- Many of the actions that members of Web, eComm, IT and Marketing departments take impact their business's positions in search engines
- Search engine optimization is a lifestyle, not a marketing tactic and long term success is a result of changes in corporate culture, behavior and established processes.
- Seeing increased traffic and revenue from SEO will require more time, more resources and more cross-departmental communication.
- Like anything in business, real estate on search engine results pages is competitive and won't come easily - we still need to outwit our competitors to gain market share.
Jan 28, 2009
Setting Expectations at the Enterprise Level - Read Carefully, This Impacts You
If you aren't communicating the following four things to your colleagues, you're going to have a hard time leading a successful SEO program for a large business:
Jan 16, 2009
Whopper Sacrifice: Is Zuckerberg Afraid of Be Unfriended for a Burger?
I love it. I absolutely love the Whopper Sacrifice app. What a creative, counter-culture driven application that puts a playful and sinister twist on our oh-so-coveted social networks. Burger King has successfully exposed the darker side of Facebook and like the pseudo-ignoble, highly creepy and skulking "King," the app is one that people either seem to love or hate.
Facebook just recently announced their disapproval of Whopper Sacrifice. Luckily, my counter-culture heroes over at Burger King responded with this simple but pointed image:
Bravo!
It looks like Mr. Zuckerberg has been outwitted this time. In my opinion, Mark would have nothing to worry about if, as you'll hear from any Facebook staffer, friendships on Facebook are more sincere than MySpace and more reflective of real-world social circles. Apparently not, because Facebook users seem to be plenty willing to sever their social connections for a hamburger.
Keep up the good work, King.
Facebook just recently announced their disapproval of Whopper Sacrifice. Luckily, my counter-culture heroes over at Burger King responded with this simple but pointed image:
Bravo!
It looks like Mr. Zuckerberg has been outwitted this time. In my opinion, Mark would have nothing to worry about if, as you'll hear from any Facebook staffer, friendships on Facebook are more sincere than MySpace and more reflective of real-world social circles. Apparently not, because Facebook users seem to be plenty willing to sever their social connections for a hamburger.
Keep up the good work, King.
Jan 15, 2009
Have We Forgotten Why We Optimize?
I’m as prone to selling natural search as any SEO out there. I’m good at sales, but I’m not good at selling something I don’t believe in. I believe in SEO, but I don’t see SEO as a silver bullet for Web-based businesses or businesses that see the Web as a key part of their growth strategy.
Doing a quick scan of blogs, industry press and what not, it’s easy to notice the utter obsession with rankings and the technical ins and outs of optimization. I’m not here to de-value rankings or technical know-how but I am most definitely here to say that without making money, SEO is just a geeky hobby.
To determine if we’re making money, we need to look at all of the associated costs and benefits. After all, Profit = Revenue – Cost.
Costs
1. Pay your subject matter expert(s). Typically an agency or in-house staff.
2. Development time and resources
3. Technology costs including tools, analytics and any tracking costs
4. Opportunity cost of foregone priorities and initiatives
Benefits
1. Increased brand awareness
2. Immediate desired site actions (leads, revenue, etc.)
3. Future desired site actions (leads, revenue, etc.)
How’s your SEO P&L?
If you can honestly say that you’re generating more benefits than costs, your search engine optimization strategy is a success. If not, it’s an awfully expensive hobby.
Doing a quick scan of blogs, industry press and what not, it’s easy to notice the utter obsession with rankings and the technical ins and outs of optimization. I’m not here to de-value rankings or technical know-how but I am most definitely here to say that without making money, SEO is just a geeky hobby.
To determine if we’re making money, we need to look at all of the associated costs and benefits. After all, Profit = Revenue – Cost.
Costs
1. Pay your subject matter expert(s). Typically an agency or in-house staff.
2. Development time and resources
3. Technology costs including tools, analytics and any tracking costs
4. Opportunity cost of foregone priorities and initiatives
Benefits
1. Increased brand awareness
2. Immediate desired site actions (leads, revenue, etc.)
3. Future desired site actions (leads, revenue, etc.)
How’s your SEO P&L?
If you can honestly say that you’re generating more benefits than costs, your search engine optimization strategy is a success. If not, it’s an awfully expensive hobby.
Jan 12, 2009
What is Conversion Rate Hiding From You?
I posted an article about my new favorite search metric (especially for natural search) over at FindResolution.
It's designed to demystify conversion rate, which can be incredibly misleading especially when you're dealing with an enterprise ecommerce site because it ignores the average size of an order (which often fluctuates from category to category and season to season).
Update: You can also read Media Post's take on my favorite new search metric at Search Section 2.
Enjoy,
Dan
It's designed to demystify conversion rate, which can be incredibly misleading especially when you're dealing with an enterprise ecommerce site because it ignores the average size of an order (which often fluctuates from category to category and season to season).
Update: You can also read Media Post's take on my favorite new search metric at Search Section 2.
Enjoy,
Dan
Jan 5, 2009
How To Use Wildcard Entries in Your Robots.txt File
Working with robots.txt files at the enterprise level can be a nightmare. Common stumbling blocks include millions of URLs, incredibly large spreadsheets, hundreds of URL appends and params, sporatic directory structures and more.
One of the easiest ways to manage URL-hell in an enterprise environment is to take advantage of wildcards in your robots.txt file.
Wildcards allow you to block portions of URLs that match specific patterns.
For example, many publishers and retailers allow visitors to view "printable" versions of their content. Printable content is always duplicate and almost always exists on a unique URL.
Let's say that http://www.example.com/dan/enterprise-seo/wildcards.html is the URL of my article.
I have a "printable" version of this article at http://www.example.com/dan/enterprise-seo/wildcards.html?print=on
I can use a robots.txt wildcard entry to disallow this URL by adding this line:
Disallow: /*print=on*
As of fall of 2006, all of the major search engines accept wildcard entries in the robots.txt file. In fact, Google has published their own guidelines for taking advantage of "pattern matched" entries. Read through their rules to determine how to best implement wildcards in your robots.txt.
REMEMBER: Robots.txt wildcard entries are case sensitive (for Google, at least). Be sure to check your robots.txt file against your targeted URLs using Webmaster Tools (Tools--> Analyze robots.txt).
One of the easiest ways to manage URL-hell in an enterprise environment is to take advantage of wildcards in your robots.txt file.
Wildcards allow you to block portions of URLs that match specific patterns.
For example, many publishers and retailers allow visitors to view "printable" versions of their content. Printable content is always duplicate and almost always exists on a unique URL.
Let's say that http://www.example.com/dan/enterprise-seo/wildcards.html is the URL of my article.
I have a "printable" version of this article at http://www.example.com/dan/enterprise-seo/wildcards.html?print=on
I can use a robots.txt wildcard entry to disallow this URL by adding this line:
Disallow: /*print=on*
As of fall of 2006, all of the major search engines accept wildcard entries in the robots.txt file. In fact, Google has published their own guidelines for taking advantage of "pattern matched" entries. Read through their rules to determine how to best implement wildcards in your robots.txt.
REMEMBER: Robots.txt wildcard entries are case sensitive (for Google, at least). Be sure to check your robots.txt file against your targeted URLs using Webmaster Tools (Tools--> Analyze robots.txt).
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