The XXI Olympic Winter Olympic Games are also being called the “Social Games.” Based on sponsors clever ways of gaining the spotlight, more consumers will have their eyes glued to their iPhone and computer screens, than the actual broadcast on TV. If major sponsors can motivate 500 million Internet transactions as a result of the Super Bowl (a one-day event), can you imagine what sponsors, apps, social networks and search engines can gain from sixteen days of sporting events in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics?
Reaching out via social media, this Olympics may rival China in attention, if not in spectacle. On the months leading up to the event, the marketing teams of a hundreds of brands have been strategizing as to the most effective means to advertise its product and services using social media distribution. Both social networks will be covering the events in Vancouver closely and may prove to be a more informative source than even TV.
With Twitter’s more than 23 million hits and 1.2 billion tweets per month, Twitter will no doubt have a direct effect on Olympic information and viewership in 2010. Another feature released by Twitter just in time for the Olympics, is a Verified Tweeting Olympians resource page where you can cross-reference what the athletes are tweeting about in real-time from one source. Presently this site is following 100 athletes from Apolo Ohno to Joannie Rochette.
On Facebook, the International Olympic Committee has created an Olympic Games Page, which already has more than 1.2 million followers. The page plans to feature updates, photos and videos submitted by the athletes. The International Olympic Committee is also using Facebook to conduct a fan photo contest, awarding free tickets to events to winners, and has created an Olympic Mini-Games on their social network.
So the Social Games are in full swing in the social media space and it will be interesting to see how Vancouver fares as a result. Eighteen months after the spectacular opening of the Summer Olympics in Beijing, the organizers of the Winter Games in Vancouver are challenged to top the Chinese. Stated as the first-ever “Social Games” the excitement created by social media might be the stepping stone to make the opening ceremonies and subsequent competitions stand out from previous Olympics.
As a result of all of us getting social, let’s hope the 2010 Games are one of the best organized and most enjoyable Olympics ever. So rev up those mobile phones/ laptops and let’s hit the slopes!
SEO has come a long way since its early days in the 90’s. Back then website owners woke up to the idea that having highly visible sites in the search engines brought valuable business results. Today we continue to see that importance and SEO continues to expand past its horizon. New tools are driven from the demands it creates and it continues to deliver the results. SEO has an endless ground for expansion and growth. Here are some possibilities of what we may expect for SEO in 2010…
Google’s Real-Time Search will disappear. It’s still too buggy and distracting, not to mention cannon fodder for spammers. We’ll be seeing less of it in 2010.
The value of links from status updates is increasing. Influencing factors will likely include relevance and reputation of the link source(s).
Personalized Search is the new reality. Get used to it. Branding is more important, it’s harder to gain (and lose) rank, and there is no such thing as “normal ranking” anymore.
It’s a two-engine war in 2010: Google and Bing. (The battle begins!)
SEO tools from Yahoo! (such as Site Explorer) will disappear. When the Microsoft-Yahoo! agreement goes full throttle, these handy tools are unlikely to stick around.
Spending on search marketing and SEO will go up. As businesses become more aware of the importance of SEO — in terms of Strategy, Engagement and Optimization, rather than just old-school link building and on-site optimization — we’ll continue to see a trend of them turning to agencies and consultants for help.
There’ll be more focus on conversion.
Many queries won’t result in traffic driven to your site. Google and Bing are doing a fair job of including referential content in the search results directly. Weather, flight times, sports scores… questions that were previously answered on individual sites will now be answered within the search engine itself.
This guide helps you avoid the serious damage that can occur to your website rankings & traffic by improperly moving your content to a new domain name.
Step 1: Traffic Loss
Be prepared for a dip in your overall traffic. It is going to happen! However, if you do everything right you can keep the pain to a minimum. Usually your traffic will dip for 1 week to 1 month depending on the size of your site. If the risk of temporarily losing traffic does not reward the benefit of moving to a new domain name, stop right here.
Tip: Because you know your traffic will dip it is a great idea to open or increase budget on a PPC campaign. Target your top performing organic keywords and use exact keyword matches so you don’t pay for non converting clicks.
Step 2: 301 Redirects
301 redirect your old domain to your new domain. Do not use a 302 redirect. 301 tells the search engines that this is a permanent move while 302 would mean the move is only temporary. You need to 301 redirect each page to its corresponding page on the new domain. Do not simply redirect all pages to the new homepage. The only time you should redirect to your homepage is if no other content on the new site is a good match.
When moving a large site you may want to move one section to test that you are doing it correctly before messing up the entire site only to find out too late that you missed a step!
Tip: Google recommends that you keep the 301 redirects up for at least 180 days. I would highly suggest you simply keep them live forever. You can remove your images, videos, etc.. off the server but keep the 301’s live.
Tip: You should also create custom 404 pages that suggest the user visit your new site.
Tip: In Google Webmaster Central go to Site Configuration > Change of Address – It will tell you to add and verify your new domain; once completed you can alert Google of your domain change.
Step 3: Update Sitemaps
In your webmaster accounts resend a copy of your OLD sitemap to Google, Bing & Yahoo (For Yahoo use the Site Explorer Tool). The submission pages are within Google Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster Center. The search engines will crawl your old urls and be notified of your move much quicker than waiting to be indexed again.
After that is done, create and submit a sitemap for your new domain on its webmaster accounts as well.
Tip: Use sites like http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/ if you do not already have an xml sitemap created.
Step 4: Update Your Links
Make sure that all your internal links were actually updated to the new domain. This can be more of a pain if you used absolute instead of relative file paths. However, most editing tools like Dreamweaver have a find and replace function for mass edits.
Once your internal links are in order start updating external links that are pointing to your old domain. You are never going to get everyone to switch but if you prepare a nice stock email you will be surprised at how many will update their link to your new domain.
Use Yahoo’s Site Explorer & Google Webmaster tool’s “Links To Your Site” section to find external sites that link to you. Both sites allow you to export the data to excel which is very handy.
Also, do not forget your paid directory links. Make sure your Yahoo Directory and Best Of The Web Directory links are pointing to your new domain.
Tip: Your analytics package is also a great source to find external links. Export a list of the top 100 (or more) sites sending traffic to your site and reach out to them.
Tip: Free tools like ISS Toolkit (Super Sweet) and the Xenu’s Link Sleuth should be used to make sure there are no broken links or images on your site and a whole host of other issues that may have happened in your move.
Step 5: Monitor
Be sure to monitor your webmaster accounts for search engine crawl errors and correct any issues you see immediately.
Step 6: Link Building
You really would be smart to start a link building campaign to coincide with your new domain launch. At the very least you should do the following as well as updating as many old links as possible in step 5.
Write and Distribute an Article – (low cost) easily net 20 to 40 links to your new domain.
Use Social Bookmarking – (Free)- Google some “Do Follow” bookmarking lists and add your site.
Submit a Press Release – Use PR Web or another distribution service. Go with the basic package all you really care about are the links.
Use Web 2.0: Create or update your blog on Wordpress.org, Squidoo, Hubpages…etc. to include a link to your new site.
These simple and low cost techniques should easily net you 60 to 80 new links to your site and that is being conservative. Link Building and SEO Experts can of course offer you a more robust and custom made campaign.
Tip: Focus a good portion of your new links to internal pages. Search engines will have no problem with your homepage but can always use a good reason to dive deeper into your site.
Step 7: Pat Yourself On The Back!
By doing the steps above you will have made moving to a new domain name a piece of cake.
If you have any questions about a step or anything that was not covered please post in the comments bellow. I hope this helps save you from some of the domain change horror stories I have heard over the years.
If you enjoyed this article please RT and follow us on twitter @authoritydomain
LinkedIn recently added a Twitter status update functionality to their interface! Smart! So is there a reason to add your Twitter updates to your LinkedIn status? The answer is yes, I added it then contemplated the value add. Here are 3 reasons why you as any professional should utilize this functionality.
1) Stay On Topic- Over the last 24 hours I have thought more about my tweets and staying on topic. I still do posts on my interests, but have made sure to keep it more PG.
2) Additional Opportunities To Beat Your Chest – If you are currently using LinkedIn to network and find a new job, posting your Twitter posts is a great way to be King Kong & show what you know. Especially if you are in the Social Media and SEO fields. It is important to be intelligent in front of your peers and prospectus employers.
3) Gives LinkedIn Users Reasons To Return To Your Profile – Let’s be honest, Facebook is a far more personal application while LinkedIn is used for more professional reasons. I also looked and I only follow 40% of my LinkedIn contacts on Twitter. So adding this app is a no brainer and has already led to 8 new followers because of the use of the application.
I am sure there are more reasons to use the Twitter Status functionality on LinkedIn. But these are a few I found within the first 24 hours. Feel free to add yours in comments! Happy Tweeting & Linking!
You know you should be doing usability testing on your websites. But how often do you? My guess is that an overwhelming majority of people fall into the never/rarely camp (myself included). So why are so many of us neglecting something we KNOW we should be doing? Because in the past, it has been an expensive, royal pain in the butt!
I wanted to share with you some fast, simple and cheap (yes cheap) ways for you to dive into usability testing. Each review you read are actual case results for this modern crib bedding site.
Paid Results:
Site: http://www.UserTesting.com/
Cost: $29
Verdict: Fan-Flipping-Tastic!
For $29 UserTesting.com will match you up with a video & audio recording detailing user experience as well as written summary.
Information provided for the test:
Demographics: Female, 18-34, United States, $40, 000 to $100, 000
You are a parent, expecting a child and you are shopping for items to furniture the new nursery.
-Look for a crib bedding set that you like. Review the features to ensure it has a fitted sheet, bumper, blanket, & skirt.
-You already have the Two Wide Changing table, and you would like to submit a product review on this product. you like and give it 5 stars.
-Look for a changing table. You want to send the link to your friend of two changing tables that you like. use the “send to a friend” link to do so.
-Look for a crib that you like. Before you add this item to you cart you have a quick question about the return policy. Review the return policy, and determine if you can return this product. (please note in response if you found this information).
-Add the Crib to your cart.
-Look for a rocking chair that you like and add this product to you cart.
-Once you have added all of these items to you cart, you decided you do not need a rocking chair, and remove this product from your cart.
-Complete the online checkout, using random (fake) information for the billing, shipping, and credit card details. The order will not fully process, as the site is in testing mode
What we got back:
Usability Testing – UserTesting.com Review from aj ghergich on Vimeo.
UserTesting.com matched us with an actual expectant mother who shops at similar sites! She provided a 20 minute video review and completed all tasks required and then some. I was personally floored by the quality!
Site: http://www.EasyUsability.com/
Cost: $15 per review
Verdict: Worth The Money
For $15 EasyUsability.com will provide you with a detailed written summary of your user testing questions.
What we got back:
http://www.easyusability.com/usability_tests/363/final_report
You can actually see all qualification questions and answers by clicking on the link. For $15 a user we got some pretty detailed feedback to our questions. I was not as blown away by the feedback, but did I get my money’s worth? Easily!
Site: http://www.FeedbackArmy.com/
Cost: $10 for 10 reviews
Verdict: Worth The Money
For $10 FeedbackArmy.com will provide you with 10 answers to a list of questions you create.
Information provided for the test:
1. Can you return crib bedding sheets that have been washed once and you have had them for 30 days?
2. Can the Nurseryworks Two-Wide Changing Table be returned 15 days after it has been received?
3. Try to find the Lulu crib bedding set made by Glenna Jean (brand). Did you feel it was difficult to locate on the website.
4. Is there free shipping for the Studio Crib by Nurseryworks (brand)?
5. You need to contact BabyAuthority. Did you find it easy to locate the phone number, email or another method to contact BabyAuthority?
6. If you order a Central Park Crib Bedding Set by Glenna Jean (brand) today, when would this order ship out?
What we got back:
http://www.feedbackarmy.com/get_feedback.slp?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.babyauthority.com&code=ed11171d63b5afe2fd1a507a01762d5c
You can see the 10 unique sets of answers to our 6 questions by following the link. Again, nothing earth shattering but I think this was a really great value. 10 different people saw the site and gave us (for the most part) detailed answers to each question. This is very valuable feedback for $10.
Free Results:
I have tried a bunch of free usability sites in the past and mostly got back what I paid for..nothing! I do not want to slam anyone for providing a free service so I will just direct you here.
http://www.conceptfeedback.com/ – I have found this site to be a good place to get a review from “graphic design” types. It is free of charge and a good place to post screenshots of a site before it is live.
The only negative is that they force you to review 5 sites before you get a review. I understand why of course but this leads to comments left by others that “feel” forced. All in all it is one of the best free sources out there. Use it!
http://fivesecondtest.com/- This site is great but I use it more for banners & graphics on sites or actual posters vs an entire site.
Summary:
Ok, no more excuses. These sites will provide you with a low cost of entry and fast turnaround (most of these test were done same day). If you are not doing, or rarely doing usability testing now is the time to start. It is addicting and will provide some of the best ROI you have ever seen.
If you enjoyed this post please RT, Sphinn or Comment. Thx!
Special thanks to @babyauthority
Did you notice that Twitter added list functionality to follow this week? I have had a few people ask me what is the purpose? So with that; here is 4 ways to use Twitter lists:
- Niche Follow- Simply put lists allow you to follow groups of people based on their niche focus. As Social Media becomes more prevalent in the business word, the ability to focus your tweets on verticals will become more necessary. That reason necessitates the need for Social Analytics. The lists are another way to organize and focus.
- Topic RSS- In a way the lists are almost an RSS aggregator of niche topics. Much like http://www.search.twitter.com allows you to pull RSS feeds of #keywords, listing allows you to focus on topics.
- Who to Follow? – This is an easy one. If someone is being put into a lot of lists, then they are Tweeting items of value. Being added to lists is almost like getting a high rating! This will keep people honest. I know I have started looking at how many lists folks are on before following them. I have made simple criteria of 3 lists before following them.
- Business Intelligence, Competitive Intelligence & Industry Pulse- What a great opportunity to pull in all of the industry experts, stakeholders and players into one list and monitor what they are up to. A huge BI opportunity that all businesses should jump on!
Here is the SEO List we made: http://twitter.com/authoritydomain/seo
I am not sure if you know this, but Twitter lists have been available prior to this week. Here is a few to check out:
TLists: http://www.tlists.com/ (thx to @TazmanianTayTay)
TweepML: http://tweepml.org/TweepGen/createnew.aspx
Ultimately, the ability to organize your followers by niche is much needed! If you have other ideas, please share them in the comments.
Yesterday I posted two videos on my Facebook wall and realized that they both are great examples of how Social Media is allowing even the smallest business or individual stand eye to eye with large organizations or celebrities. Both are a true David versus the Goliath story. Or is it?
Case 1: AARP posted this video:
What I love about this video is how viral it has become with a positive message attached to a brand. But the beauty is any one person could create a video like this and help build their own personal brand that rivals the likes of AARP. Dollars are no longer needed to market effectively.
Case 2: Ask for what you want & come across capable:
A former client of mine recently became a free agent. She is a bright lady that knows how to use Social Media to market not only a corporate community- but her own brand as well. Case in point above! What is beautiful is she can use this video as the spine of her job finding campaign. Point to it with external
links and use the keywords she wants to rank for in her job search. She also shared the video with her peers who..well….shared it again. Case in point here! I will share this post in all the usual DoFollow channels and she will receive the very same link juice and viral exposure that we will. My point? 10 years ago the brand of an individual had no chance of being seen in the very same channels as Google and Microsoft – for free no less. This is affecting the News Media- the many is reporting news better then the major new agencies. Read Craig Newmark’s article- “A Nerds Take On The Future Of News Media”. Today, the gap between the bigs and the smalls, the corporations and the individuals has shrunk. The playing field has been leveled. Corporate responsibility is prevalent (a plus in my eyes) while their weight is decreasing, while the individual has more opportunity to be seen and thrive! Another plus! Before long there will no longer be a goliath, just a whole lot of David’s – some with a greater commitment to their brand! Which begs the question, what are you doing to grow your personal brand or your companies brand? Opportunity is ripe for the taking! Have you thought about your brand when watching the AARP and Naomi Marr videos?
As advances in technology move forward, the needs of online users change, the methods of advertising also experience an evolution over time. One of these more recent advertising methods has been link building. There are a lot of varieties of link building. Moreover, there are new rules that have to be followed to ensure the success of this method. But the benefits hardly ever change.
Link Building has great benefits and that is the reason why more and more number of website owners want to get it incorporated in their SEO process. The practice of link building is simply getting other websites to link back to yours. Despite how very important it is though, most webmasters don’t have a genuine link building campaign because it’s typically a very lengthy task to perform. But don’t let this be a reason you don’t do at least some link building for your website. You’d be doing your company a huge disservice by overlooking this vital Search Engine Optimization step.
1. It puts you in search engines.
Unless you’re found in Google, Yahoo, and MSN, your online business is non-existent. It also doesn’t help if you’re found a lot of pages away in search results. Your main goal should be at least among the top 10 on the targeted keywords you’re using. Research says that online users click the first website in the list, believing it’s the most relevant answer to their query.
2. Links make your site – and the internet – more usable, and useful.
Links provide simple site navigation between documents and other website’s. In addition to surfing through sites, links substantially increase the usability of site information since words within an article, website, blog, etc… can be linked – or extended out in a tree-like manner.
3. Links Create Direct Traffic. More links = more traffic.
Clicking a link from a trusted source is one of the most popular ways for people to find a new website. If a user is on a website they trust, they are likely to follow links that it recommends or that a user finds interesting – or at the least, users will follow links that make the destination site appear to provide some valuable information.
4.Links Build User Trust in You – Word-of-mouth is the best advertising there is.
If users see a link to you on a popular or respected site, their level of trust in what you say or what you offer is likely to be higher.
5. Cheap One-way linking
Cheap Linking can come from many methods and provide many benefits. Writing articles and submitting to article directories can be one method. Posting your own blog with a link back to yours, link directories and social networking sites are all great places to link onto with no or very little costs involved, from which all highly benefit your site traffic.
6.Links Build higher page ranks
PageRank is still a major factor, the major search engines consider when determining where websites are ranked. The reasoning is simple: if you have many links pointing to your site from other unique sites, your content probably is quality, important information. Every webpage is given its own PageRank. Your PageRank will be determined by the PR of the pages that link to you.
7. Links Tell Search Engines and Users What Your Pages Are About
To determine what a web page is about search engines look at a few critical elements on a web page, but just as important is the text used in links that point to your page – from within your site and from outside sites. If you could describe yourself in two words, what would they be?
8.Links Are Trackable and Provide Market Intelligence – Find out who, what, where, when, why, how – and use it.
There are a few methods of determining who links to you, and this information can be very valuable in providing market intelligence such as;
- competitor strengths/weaknesses (find out who links to them, request a link)
- consumer/user opinion (what people are saying about you/competitors on blogs/forums)
- potential suppliers (industry insiders who liked/linked to your site)
- source of testimonials
- reveals potential PR hazards (negative posts/links)
To determine who links to you, you can first check your traffic logs for ‘referrers’. Once seeing who has generated some traffic for you, you can find out whom the search engines have listed that link to you.
9.Links Reveal Strategic Partnerships
Upon reviewing your traffic logs or doing a simple link check on any of the major search engines (as mentioned above) you may encounter some sites that link to you that can reveal sources of mutual benefit, such as;
- marketing partnerships (develop reciprocal ad campaign)
- service or product suppliers
- potential employees
- potential contractors
- or for support/education/help
10.Links Are Assets – They Add Value to Your Property
Your website is your internet property, and it has value. What gives your website saleable value is the amount of traffic the site can generate. As we’ve shown, links are one of the most important factors in generating substantial website traffic, search engine rankings, trust, publicity, market intelligence and more. A substantial link network offers significant value to the overall package when determining a website’s value.
Are you always on the go just like me? Use your iPhone to keep yourself updated on your current SEO. These 4 iPhone apps are easy to use, and very helpful for professionals who travel often but need to stay in the know.
Pokeseo
Pokeseo is a great app that lets you check Google PR (Page Rank) for any domain. You can also use this to check the number of Backlinks for Google, Yahoo, Bing and AOL. Use the “email this report” feature to save all your data.
iSEO Tools
iSEO Tools has three features. A SERP Analyzer, inbound links analyzer, and Web directories. The SERP Analyzer will tell you on what page your keyword is found on Google. The inbound links analyzer uses Yahoo Site Explorer service. A great way to analyze how many links you have for your domain. The last feature shows you a list of web directories. You can use this option to submit a link for your domain to increase your link popularity.
SEOIT
SEOIT will analyze a domains >page source elements, HTML source code, title, meta keywords, meta description, meta tags, body text, stop word ratio, word count, meta phrases, length of phrases, stop word removal, anchors and link text, complete link list, complete anchor tag, anchor inner text, images/alt tags, back links, inbound links from Google. This application is very easy to use, and keeps everything well organized.
SEO Search Ranking
SEO Search Ranking App uses a graph SERP Analyzer. This gives you the ability to monitor your current and past rankings. Being able to monitor the change in rankings on the go is very useful. This application also lets you monitor an unlimited number of keywords. You can organize each report by domain categories under “My Domains”.
Pricing:
SEO IT – .99 cents
SEO Search Ranking – $1.99
Pokeseo – .99 cents
iSEO Tools – .99 cents
We are consistently looking for new and inexpensive ways to market our E-commerce sites. Like many E-commerce sites, we operate on a shoestring budget, and are always looking for the least expensive ways to promote our site. We have found one of the best ways to market the site, with a very small budget is to partner up with the manufacturers that we represent on our sites. Here are three ways to utilize the skills and services that manufacturers offer to their dealers.
1) Print Advertisements-Many manufacturers will run print advertisements in trade publications. Ask the manufacturers that you work with if you can be involved with these publications, by paying a small fee to have your website listed on the print advertisements. Your website can be listed as a place that sells the manufacturers products. In return, this is also helping the manufacturer pay for the advertisement.
2) Website Listing on Manufacturer’s Site-If the manufacturer has a website with online retailers listed, typically a “where to buy this product online” or “online retailers” section, ensure your website is listed. This is a free link that the manufacturer should have no problem putting up. Some manufacturers will only put your link up on their site once you have reached a pre-set yearly sales number. Ask the manufacturer what the requirements are to have your link listed.
3) Promotions - Find out from your sales representative what promotions the manufacturer is running and when they will occur. Most of the time they will have it listed in a special area on their website, possibly homepage, or in a print publication. Ask to be involved in the promotion, to ensure that customers know they can take advantage of the promotion by purchasing from your website.
Manufacturers are always willing to work with you to help sell more products. Typically, they have a marketing team in place, and are more than helpful. Utilize the resources they provide to you for being their dealer. We have found the above three ideas are a great to start to working with manufacturers on the marketing of our sites.
