I’m not sure if you’ve seen this but my fav Sesame Street characters – Bert and Ernie are on today’s Google home page. I know it might be a bit of a mundane topic to blog about but I absolutely love them and appreciate the impact Sesame Street had on my education earlier on in my life that later gave me an edge in life. Happy 40th Birthday Sesame Street.

Bert & Ernie on Google – Priceless is a post from: Fuzz One Media

As you probably already know, Google announced not just an algorithmic update but an entire architecture re-write of its web search called “Google Caffeine” a few day’s back. The head of Google’s Webspam team, Matt Cutts actually made a comparison of the Caffeine update to the infamous “Big Daddy Update” back in 2005.

The big question at the moment is what does the Google Caffeine update mean to SEOs? Here are seven things every SEO expert should know about Caffeine:

1. Test Caffeine

Caffeine is available for all to test on http://www2.sandbox.google.com/. This is a preview interface and is still work-in-progress. So expect changes in the SERPs as well as some downtime when it is under-going updates. You would notice it is a whole lot faster than the current version of Google

2. Do not Panic

SEO’s tend get into a frenzy whenever Google announces updates of any sort – be it PageRank updates or algorithmic updates. The advantage of Caffeine is that you can test it as well as give Google feedback. Just scroll to the bottom of the search result page that says “Dissatisfied? Help us improve.” Click on that link, type your feedback in the text box and then include the word caffeine somewhere in the text box in your suggestion or observation.

3. Link building – focus on quality not quantity

I ran some tests on a couple of the sites I manage with higher proportions of either high or low profile backlinks. Sites with a higher proportion of low profile backlinks in comparison to sites with a higher proportion of medium and high profile backlinks, I found were not fairing too well on Caffeine but getting still decent page one rankings on the current Google search.

My advice to SEO’s kicking off new projects or managing existing SEO campaigns would be to focus on link quality rather than quantity. Ramp up your acquisition of high profile backlinks to stand a chance of getting decent rankings on Caffeine.

4. Test Caffeine based on location & language

Although http://www2.sandbox.google.com/ is Caffeine’s URL, using query parameters, you can view results based by language & your geographic location. The parameters are as follows:

hl = language
gl = country code

As an example:

Viewing UK results you would need the “gl=uk” parameter: http://www2.sandbox.google.com/search?gl=uk

Viewing French language results in Canada, you would need parameters;
“hl=fr” and “gl=ca”:
http://www2.sandbox.google.com/search?hl=fr&gl=ca

5. Fix all your site’s Crawlability Issues

Fundamentally, Caffeine is a re-write of Google’s indexing system. Improvements have been made on Google’s crawling, indexing speed and result relevancy. The fact that Google has improved each of these key indexing elements means it is ever so important for webmasters and SEOs alike to make their sites more crawable and easier to index. Ensure you check your crawl stats, crawl errors and XML sitemap stats on Google Webmaster tools. Also ensure your house is in order to get your site is fully indexed. This way you can focus on link popularity.

6. Speed – Your Page Load Times

There is no question that page load times are important for crawling and indexing. Ensure that your site has decent page load times to get the best of Caffeine and to maintain a high crawl rate. I have noticed a slight drop in the SERPs on Caffeine for some of my slower loading sites – this is speculative and might be down to some other factors but I have nevertheless noticed.

7. Real Time Search

With the current advances in the real time search arena i.e. Facebook’s acquisition of Friendfeed and Twitter search, there is no doubt that Google’s architecture overhaul via Caffeine is geared towards real time indexing and real time search. At the time of writing this post, Caffeine’s SERPs were not too different from Google’s, but I expect to see more news, blog and social media a.k.a. twitter results to feature upon its full release. If you have tested Caffeine, you would have noticed how fast it results are (at least for the time being).

On the whole, exciting times albeit challenging times lay ahead for SEOs. Social media is going to play a more important role in SEO campaigns and Google would rely more and more on quality links to determine relevancy. If you have been practising good SEO, then there is really no need to worry about Caffeine as you would have noticed when you checked your site out.

Photo credits: D’Arcy Norman via flickr

7 Facts All SEOs Should Know About Google Caffeine is a post from: Fuzz One Media

The Public Relations industry has not been the same since the advent of the internet. The first wave of change in the PR industry was the advent of corporate websites and the ability of the information on corporate websites to represent organisational opinion, a brand and make PR announcements. PR professionals had to adapt by adding and controlling content on the PR sections of corporate websites.

Online News

Managing PR content on corporate websites as a tactic was short-lived and not sufficient enough in the ever changing internet. With the sheer speed of information on the web through news sites, PR professionals had to figure out how to also grab attention from ‘authoritative’ old and new media news websites.

Online PR & SEO

The major seismal change for PR was the emergence of professional ‘online PR’ sites and Search Engine Optimisation. Online PR sites like PR Web & i-Newswire are the new ‘wire’ PR professionals send announcements through to in order to grab the attention of journalists, their industry and the web in general. PR professionals have had to figure out how to use these PR websites to their maximum capabilities. This is where the SEO/PR crossover has taken place.

As you know, Search Engine Optimisation is a collection of methodologies and processes aimed at improving the search engine rankings of websites. PR sites work well with the search engine optimisation process because they improve the link popularity of websites they promote. Because of this change, PR Professionals have had to either work with SEO professionals who undertake keyword research in order to discover popular, more commonly used keywords and help with link placements or have had to learn SEO themselves. I remember I used to provide our PR department with a set of keywords to use for press releases they sent through PR websites.

Blog

The next major wave to hit the PR industry was blogging. The advent of blogging empowered masses of people to have an opinion. The blog publishing industry tree has hundreds or perhaps thousands of branches of subjects and genres with loyal followers. Blogs have meant more specialisation on topics in the publishing industry. There are obvious quality issues in the blogosphere but there are also established authoritative blogs in every industry. PR professionals not only have to think about getting their brands out on Top notch blogs but also need to build somewhat authoritative blogs for their brands. Corporate blogs at the moment are the medium through which of PR departments can self-publicize the brands.

Twitter

Like blogging was not enough, micro-blogging has arrived. With roughly about 2.5 million users, Twitter is the defacto micro-blogging platform at the moment and is an area PR professionals and brand managers need to adapt to. It’s brevity is its strength and its potential to reach thousands of people must not be overlooked. Twitter can take your brand to another level if your PR strategy is well thought through. Business owners might have to look for Social media professionals to work with the public relations and marketing team to get the most out twitter. Its probably not the last platform PR professionals would have to adapt to but its certainly the current platform garnering huge attention at the moment. Social media in general should be watched really closely.

I will be blogging about tips on marketing on twitter and social media in general.

For further reading read…

The importance of Online PR (slideshow)

A Short Story About the Romance between Public Relations and the Internet…so far is a post from: Fuzz One Media

Twitter, the No.1 microblogging and social networking platform has grown exponentially in popularity and acceptance in recent times. According to the the latest figures from Hitwise, traffic from Twitter in the UK has grown ten fold by 974% in the last one year alone. In the US, It is about to surpass Digg from a traffic perspective and here in the UK it is currently the most talked about website.

So how can you leverage Twitter to aid your decision making? 

My advice is not only geared towards managers or business owners but the ever growing populace of Twitter Republic. Well… my the simple answer is to ‘Search’.

I would give you a simple example of how I used Twitter to make a decision on choosing a hosting company (a decision I am very happy to have made).

One of my sites on a shared hosting package on 1&1 internet was generating huge amounts of traffic.  I got several emails from the 1&1 tech support team to switch my hosting package to either a 1&1 dedicated hosting package or another hosting package. If I did not take any action, I faced the risk of having my 1&1 hosting account shut down.

In a frenzy, I started to email a couple of my friends and contacts who also have high traffic websites to seek their advice on an ideal hosting company to switch to. The feedback I got was quite mixed – ranging from regrets on their current choice of hosting providers to really over priced options.

I then headed to Google and started to run searches like ‘best web hosting’ & ‘robust web hosting’. I was bombarded with either highly optimised websites/blogs that were more or less sales pitches and Pay Per Click ads that I just didn’t really trust. I nevertheless started to make a shortlist.

I then had a ‘light bulb’ moment – to search on twitter! So I started to search through twitter’s hard to find search facility using terms like ‘web hosting’ , ‘best web hosting’ and then my list of top hosting companies. One hosting company kept popping up – it was Media Temple. I then started to probe tweets about Media Temple and started to get real time feedback on their service from their customers on Twitter. This to me was the key deciding factor to go ahead with them. I then rang their sales team and their pitch tallied with the feedback I got from fellow twitters.

I have also used this technique to find email broadcast providers and to verify real time facts. The beauty of Twitter is that it is largely organic, viral and moves with time.

If you are unsure about a product or service, try Twitter – Search, Research and Reach Out to fellow twitters for advice.

For business owners now is the time to embrace Twitter.

How I use Twitter to make Decisions and Answer Questions is a post from: Fuzz One Media

I’m carrying on from my previous post about the importance of business blogging. Today, I’ll be going through aspects of marketing a business blog online. I would be covering:

1. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO),
2. Social Media Marketing and
3. Online communications

I think these three aspects are the pillars of marketing a blog online. Remember that editorial aspects of blogging were covered in the first part of this series. The Golden Rule – To keep content flowing and consistent, always have a well thought & planned editorial schedule for you blog.

The key question I attempt to answer in this post is  -

If I just started a blog for my business, what should be the first line of action for creating awareness & marketing it?

Announce It

From a non-technical viewpoint, start with publicising your blog both through online & offline communications. Launching a Press Release (PR) would be the obvious starting point. If you have a PR agency handling your PR, be sure to let them know about the launch of your new blog and include Online PR as part of the release channels. If you however handle you PR internally, then there are a plethora of Online PR websites that your announcement can be published to; top on my list would be

1. PRLog (which is free),
2. PR Web (a paid service with very decent coverage) &
3. PR Newswire ( a paid service and one of the most expensive but highly extensive coverage)

Here is an extensive list of free PR websites – my advice would be to submit your release to no more than two good online PR sites.

Getting to announce your new blog is important for generating an audience at the early stages of publishing. It is indeed quite a refreshing feeling having a readership at the early stages of publishing; especially when you have a well planned schedule in place.

Other means of announcing your blog online are:

• Emailing your subscribers or customers
• Featuring your blog on your main website (be sure to make it prominent on your main site – I would advice including is as part of your website’s navigational structure) and
• Add your blog to your email signature and all marketing communication media you use both off and online

There might be other methods you can employ – think out of the box. Even employ some Guerrilla Marketing to reach your target market cheaply.

Social Media Marketing

Most blogs (if not all blogs) are setup to reflect the views of the author or a business. A blog steps out of the formal confines of a corporate website tends to emit; it is a more conversational  platform on the web. Social Media Marketing is therefore a perfect fit with blogging.

I would strongly advice you have a Social Media Marketing Strategy in place before the launch of your site.

You need to plan out how you intend to promote your blog online through socialising and interacting with other people, networks and blogs online. The primary idea behind behind Social media is building a followership by adding value across the web.

Blogging is actually a channel of Social Media Marketing. A single post would not be enough to cover all aspects of Social Media Marketing. But as a summary here is a checklist to get you started:

Interview

Reach out to other bloggers in the blogosphere – don’t email them asking for link swaps as they would tend to ignore such requests. Rather, email or contact major blog personalities in the your industry requesting for an interview (either email interview or podcast interview). This is a gesture of goodwill that would add value to their online personality and could also lead to a mention of their interview on your blog to their already established audience.

Remember to collaborate in any way possible so as to reach out – look at it this way; most organisations have interns who eventually turn out to be full staff after paying their dues. In the same vain, starting out blogging in a new industry requires you in a way to pay your dues in order to be picked up.

Networking

Depending on the type of blog you are building choose some social media sites you would like to promote some (not all) of your blog posts to. If you do not have the time, I would suggest you hire a Social Media Marketing consultant to guide and help you with marketing on Social media sites as it is quite a time consuming exercise. Here are a list of sites you should consider:

• Join MyBlogLog
• Add your blog to your LinkedIn profile (if you have one),
• Create a Facebook or LinkedIn group
• Start a Twitter account and communicate with personalities in your industry
• Submit your site to social bookmarking sites like Delicious, Digg, Reddit & Stumbleupon.

For any of the above to work, you have to dedicate some time an effort towards adding value to the platforms you choose. When you join the above networks, do not just submit and leave their sites as this never works. You would actually need to contribute to each of the virtual social communities, build relationships and leverage your relationships to help your site or blog – which to me is pure social media networking and marketing.

Bear in mind that social networks can generate enormous amounts of traffic to your blog and in many cases kick start readership and followership at its early stages. Your social media efforts would most often not generate direct business but would help increase the profile and search engine visibility of your blog.

Search Engine Optimisation  (SEO)

SEO is probably the most overrated buzzword on the web at the moment – it is yet crucial to the survival of several businesses in today’s world. Some businesses would not survive yet alone exist without Google rankings. It is important not only to build a following from humans but also one from all major search engines (especially the almighty Google).

Depending on what blog platform you would be using, it is essential that the following steps are taken for basic level search engine optimisation. Also download the the Google SEO Starter Guide (PDF):

Embark on some keyword research using Google Insights to determine ‘what the world actually searches for’ – one of my clients started off her blog optimising for a totally unpopular keyword.

• Ensure that every page and post on your blog has unique value on the following HTML tags: TITLE, META DESCRIPTION & KEYWORDS & H1-6 tags
• If your blogging software permits, ensure you utilise search engine readable URLs
• Set up an XML sitemap
• Interlink between articles
• Tag images with proper descriptions
• Update your blog regularly with fresh content
• List your blog on blog directories (most of which are free but might require a reciprocal link)

Once you ensure all of the above actions have been taken; my golden rule for SEO on your blog is unique quality content. After posting an article, always ask yourself if the article quality was good enough to get picked up by other bloggers, websites or even the press in a bid to link back to you. Do not remanufacture the news – at the information age we currently are in, news gets syndicated across hundreds and thousands of sites. Rather put a spin on the news – be controversial; you can write guides or HOWTOs; don’t be afraid to give you expertise in your area of knowledge in form a guides. They at the end add value and would ensure people link back to you, which raises the profile of your blog and forms the real online marketing of your blog.

Further reading

• 25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog
• How to Promote Your Offline Business using LinkedIn

Marketing Your Business Blog is a post from: Fuzz One Media

This is the first of hopefully many posts on our blog. The core focus of this blog is marketing on the Internet. Our objective is to enable you better understand what we do as consultants and to enable you understand how the web can positively impact on developing your business.

The effects of web marketing would be largely dependent on the web marketing channels you utilise as well as type of business and sector your company belongs to.

The following categories have been created to give an idea of topics we would be covering:

• Increasing Search Engine Rankings
• Advertising on Search Engines (Pay Per Click)
• Email Marketing
• Lead Generation
• Business Blogging
• Social Media
• Media Buying
• Guerilla Marketing (Back to the Basics)

Web Marketing 101 is a post from: Fuzz One Media