MediaVision Blog : Search Engine Marketing

As SEM becomes more of an increasingly prominent entity in the marketing arena, so do “experimental tactics”. As Jane Copland mentions in a very thoughtful post, Google doesn’t like tricks, but without some kind of tactic, where would that leave our industry? It’s just about being clever with your “tactics” and ensuring that you don’t use them in any kind of manipulative and malicious manner.

Keep under Google’s radar and you will be ok, but what exactly is under the radar and how far can you go before you get whacked over the head by Matt Cutts?

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Maki, from www.doshdosh.com, wrote an interesting post lamenting the lack of originality in blog writing. She refers specifically to the glut of “top tips” blogs and the “How to increase your traffic” posts that litter cyber space, which she feels rehash every other blog on the same subject and offer nothing new. She has a very good point.

When I first started writing blogs I sought refuge in these types of posts. They aren’t particularly challenging. Someone else has already done the research so you don’t have to think too much about your writing. My editor must have done her nut every week as I spewed out one generic post after the other. It took a while but fortunately I have learnt better, at least I hope I have.

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Many SEO practitioners have advanced hand-in-hand with Search’s evolution. They remember fondly the old days of acquiring easy rankings. Through a series of trial and error, these SEO kings (my bosses, among them) have constantly re-adapted to changes in search engines’ algorithms. They have achieved notoriety through a system of collecting evidence, implementing changes to small sections or sites according to a hypothesis, and watching the results like hawks in the proceeding months. Many have kept their eyes glued to the changes in Search’s algorithms over the years.

But for those new to the game, what the hell were those changes?

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No one likes to see his or her neighbourhood decline as bad influences move in and disrupt established living conditions. No one likes to see the rules of social etiquette breached to such a degree that those of good standing feel compelled to relocate to a more civil and welcoming environment. We don’t tolerate malicious and inconsiderate behaviour in the real world; it then stands to reason that we won’t tolerate it in the virtual world either.

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Committing to the wrong key phrases on your site will make it very easy to fail before you even start. For a good key phrase analysis, put yourself in the mind of your audience, and think as if you were the optimal user for your site.

Start simple and use your niche when finding the core phrases that suit your business the best. Every-one has his or her preferred keyword tool, so start there and store up the core phrases for your niche until you have a small handful of focused niche phrases.

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It’s true that the Internet uses language to get its myriad meanings across. I don’t need to prove that point. But do old-fashioned tips for writing still apply to today’s web writing?
Steve Jobs, in response to Amazon’s awful e-book, Kindle, says that nobody reads anymore (possibly he meant that nobody reads books anymore, but it’s okay Steve). Internet marketing language is less a decorative art than a skill that takes into account many concealed truths about search and intention. George Orwell, English author of such unforgettables as 1984 and Animal Farm, had a few things to say about spreading ideas through effective writing. And some of them are useful now, in a world that even Orwell, who died in 1950, did not envisage (in print, anyway).

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With a blog, you leverage yourself into a position to explore different avenues for communicating. Moreover, you can extend your reach to different audiences, and by watching and analysing the response, you may be able to tap into different worlds and find a whole new market you never realised you were able to reach.

By creating buzz and interaction with targeted communities in the blogosphere, you are in essence creating a following that will prove pivotal in your social marketing efforts. If you think about it, interaction and word of mouth are the most important marketing tools to master. Trust is critical, and if the audience trusts and likes you, its members will be more likely to like the product or service you are offering.

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Hypnotic writing is an ethically cloudy, but effective method of improving sales and conversions. Rex Steven Sikes of Idea-Seminars.com, http://www.mrfire.com/article-archives/guest-articles/hypnotic-questions.html, says that to take full advantage of hypnotic copy, we need to consider the three languages that occur inside English.

The first language, according to Sikes, is the language of pictures, which is how we view items in our minds as well as in the real world. The language of sounds is second, and incorporates our internal monologues, as well as how we interpret what we hear. Third is the language of feelings, which is when a particularly emotive word or turn of phrase elicits a strong positive or negative emotional reaction.

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Speculating on the future implications of the Yahoo!/Microsoft merger is like sticking your head on a blog, I mean, block. There’s search, there’s ad networks, IM, mobile networking, shares, social media, histories, politics and regulations – too many to cover in one post.

But to follow is an excerpt from Microsoft’s employee webcast on the 1st Feb, where a bunch of big wigs sat together and tried to calm the waters beneath a hurricane. If you look closely at what Kevin Johnson (Microsoft’s chief financial analyst) had to say, you can use his couched words to understand the status quo.

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Many brooding theories have emerged after Microsoft bid $31 per share for the legendary search engine and web portal Yahoo! last Friday. This is unsurprising as there are so many factors contributing to the merger. They have called it a “shotgun marriage proposal” and a “Hostile takeover proposal”.

Yahoo! Search of course still commands 20.88% (Hitwise) of the US search market, and handles enormous traffic volumes. That still equates to large turnover, and yet about $63 million dollars less in one year since 2006. Yahoo! employees are being fired, and former Chairman Terry Semel finally left the board, severing himself entirely, to be replaced by Roy Bostock, who along with co-founder Jerry Yang, is charged with the meagre task of handling their approach to the bid.

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