Here’s some tips for getting extra mileage out of your unique content.

Article:

• Post on your site / resources section
• Re-write for placement on other sites
• Edit again and put in article directories
• Post a summary on your blog and link to the full article
• Tweet your article, get RT’s from your co-workers, followers, friends, family, etc
• Make sure it makes its way to your Facebook page
• LinkedIn: update your status with a link (like Twitter), use groups to publicize
• News release?: Is your new content worthy of a news release? (read – is it newsworthy?) If your piece is a study, has unique research, is a useful tool or process or a learning piece (like a white paper), then you should consider putting together an optimized release announcing the content and at the very least, use a free or inexpensive distribution service.

Some additional ideas:

• Leverage distribution channels for unique “alternative” content (see my post “SEO Tips for Universal Search”)
• Pictures? Flickr is an ideal distribution platform
  • Get involved – there are likely Flickr groups related to your industry, submit your pics
  • Make sure they make it to Facebook. You can connect Flickr to Facebook, and of course there’s albums on Facebook
• Video? YouTube, Flickr, Vimeo and others
  • Again – share it via your Facebook page
• Presentation? Slideshare… If you have the skills, make it into a video and also post it to YouTube
• And again – share it via your Facebook page

Are you noticing a theme here? Nearly all of these tips require that you have a basic presence on the most popular social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, etc). Laying the ground work in social media and populating your profiles with unique content will help your content get seen and attract links.

Build a plan for making sure your content gets seen and make sure you execute every single time!

What did I miss?

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Learn more about Amplify Interactive’s search engine optimization (SEO) services

Dr. Joyce Brothers doesn’t know it, but she may as well as add “Wise Search Engine Marketer” along with her already well-known expertise in Psychology to her portfolio. This quote can pertain to how search engines view your content; if they “trust” your content, you’ll see their love reflect in the form of search engine rankings.

“I think we should follow a simple rule: if we can take the worst, take the risk.”

Taking calculated risks is something that should be done in life and with your website. Like what Dr. Brothers says: if you can handle what could result to be “the worst”, then you ought to take the risk. Perhaps this risk is creating a piece of content that might be a little different than the “corporate norm” that you have been producing which might help you attract some visits and links to your website. Or maybe it’s setting up a social media marketing campaign for your company and becoming as transparent as possible. If you can take the worst, take the risk.

“The world at large does not judge us by who we are and what we know; it judges us by what we have.”

You might as well replace “world at large” with “Google” in this quote: the Google does not judge your website by who authors it and what that author knows; the Google judges your website by the content that you have on it. That’s why having unique and compelling content on your website is so important. You may know the Seattle Mariners’ history from club creation to today, from the first-ever starting line-up to the category leaders in club history, but Google doesn’t care if you don’t have it on your website.

“When we lived within six blocks, Aunt Sarah or Aunt Mary knew all about the boy who you were having this blind date or this first date with. So we knew all about the boy.”

Well… can’t certainly tie this in to anything regarding SEM… so…

“When you come right down to it, the secret of having it all is loving it all.”

Love your content and you’ll begin to see it pay off in spades. Love what you’re writing about and love what you’re doing. As search engine marketers, we can’t help you love your content… we can only help you get it in a position where search engines can trust it (love it as well) and Internet users can judge it.

Attain SEM Success Through Authority

“The driving principles of SEO have always been content & authority (in the form of links). Since Google came around – this principle has never changed even as the tactics have. As the search results page has gotten more competitive, and social media has started shedding light on a brand’s strengths and flaws – it has become more important and difficult to cut through the noise and capture attention. Improving the perception of your brand as an authority can help you do this.”

Read the rest of the article on the NWSEM Blog

In any case, I thought I’d run down some of the best practices for a website redesign and see where the new MLSSoccer.com website stood in my opinion. After going through some of the bigger issues and evaluating the new website, I would like to give a yellow card for the MLS’s effort for their website redesign:

Here’s why the new MLS website deserves a yellow card for their site redesign:

1. Announcing a website redesign on their old URL that tells users to go to a new URL. I wouldn’t approach a website redesign this way. I’m also hoping that in due time, the MLS web team makes the switch to the new MLSSoccer.com domain permanent by assigning 301 redirects from old URLs to their corresponding new URLs.
2. Their old website has some “official” branding (such as, on the top, the “official site of Major League Soccer”). I don’t see anything like that on the redesign.
3. I’m seeing some weird 301 redirect issues. If I type in “mlsnet.com” in my browser bar, I go to the old site. If I type in “www.mlsnet.com” in my browser bar, I go to the new site. Very odd and can be confusing to site visitors.
4. The new site’s custom 404 error page is a bit lacking (please click this link so we can get this URL in their top content report for Google Analytics). Ideally, especially with a site redesign situation, you would want to have a mini-sitemap here for users to be able to quickly get to their wanted destination.

If I were in the MLS web team’s shoes (err, cleats), I would have made the switch from the old MLSnet.com website to the MLSSoccer.com one with 301 redirects from the old URLs to the new before the first Matchday in the regular season. That being said, the MLS web team did a good job with the new website with how SEO-friendly it is: there are lots of text headlines, a MUCH cleaner URL structure and more. In fact, I like it a lot better than the old website. But they could be doing a much better job on the website redesign launch than what they’ve done now.

And lastly, my one sentence of actual footy analysis:

Great action in the first weekend, some fun games (and goals) to watch, tough for the expansion Philly team to go into Seattle for their first game and even more so with the red card and MLS players need to work a bit on their first touch.

Here we go…

1. Make sure every page within a website possesses the functionality for customized page titles and meta descriptions or at the very least (for larger sites) the ability to assign unique business rules to these fields.
2. Each page should contain at least a single H1 header and if plausible, corresponding H2, H3, etc… headers as well. There should only be a single H1 per page which acts as the “title” for that page. The corresponding H2, H3, H4, H5 and H6 tags should be used to identify related sub-pages. Linking to the sub-pages via the headers is recommended.
3. Images on the website should possess a customizable alt tag field especially if that image is being linked to another page. As any developer knows, the alt tag field is used to describe what an image is depicting but it also acts as the anchor text (of sorts) for hyperlinked images so consult with whoever is responsible for optimizing the site to ensure the alt tags are search term enriched.
4. Choose a primary domain and apply 301 redirects (a permanent redirect) to all other domains and point them to the primary domain. 302 redirects (a temporary redirect) will not pass along any search engine value nor will any other type of redirect.
5. For redesigns or overhauls apply 301 redirects for every moved sub page to tell search engines that “this page has permanently moved here”. When redirecting sub pages make sure to point them to their replacement page and not the homepage. The only time you want to point a sub page to the homepage is when it no longer exists.
6. Each page should be named after the targeted search term assigned to represent it (or at least a portion of the term) and should be displayed that way within the URL.
7. URL’s should be structured in a way where there are multiple tiers. Websites with depth are seen by search engines as more relevant (if they are properly optimized) because it shows them that there is a wealth of supporting content on a particular subject matter.
8. The website should possess an auto-populated site map that is less than 150 links and is linked to from every page on the site. If there is a need to represent more than 150 links simply create a second site map page or as many pages needed to encompass the entire site. A quick note, larger sites with a lot of authority (link juice) and history can get away with simply linking to the high level landing pages.
9. Reference CSS and JavaScript code through an include file. This will lower the page size, move the relevant body copy further up the page and lessen the chances of search engine spiders receiving an error.
10. Create a customized 404-Error page that closely resembles the site map.
11. Every page should posses a single dedicated URL no matter how many different ways there are to navigate to the page or how many places the page appears.
12. Ensure that there are not any broken links within the site.
13. Assign the nofollow attribute to links that point to “irrelevant” pages like the privacy policy, terms of use, etc… You may want to consult with whoever is responsible for optimizing the site.
14. Create a robots.txt file and block search engine spiders from indexing pages not meant to be visible in search results such as the shopping cart. THIS ALSO INCLUDES STAGING SITES.
15. Do not use iFrames to display any information meant to be spidered and indexed by search engines.
16. For all of you dot net nukers, reduce your Viewstate code.
17. Place analytical script just above the closing body tag.
18. Direct users to a “thank you” page after they perform a conversion on the site.
19. Hook up separate RSS feeds for press releases, blog posts, articles, etc… Basically any content that can and should be syndicated.
20. Create xml feeds for sites that sell products, real estate or anything that can be uploaded to Google’s Merchant Center and related portals.

Obviously there’s more so what’s missing? Share additional SEO development tips below.

(note – the presentation isn’t visible in the feed if you’re reading via email/rss/facebook – you have to click through to see it)

A summary of the “Optimizing Alternate Content” tips in the presentation:

• Filenames should match the content

• Optimize the HTML to provide contextual clues

• Make sure it’s crawlable

• Use proper formatting

• Leverage ‘attributes’

• Leverage syndication/distribution channels to get your content “out there” and found

Share your tips below or contact Amplify Interactive regarding our search engine optimization (SEO) services

It seems as if fast load times for your website might have a positive effect in influencing your search rankings. That all being said, having slow page load times seemingly will not negatively impact your rankings. Source.

This is reported to have come from Matt Cutts, head of the Webspam team for Google.

It’s a no brainer that, in terms of usability, a fast load time for your web pages definitely helps a user’s overall experience when browsing your site. We’ve all been to “that site” where pages take forever to load. I don’t know about you, but if I encounter a website with slow load times, I usually leave and look for similar information elsewhere.

It will be interesting to see if this ranking factor remains to be, more or less, a small influence or if it will become a bigger part of the search engine ranking puzzle.

Just read an interesting article over at eMarketer “Display Campaigns Boost Search Effectiveness” about a study that  shows that display ad campaigns increase visits from search engine users by nearly 14% from both organic (SEO) and PPC search combined. Another benefit? Cost per click for PPC decreased as well – demonstrating greater efficiency of the PPC campaign as a result of display.

When you think about it, this makes a lot of sense. A lot goes into whether or not users are going to click on a search result… or even search for something in the first place. Depending on the type of search I’m doing, I know that I personally run through a little bit of a mental checklist before clicking on a result that goes something like “does the result seem to match what I’m looking for?” (title/description), “is the source credible?” (URL/recall), “have I heard of/been to the site before?” etc. Those last two questions are where display and other marketing efforts can have a bigger though less direct influence than you’d think on whether or not someone’s going to click on your result in a search engine.

There are some great stats in this article, but I think the number one takeaway for all marketers is that search engine marketing is a great option and it should absolutely be part of your marketing mix, but it shouldn’t be the only thing that your organization is doing to market itself. I think this is also cause for celebration amongst “traditional” marketers and agencies. Search has been a much easier sell over the last year, but here’s a reason to encourage their clients to spend money on display and better integrate with search marketers to improve marketing results overall.

While most PPC marketers (myself included) frown upon running programs like Google’s content targeting option within our PPC campaigns because the click through performance is poor, perhaps it’s time to change or adjust our perception. I know that I always encourage our clients not to put all their eggs in one basket and rely on search as their only marketing tool, but this study definitely makes the case that display campaigns should be a consideration for any SEM campaign.

As you can read in this article on Search Engine Watch “It’s Official: Microsoft and Yahoo! Finally Strike a Search Deal” – the deal basically says that:

1. Bing will power Yahoo’s organic search results

I think this is a great move. Bing has made some pretty terrific strides in creating a better search engine. Spending another 100 mil on advertising it is making a dent as well. Bing isn’t perfect, but Yahoo organic results haven’t been all that great either.

2. Yahoo will handle the paid search

Again – this is a great move. If you manage paid search campaigns – you know there’s two specific problems with Microsoft/Bing.

1. AdCenter sucks to use. It just does. That’s not to say that Yahoo’s platform is great, but it is better than AdCenter and now they can focus on making it more usable.

2. Low search volume: WIth the exception of some verticals, the search volume is rarely there for clients to justify the time, energy & budget required to build & manage an additional campaign with Bing

So ideally, as a part of this deal we’ll just be able to opt-in or out of displaying ads on Bing with a simple check box. Just like you check a box to add the Google search partner network today.

This move will still be tricky and they’re both a long way from pulling it off. But hopefully by allowing each to focus on what they do best – maybe they’ll be able to actually compete and we’ll also have to start thinking about results from more than one search engine!

All too often, SEO & site development efforts are out of sync. It’s a common complaint among SEO’s that a client will come to them with a Web site in hand and say “optimize this”. Whereas SEO’s would prefer it if the client would ask first and say “what content do we need to develop in order to have a site optimized for our target terms?”. It doesn’t have to be a chicken vs egg scenario though.

“Content is king.”  As SEOs, we say this fairly often.  And it’s most certainly true: if you’re shooting for a first-page ranking for a particular search term, you better have some focused content about it.

But what if you have some content that sort of pertains to a search term you wish to rank for.  And you start thinking ‘if I just insert that search term here… and one there… and another over there…’ and call that good? Well, then you’re turning your content into something that’s not focused and probably sounds pretty forced. This is where SEO’s get a bad rap. The last thing we want is content that’s in keyword-ese but sometimes that’s the only option you’ve got when the content comes first.

If the content comes first, you’ll find that specific content with the search terms shoehorned-in probably works as as effectively in helping your site’s conversion rate as a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest (no offense to any one-legged men who can probably kick my butt to the moon).  I mean hey, you’ll have content and you’ll have your search terms in that content… but think of the site users who will read it.

If the search term comes first, you’ll write content specifically around that search term.  It’ll sound genuine, it’ll be interesting and will show that you command that topic.  A piece (or several pieces) of content written with a search term in mind can help your site by creating more focused content around relevant search terms that are related to your business, helping not only search engine rankings but also providing information for site users. This instills trust in a user; it lets them know that you’re an authoritative figure in your industry (“By golly, this company certainly knows their stuff!”).

So what should come first?  Content that you’ve written then deciding on what search terms you should focus your writing around?  Or researching search terms that users are actively searching on and writing content around those? Luckily – there’s a compromise to the chicken vs egg scenario, and it all revolves around something everyone on the Web team will love – a content strategy and a flexible site architecture. With a plan in mind for how you’re going to be able to expand your site over time you’ll be giving your SEO something to work with. Your SEO will be able to optimize your existing content while being able to work with your Web team on developing additional search-term optimized and integrated content for your site.