Search engine optimization - evolution or extinction?

Posted by Wildfire Marketing Group on September 9th, 2008 in Search Engine Optimization

Marketing is constantly evolving and no form of marketing has evolved more over the last ten years than search engine optimization. That fact isn’t going to change anytime soon. In fact, the entire search engine optimization industry is headed for a major paradigm shift over the next twelve months. Like many of the major algorithm updates in the past, some people will be prepared while some will sit teary-eyed amongst their devastation wondering what happened and scrambling to pick up the pieces. Unlike the major algorithm updates of the past, you won’t be able to simply fix the flaws in your search engine optimization and jump back to the top of the SERPs. 

Why is this change going to be so different? In the past, the search engines have incrementally updated certain aspects of their algorithms to improve the quality of their SERPs, for example, eliminating the positive effect of Meta tag keyword stuffing which was being abused by spammers. Anyone who has been in the SEO industry for more than a few years probably remembers the chaos and panic when the major search engines stopped ranking websites based on this approach. This time around though, we’re looking at something much more significant than simply updating an algorithm to favor particular factors or discount others. We are looking at not only a completely new way for search engines to assign value to web pages, but more importantly, a new way for search engines to function.

Local search

A number one ranking for a particular keyword phrase was once the end-all, be-all goal but now many searches are regionalized to show the most relevant web pages that are located in the area that you are searching from. While this will probably reduce your traffic, the traffic that you now receive will be more targeted in many cases. Additionally, it give smaller websites a more equal chance to compete.

Google suggest

This August, Google Suggest was moved from Google Labs to the homepage, offering real-time suggestions based on the letters you’ve typed into the search box so far. This can be an incredibly helpful feature for users. At the same time, it can be potentially devastating to websites that rely of long-tail traffic because once a user sees a keyword phrase that seems like at least a mediocre choice they will usually click on it rather than continuing to type a more specific keyword phrase.

Devaluation of paid links

Google’s recent attempt to eliminate paid links has scared a lot of people on both sides of the link buying equation into implementing the “nofollow” tag. In the midst of this hypocritical nonsense, Google has also been taking great measures to devalue links based on quantifiable criteria, such as the “C” class of the originating IP, similarities in anchor text and/or surrounding text, location of the link on the page and the authority of the domain the link is from to name a few. Regardless of the effectiveness of any search engines ability to evaluate and subsequently devalue paid links, the fear of getting caught and possibly penalized is more than enough to deter a lot of people from buying or selling links.

Visitor usage data

Again, Google is leading the charge on this one. Between their analytics, toolbar and web browser, they are collecting an enormous amount of data on visitor usage. When a visitor arrives at a website, Google knows how long they stayed there, how many pages they accessed, which links they followed and much more. With this data, a search engine can determine the quality of a website, which is beginning to carry more weight in regards to ranking than some of the more manipulatable factors such as keyword density or inbound links. This puts the focus on content quality instead of content quantity and over time, will begin to knock many of the “me too” websites further down the SERPs pages, or out of the picture all together. The websites that will prosper will be those that produce relevant, original content that their visitors find useful.

TrustRank

Simply pointing a vast number of links with a particular keyword phrase in the anchor text to a website was once a quick and easy way to assure top ranking. The effectiveness of this approach is diminishing and will continue in that direction as a result of TrustRank. In a nutshell, a particular set of websites are chosen (by Google) based on their editorial quality and prominence on the Internet. Then Google analyzes the outbound links from these sites, the outbound links from the sites linked to by these site, and so on down the chain. The sites that are further up the chain carry more trust and those further down the chain, less trust. Links from sites with more TrustRank, those further up the chain, have a greater impact on ranking than links from websites further down the chain. On one hand, this makes it difficult for new websites to improve their position in the SERPs compared to established website; one the other hand, it helps to eliminate many of the redundant websites out there that are just repeating what everyone else is saying.

Google Chrome

Utilizing a combination of visitor usage data and a not so gentle nudge in Google’s direction, Google Chrome is set to change the way search engines gather data and present it to users. For example, when a user begins typing in the address bar of the browser, they are presented with a dropdown list of suggestions containing choices consisting of the #1 result in Google’s SERPs, related search terms and other pages you’ve recently visited. This gives a serious advantage to the websites that hold top ranking in Google and at the same time, gives a serious advantage to Google by giving their Internet real estate even more exposure than ever before.

So the question remains, is search engine optimization facing evolution or extinction? Certainly not extinction, not by a long shot, but in a short period of time it is going to be drastically different than it is today. The focus will soon be on producing a valuable and enjoyable user experience rather than just achieving top ranking, which is what it should have been all along.

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Should we keep running the same ad? - Fortune Small Business Magazine

Posted by Wildfire Marketing Group on September 2nd, 2008 in Advertising, WMG News & Press

This is a question we get quite often because business owners usually get tired of their own advertising long before their prospects do. So should you keep running the same ad? Check out this article in the upcoming October issue of Fortune Small Business for the answer along with additional tips to get the most from your advertising.

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Could fragmented media be a good thing?

Posted by Wildfire Marketing Group on August 23rd, 2008 in Advertising, Marketing Strategy

In the past, we’ve discussed the negative effects of today’s fragmented media on your marketing efforts, but what about the potential positive aspects? When television, radio and print were the only advertising mediums available, you had to determine a fairly specific demographic and target them with a consistent and singular message. Targeting groups outside this demographic or utilizing multiple messages would limit the effect of your marketing and risk diluting your brand. Today however, you can easily target a variety of demographics each with a message tailored specifically for them. And because of the fragmentation of media, you will  generally face little risk of diluting your brand as they will most likely never see the marketing directed at the other demographic groups. Keep in mind - this doesn’t mean you should try to be all things to all people; it means that you can now target a larger group of prospects with a marketing message tailored to best reach them and convert them into your client or customer.

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Two ways to have the tallest building in town

Posted by Wildfire Marketing Group on August 19th, 2008 in Marketing Strategy

There are two ways to have the tallest building in town. The first is to build the tallest building. The second is to tear down all the buildings that are taller than yours. Obviously first method is about creating value while the second is about trying to reduce the value produced by the efforts of someone that actually did the work in the first place. Aside from the lack of ethics or any real skill, the type of people that engage in the second method rarely succeed because they waste all their time and energy trying to put their competitors down instead of creating anything of value.

No matter how you look at it, this approach will always put you in a worse position than where you started.

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No one cares about you yet

Posted by Wildfire Marketing Group on August 18th, 2008 in Marketing Strategy

I was having dinner with one of our clients over the weekend, and while we were discussing part of a new Internet marketing strategy for his company he mentioned that he wanted to add more information about his company and about himself to the main page of their website. Information is not a bad thing, but in this situation, it would have reduced the effectiveness of his company’s website. That sort of information should never be the main focus of any of your marketing materials. This is a fairly common misstep and fortunately, one that is easy to fix.

There is an old saying that goes “No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.”

When someone arrives at your website or reads any of your marketing materials, especially for the first time, they don’t care why you started your business or what type of education you have. The don’t care that you enjoy knitting or white water rafting or where you volunteer on the weekends. What they care about is what you can do for them. If you run a law firm, they want to know how you can help protect their business. If you run a freight company, they want to know how you can save them money on shipping. In short, focus on what’s in it for them. After they learn that, chances are they will want to learn more about you and your company, at which point they will be far more receptive.

Are you guilty? What are you going to do about it?

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Is that a lump in your mail or are you just happy to see me?

Posted by Wildfire Marketing Group on August 15th, 2008 in Direct Mail Marketing

Lately, there has been a lot of buzz about dimensional mail, also know as lumpy mail. Why is that? Advertising has been becoming increasingly less effective because of fragmentation. Consumers are busier than ever and spend less time focused on any single medium for a great length of time, so reaching them with a consistent message is more difficult and more expensive.

Direct mail was once one of the most powerful advertising mediums, beating out even television in terms of return on investment, but dimensional mail has taken the lead as one of the most effective forms of advertising today. This is because it is still reaching them in the same manner as direct mail, and while it maintains a higher cost per piece to send, it also generates a significantly higher response rate due to its memorable nature. Unlike postcards or sales letters which are often filtered out (to the trash) by good-intentioned secretaries or assistants, dimensional mail is almost never filtered out because it is contained in a package. Think about it for a minute - if a package arrived addressed to your employer, would you throw it away or even open it to see what it was? No, you would ensure that they personally received it. That generates half of the effectiveness of this powerful medium. The other half is generated by the creativity of the campaign. It’s not enough to simply stuff a bunch of flyers and business cards into a box and ship it off to your prospects. Your dimensional mail campaign needs to be creative and ideally should tie in to what your company does instead of just a cute stunt.

Be sure to check back regularly; we’ll be posting some dimensional mail campaigns that we’ve done for some of our clients here on our blog.

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What does a cheap logo design really cost you?

Posted by Wildfire Marketing Group on August 11th, 2008 in Graphic Design

We’ve written several times about the importance of professional graphic design and even how to choose the right graphic designer, but what we haven’t discussed very much is how the cost of design can affect the return on your investment. As business owners, people often look for any opportunity to reduce their costs. While there can quite frequently be a strong upside to this, just as frequently if not more frequently, there can also be a tremendous downside.

Logo design, unlike most tangible products, is not a commodity. You may be able to find a manufacturer who will sell the same bolts you’ve been buying elsewhere for half the price. This is usually because that manufacturer has developed some specialized process to produce the bolts at a lower cost than their competitors can, or perhaps they have bought their raw materials in significantly larger quantities, earning themselves a volume discount. When it comes to service based businesses, this simply isn’t possible. You are paying for skill and experience.

So what happens when you try to reduce your costs by hiring graphic design companies or freelance graphic designers to design your logo based on price? Well, sometimes you come out ahead, but more often than not, you learn a very expensive lesson. On one end of the scale, you may end up with an unprofessional logo that presents a poor image of your company. On the other end of the scale, you could end up in a situation like a client that came to us after hiring one of the lowest priced design firms they could find.

They had hired a local firm to design their logo, then they had business cards, stationary, brochures and signage printed and even wrapped six cargo vans, only to find out that their logo was almost an exact copy of a competitor in the next city. They were furious and unfortunately, the firm that put them in this situation went out of business shortly afterwards leaving them with no recourse. Needless to say, after saving a few hundred dollars only to then waste several thousand dollars, they now thoroughly understand the cost vs. value equation. In the end, we developed a professional (and original) logo for them along with their new print marketing materials which they were very satisfied with.

When you decide to hire a graphic design company, before you look at their price, look at the quality of their work and how long they have been in business. If it turns out that you can’t afford the services of a top-quality graphic design firm, you may want to consider finding a way to come up with the money - it may save you a more sizable amount in the long run.

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Fail fast, then adjust

Posted by Wildfire Marketing Group on August 9th, 2008 in Marketing Strategy

If you’re like most people, you want to make sure everything about your product is perfect before launching it. You may spend countless hours refining and polishing it to make sure it’s just right and add feature after feature to make sure it can do everything. This is admirable, but it’s not effective. You are not the one that will be buying your product, so your opinion is not the one that matters the most. Your consumers’ opinion is the one that matters. Unfortunately, no matter how many focus groups you test your product with, until it actually hits the market, you will not have an accurate gauge of what really matters to your consumer. If you want to launch a truly successful product, you need to launch it as soon as it is functional and then if and when your consumer dictates, add improvements. Something that may have seemed important to you may not matter at all to them. If you had added that from the beginning, you would have increased your costs without providing any value in their eyes. More importantly, you may overlook features that they want and you’ll only learn about their wants when your product is on the market.

Remember, there is nothing wrong with mistakes; they are simply an opportunity to learn. If you want to take this concept to the next level, be sure to read Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero by Michael Masterson.

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Join our free marketing tips newsletter

Posted by Wildfire Marketing Group on August 8th, 2008 in WMG News & Press

We have recently opened up our marketing tips newsletter to the public. It’s full of relevant marketing information that you can use right now to help your business grow like wildfire, so join for free today!

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Is search engine optimization getting tougher?

Posted by Wildfire Marketing Group on August 6th, 2008 in Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization

Most people who have either tried SEO (search engine optimization) on their own or have hired a firm to do it for them have learned that it is tough to achieve significant results for competitive keyword phrases and that it take a considerable amount of time.

It’s a commonly known fact the technology makes most tasks easier, but it actually makes search engine optimization more difficult. It’s not a direct result though, instead it’s because technology is making it easier than ever to launch a website and start doing business online, and as a result competition is increased. This can be a significant issue in the more common niches, and sometimes less of an issue in the smaller more focused niches, but it is an ever increasing factor in almost all niches.

How competitive is the niche that you’re competing in? You can find out by doing a quick Google search for some of the keyword phrases that are relevant to your business; look at the top right side of the page (see the example for the keyword phrase “marketing company” below).

Generally, 0 to 250,000 competing pages is low competition, 250,000 to 1,000,000 is moderate competition, 1,000,000 to 5,000,000 is relatively high competition, and anything over 5,000,000 competing pages is ultra-competitive. If you keep an eye on these numbers over time, you’ll notice that they are continually growing, which means that ranking for a particular keyword phrase will become increasingly more difficult over time. This is why it’s important to start (and maintain) your search engine optimization campaign now instead of waiting. Otherwise, you’re giving your competitors, some of which may not even exist yet, a serious advantage over you.

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