apple have experienced wild suc-
cess — and massive profits — because of a keen eye
on the future. Think about the leap the iPhone made.
Before it, phones were just phones. Now, the expecta-
tions we have for “mobile devices” is much higher. We
expect them to help us communicate, locate informa-
tion quickly and efficiently, help us preserve our pre-
cious memories with photos and video, and keep us
connected with the physical world around us. These
expectations are real — and so are consumers’ expec-
tations of your business.
We live in fast times. It can feel overwhelming to
try to stay one step ahead. But it doesn’t have to be.
What we need is a plan — a method to keep things in
“When it comes to perspective while focusing one eye on the future.
the future, there are Start by looking inside your industry. Subscribe to
your competitors’ RSS feeds and check in once every
three kinds of people: day to see if any innovation is bubbling up.
those who let it But don’t stop there.
As an online retailer, Amazon.com and eBay are not
happen, those who likely your closest competitors. But they are proven
make it happen, and leaders in the online retail industry. You might never
come close to the success of these two enterprises but
those who wonder there is much to be learned from them. You might be
surprised how often what seems to be a complex in-
what happened.” novation can be adapted to your business and website.
As a publisher or online news source, CNN.com
— John M. Richardson might seem light years ahead. But look at a couple of
48 | | AUG UST 2010
their “revolutionary” ideas. They launched iReport
several years ago; encouraging readers to submit their
own news stories, videos and photos. Can you do this?
Of course you can. In fact, you could have done this
before CNN.com. What’s more, as a small business
you often have the luxury of innovating at a much
faster pace than “big business.” Take advantage of that.
But let’s take a step back.
Just as important as it is to dream big is to know
what’s attainable and realistic. If you pay close atten-
tion to the business of the Web (and by reading Web-
site Magazine, I can only assume that you do) it can
be very easy to get swept up in every latest, greatest
trend and technology hacked together by every col-
lege dropout and supported by over-eager venture
capitalists. Remember, this is your business. Just be-
cause mobile or the social Web is discussed ad nau-
seam by the “thought leaders” of the Web doesn’t
mean they are the future of your business. They
could play a significant role but might there be more
pressing issues? Is there room for innovation outside
of these areas? Of course — there always is.
You know your industry better than anyone else.
You will help decide the future of the industry. But
remember, so will your consumers. They are em-
powered more than any other consumer generation
prior. So, while deciding the future, look in the pres-
ent and listen to what consumers are saying. “If you
build it they will come” works sometimes but not
every time.
What will your business look like in 2020? That’s
up to you and your consumers. But one thing is
for certain — the future is right around the corner.
Stay sharp.

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