- The landscape of search is changing again.As Google universal and similar algorithms are being utilized text based information will hold less and less sway. Podcasts and videos will come into play, as will personalization. (think like Amazon personalization)
- The techniques that worked in the past do not work today, and may get you penalized tomorrow.Reciprocal linking holds little or no weight.And soon the same might go for other nonsense links.It is the authoritative links that hold sway.A link on some buried page of a government website is way more influential than a hundred links on garbage directories because the government is trusted (sort of).
- If you create content, make sure it is relevant, and user facing.Solves problems Answers Questions, Provides information.This is nothing new, perhaps it should be only create content that solves problems, answers questions and provides information.
- When content is worth sharing, link it back. Press releases if used judiciously can be a huge boon.Target those people who care about that topic and are likely to share itBuzzlogic is a tool that will help with this.
- Video blogs and podcasts are valid content. If they are properly tagged and documented, they can become very powerful.Make sure that content summaries and transcripts are provided (transcripts for a 10 minute podcast can be as little as $6)
- SEO is everyone’s business, whether you are looking for new dental marketing ideas or ways to make your pet the next web-star. If you touch the website at all, the SEO is your concern.From user experience to designers, from Tech to business integration, SEO is about making your stuff worth finding. SEO is a blend of SEO/SEM and PR.
- Use analytics to test and justify everything.Analytics cause non-number people to glaze over, but pay attention because a small change in the conversions can mean HUGE changes to the ROI.
- Everyone needs a unique selling proposition. It is important now more than ever to have something unique to offer.Some call it an angle or a hook, but think of it as a value.
- If you want to sell stuff, think of what are the benefits to your customers. Buying and having something is not a benefit.It leads to a benefit. Not what will I get, but what do I believe I will get. Buying a bowflex to get abs is not a benefit.Getting a hot date is a benefit.Bowflexàabsàsex!Find the emotion.
- The users will decide if you are remarkable. Every website out there is shouting look at me!Users will decide if you are truly worth looking at, and remarking on (ie sharing a link).
- What works for one client may not work for another. Aka: don’t put all your eggs in one bucket.Multi-pronged strategies will ensure success like multi channel investing.
- Economies of online cooperation are the way of the future.Differentiation through structured mediation.Let your customers talk to you, and answer them.It goes a lot farther in the long run that trying to tell them
- There are more webpages than there are people on earth, 19,000 beverages at starbucks.Three outbound links for every two blog posts, and 17 blog posts every second.Stop and think about that. Selection is key
- Nobody cares about you. Most things are good enough as they are, no one knows they need your product.We are the blue box.
- Content is still king.But even a king has a good publicist. You could raise Hemmingway from the dead and he could write your content but that doesn’t mean you’re going to get ranked first. Ignoring your audience hurts more than ignoring google.
Being a real estate agent, point #2 is incredibly relevant to our industry. Sadly, as Realtors are abandoning reciprocal link state pages, these same Realtors are migrating to contextual link pages. The second form of link spam will replace the former. Google came down on our industry with a 30-day penalty for a select few for their reciprocal link state pages, however, I suspect Google will not be so kind on our industry is reciprocal link spam is discovered in a new form.