Marketers Must Integrate and Become Internet Experts to Survive

As business in general, and the internet space specifically, becomes more competitive, sophisticated and crowded, it is more critical than ever to understand and utilize integrated marketing principles, and consider the big marketing picture.

SEO (search engine optimization or organic search) and SEM (search engine marketing or paid search) have reached ever higher levels of sophistication in analytics, software, testing and benchmarking, and these have become well paid full-time positions in many companies. In fact, even those companies that outsource their SEO and/or SEM expertise are paying more and focusing more for the concerted efforts of these services.

Why? Because the web search space both paid and organic works from an ROI perspective, and it is becoming very competitive and professional. And all the research concludes that in order to create sufficient traffic and conversions in either paid or free listings, you must rank well. Which means in most search phrases you need to be listed on the first page of the SERP (search engine results page), as most search users do not venture past the first page or two of results.

Studies have found that if they do not find exactly what they are looking for within the first page or two, they are far more likely to change their search phrase and start again than they are to click on page 3 of the SERP.

So this brings up the topic of creating a comprehensive, integrated online and offline marketing strategy that encompasses sales, marketing, advertising, public relations, customer service, merchandising, packaging and collateral.

If you can think about every single customer and prospect contact point and impression, and use these existing opportunities to promote your website URL and drive traffic to it, you will create another, and often times more cost effective strategy for driving web visitors and conversions.

More and more however, I am observing the opposite. In other words, as internet marketing becomes more advanced and technical, it is increasingly being pirated by technical people working in silos, or the IT department, neither of whom are marketing experts, or interested in working with multiple stakeholders to integrate the campaign and messaging across multiple channels.

This means a loss of efficiency and effectiveness for the organization. So it is my battle cry to all marketers to become far more educated and skilled in all aspects of internet marketing, web design, web analytics, and web usability research, as well as integrated marketing philosophies and strategies, so as to better drive a synergistic and efficient marketing program for your company.

We can no longer afford to operate in departmental silos, and turn over the reigns of our internet marketing, infrastructure, navigation, metrics, tracking and reporting, site and file structure, authoring software, operating systems and server decisions to technical people alone. At least not without understanding ourselves how these decisions and tools interrelate, and hinder or support the overall marketing objectives, the user experience, search engine indexing and ranking, viral activity, site conversions, user feedback and more.

As marketing becomes more technical, marketers themselves must become more digitally focused to compete. My recommendations:

• Take the "Masters Certificate in Internet Marketing" course from the University of San Francisco. This $5,500 certification is an excellent six-month online advanced program to get you totally up to speed on SEO, SEM, internet marketing, viral and affiliate marketing, usability, analytics, content creation and web 2.0. I have taken these courses and personally recommend the program highly. Honestly I do. The staff, the support, and the online learning technology platform are all excellent, all being offered through and managed by the University Alliance, who manages the online learning for many of Americas top universities. And if you do take this program, I also recommend that you read ALL the recommended books. These are the top books by the leading experts on SEO, SEM, social media, usability and the like.
  
• For even more advanced and in-depth education and training in web marketing, look into joining the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) for $299. The SEMPO also offers a series of online training and certification courses in advanced SEO and SEM ($1,120 each), plus several other courses on such topics as social media, branding and link building, and copy writing for the web for about $320 each.

• If you want to become an expert in metrics, tracking and web analytics, join the Web Analytics Association (WAA) for $199. And definitely consider the certification test and online advanced program offered by the University of British Columbia, (about $2,700) offered in conjunction with, and co-created by the WAA. There is a discount for WAA members, so join the association first.
  

• Also consider joining the eMarketing Association for $175 and taking their "Certified eMarketer" courses and exams which will cost you a total of $739 for your membership, 4 courses (1 basic and 3 advanced) and final exam fee and your certificate. Which by the way is a very good looking certificate.
  
• As for learning about Integrated marketing Communication, I would recommend looking at the traditional brick and mortar Master of Science in Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) program offered by Golden Gate University in San Francisco, or the online Graduate Certification program. I completed the one year brick and mortar Graduate Certification program at the University of Utah and found it to be excellent. The U of U program is now being offered for $1,500 (I think I paid $2,200 several years ago), and it's a real bargain for the high caliber of content and instructors (Tim Larson and Ken Foster).
• A good place to start at no cost, to see if you even have an interest or aptitude for any of this online marketing stuff is to take the online certification courses offered by the Inbound Marketing University, a division of Hubspot, a web marketing services company. After completing the courses and watching the 15 online videos, you can take the exam, and if you pass, you receive a "Inbound Marketing Professional" certificate in pdf format online. I enjoyed this process and the material is very good, current and relevant. You have nothing to lose here, and the professors are absolutely top tier authors and experts in their fields, including David Meerman Scott and Chris Brogan.
  
• Recommended Books: "Search Engine Visibility" Second Edition by Shari Thurow. "The New Rules of Marketing and PR" by David Meerman Scott. "E-Marketing" 5th Edition by Judy Strauss and Raymond Frost.
  

Four Components to Search Engine Optimization for Organic Search

There are really just four main things you need to consider when optimizing your site for organic search rankings. I will list them here in what I consider to be the order of importance to Google and their search algorithms and spiders that crawl and index your site for content and structure:

1. Content. Search engines, and especially Google and its search network that Google powers (AOL, Ask, Infospace, Metacrawler and Dogpile) are looking for those sites that have the most relevant, current, unique and highest volume of HTML text that most closely matches the users search word(s) or phrase. HTML content that all spiders can crawl and index is simply THE most important organic search optimization (SEO) component. All the tricks in the world are meaningless unless you have good, helpful, targeted content that readers and users want regarding the problem they are trying to solve. Creating fresh, unique and relevant content is a never-ending process of organic search optimization. By "relevant" I mean relevant to your audience and relevant to what your site is all about. Your content must be on task with what keywords and themes your site is selling, and what your audience is looking for.
   
2. Inbound links or "backlinks" to your site from other credible sites and directories. The more authoritative, credible, popular and notable these referring sites/links are the better. This is essentially a popularity contest. Google likes to serve up sites in their search engine results pages (SERPS) that are recommend sites by other popular sites for their authority on the topic or search term.
   
3. Site Structure. Your site structure or mechanics, including design, navigation, site map, programming language, file structure, URL and architecture all contribute to how easily and deeply a spider can index your sites content, and how the main themes, topics or keywords are indexed by the spider and displayed to the user. This also includes page title tags, meta description tags, meta keyword tags, H1-H9 or header tags, and Alt-tags for images. HTML is still the only fool-proof language that all spiders can read and index, so be sure to have at least secondary navigation and a site map in HTML, as well as hyper text links within keyword body text to send the spiders deeper into your site. Check for broken links, and code that may stop a spider. Use a spider simulator to crawl your site to be sure it is spider friendly.
   
4. Distribution. This may be the third most important element simply because content distribution is what helps create inbound links. So after you have created exciting and compelling new content on your key topic, you need to spread the love all over the web. Use social media channels such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, YouTube, Slideshare, Flickr and Twitter. Also use your blog, online news releases, Squidoo, and Delicious and Digg where appropriate, among many others. Add a viral marketing and bookmarking widget to every page on your site and blog such as "ShareThis" and an RSS feed. Creating and distributing content on a regular basis, while making it easy for people to share and tag your content will generate inbound links.
   

Optimizing Your Name with Long Tail Search Terms

I have found that when doing a organic search for name on Google and Bing, that Duane Sprague is a more popular name than I ever imagined. I also go by DJ Sprague, and found several of those all over the country.

Not wanting people get confused or lost when searching for me online, I decided to begin a long tail search term branding and search optimization campaign on Duane "DJ" Sprague. I wanted to own this search phrase in the search engine results pages (SERPS).

I started with buying all the domains that pertained to my name: duanesprague.com, djsprague.com, and duanddjsprague.com.

Next I created several blogs at several URL addresses using my name including DuaneSprague.com called "Advertising In Today's Economy" and at DJSprague.com called "Duane DJ Sprague Integrated Marketing Strategies" and at WebMarketingSprague.blogspot.com called "Internet Marketing and SEO."

I also created blogs on my agency web site at VortexPlan.com and my speaking web site at ProfitAcademy.net.

Five blogs in all. In addition, I established a Squidoo Lens at Squidoo.com/DuaneSprague, as well as social media channels on:

• YouTube
• Slideshare
• LinkedIn
• Plaxo
• Xing
• Spoke
• Twitter
• Flickr
• Facebook
• Insightory

All using my name in the the sub-domain for SEO purposes.

Next I started creating my unique long tail brand by using Duane "DJ" Sprague in all my articles, blog posts, signatures, etc.

On Slideshare I posted 18 slide shows, 5 on Insightory, and 13 professional and video portfolio videos on YouTube.

As of this writing the 3 multi-media channels alone have collectively received 5,108 views, not to mention 11,600 blog views and dozens of tweets and re-tweets about my blogs, mentions and links on other blogs, inbound links and quotes on national and international websites, international business magazine websites, corporate blogs and more.

When creating the slide titles on Slideshare, I placed my name into the slide title and at the end of each slide show, and into the keyword meta-tags. I also started signing my name "Duane 'DJ' Sprague" at the bottom of my blog posts as one more method of increasing the keyword density on the blog.

At this point my long tail name Duane "DJ" Sprague and my short tail names duane sprague and DJ sprague all dominate the top of the search engine results pages (SERPS) and they are all my sites, blogs, social media channels and content. I have now created a brand around my name, and own the SERPS for my name online.

It took about 2 months to get there, and another 2 months to really dominate the search, and it will require an ongoing effort to maintain it, but it can all be done by simply following the SEO plan of generating lots of quality content on the topics you are passionate about, distributing that content far and wide across the Web, and optimizing the long and short tail keyword names and/or phrases you want to own.

Obviously the more competitive the keyword phrases are that you want to own, the more effort, attention to detail, site structure and attention to meta-tag content and time it will take.

And by the way, I was reading David Meerman Scott's book "The New Rules of Marketing and PR" last night, and he mentions that he uses his full name for the same reason that I mentioned here. He found many other prominent people that had the same name (David Scott), so by adding his unique middle name he was able to optimize his own long tail full name better and own the online search results. You absolutely must read his book if you are at all serious about online marketing, PR and SEO.

David's book covers everything from online promotion, PR, newsrooms, blogs, podcasts, social media, content creation, buyer personas and SEO.

Now, think about what we just talked about here in terms of owning and optimizing for a long tail phrase. In this example it was a persons name, but it could just as easily be a business, product, place or service.

In other words, let's say you have a women's boutique in Boca Raton Florida. There are several long tail phrases you can own that would give you a dominant space above the fold on the search engines. This would require some keyword research of course, but here is where I would start looking:

• Boca Raton women's boutique
• Boca Raton women's fine fashions
• Boca Raton designer fashions
• Boca Raton (brand label here)
• Boca Raton's fine clothes for women
• Finest women's fashions in Boca Raton
• Boca Raton designer women's clothing sizes 2-10 from (brand label here)

You get the picture. By adding more detailed and descriptive keywords you are narrowing the search criteria and lengthening the search terms into long-tail searches. This will generate more qualified traffic AND give you a better shot at top organic placement above the fold of page one.

By using the location or community you will automatically have a better chance in the local search results because you are only competing against boutiques in Boca Raton. And you will be listed in the Google local search results.

You will also need to build the proper long-tail keyword phrases into your website structure, navigation and content, such as the title-tags, meta-tags, meta-descriptions, meta-keywords, alt-tags, H1through H9 tags, HTML navigation, hyperlink text, XML site map, and the HTML content or body text.

Not to mention your blog posts, email signature, online news releases, social media channels, white papers, and online customer testimonials (just add your community location to the customer testimonial).

This is the short version of optimizing your name or business using long-tail keyword phrases.

Good luck!

--Duane "DJ" Sprague

Creating a Search Optimized Integrated Wed Site

According to Sharri Thurow in her excellent book entitled "Search Engine Visibility" she states that: "Very few web developers and search engine optimizers have education, training, or experience in user-centered design. Likewise, very few usability professionals have a background in search engine optimization. As a result, both groups feel that search engine optimization and web usability are at odds."

And she goes on to say: "Very few web site owners, developers, and even usability professionals focus on building a strong search friendly foundation. Regrettably, many professional search engine marketing firms focus more on tricks and gimmicks than building a strong foundation."

This is a classic problem that results from the lack of approaching web design, content, architecture, navigation, objectives and marketing from an integrated perspective.

I have been involved with dozens of web projects with large and small companies, and the primary hurdle to creating a top shelf, search engine optimized, high converting, user friendly site lots of traffic and inbound links is almost always the same. Either too many people are involved with divergent opinions, agendas and reporting structures, or all the wrong people are involved who do not have the experience, education or skill sets required to make the entire process work.

In the case of too many people, think about all the possible titles and skills required to design, build, maintain and analyze a top tier site:
Site Owner
Information Architect
Creative Director
Designer
Navigation Expert
Developer/Programmer
Search Engine Optimizer
Content Manager
Content Providers
Copy Writers
Usability Professionals
Analytics Experts
Animators
Multi-media Content Creators
Bloggers
Social media Experts
PR Professionals
Pay Per Click Experts
eCommerce Expert
Landing Page Experts
Database Experts
Legal
Link Manager
Link Bait Expert
IT/Hosting Department
Affiliate Marketing
Viral Marketing Expert
Brand Manager
Marketing Manager
Advertising Manager
Sales Manager
Email Expert

Naturally, the smaller the company or the budget the more consolidation of these roles and skill sets will be required. A typical small business site may have from one to three people involved in the design, programming, architecture, content creation, analytics and optimization, if they even address all these basic considerations. Which explains why the average site (actually about 94% of all web sites), perform very poorly in organic search results for their topics, and have low ROIs and low gross revenue.

It takes more expertise, education, skills and time commitment these days to compete in the highly competitive and very crowded world wide web, which I have read that Google recently crawled its one-billionth web site. I have also read from another web indexer who has indexed nearly 109 million sites. Either way, it's a lot of sites.

So now more than ever, a serious web development team needs to be lead by an integrated marketing professional who can organize and pull all the assets and skills together, and who also possesses a serious education in web design, analytics, user persona's, usability research, search optimization, conversion, and web marketing. And I can guarantee you its not the IT Department or your Web Designer.

These days a it takes a much broader understanding of all the variables and all the moving parts of an effective web site and eCommerce to integrate the various objectives and skill sets.

The Secret to Link Building

Creating inbound links to your site is a critical component of a good SEO strategy. Most experts agree that 75% of your sites search ranking on Google is based on the quantity of quality inbound links from reputable sites.

You absolutely MUST have an ongoing inbound link building strategy.

In addition to building links, you must also satisfy the Google spiders appetites for fresh keyword focused content on your site. About 25% of your Google search rankings come from your on-page HTML content, keywords, hyperlinks, site structure, navigation, and meta and title tags.

Which means that whether you are trying to build links or spider food, you need to be creating content. Content is king.

So if you want an optimized site that spiders and viewers alike will feed upon, follow these tips:

For link building, create content for wide distribution on the web that can link back to your site:
1. Create lots of interesting content frequently over a long period of time.
2. Place hyperlinks in keywords back to your site.
3. Distribute your content as fast, far and wide as possible.
4. Ask other sites to link to yours when appropriate.
5. Comment and participate on other blogs, tweets and forums.

Create Link Building Content that’s Interesting or Helpful for your Buyer Personas:
Blog posts
Editorials
Newsletters—current and archived
Podcasts
Videos
Photos
Articles about other companies
Product reviews
eBooks
Featured clients or vendors
Resource guide with links
PowerPoint Presentations
White papers
Surveys
Top 10 lists—funny, stupid, unique, smart
How to tips
News releases
Checklists
Emails that you turn into blog posts
Testimonials
Games
Contests
Glossary of terms

Content ideas for news releases or blog posts:New products or services
Research results
New clients
New locations or markets
New employees
New technology
Trade shows
New sponsorships
New applications
New pricing structure
Breakthroughs or benchmarks
Case studies
New publications
Speaking or teaching engagements
New vendors or suppliers
New promotions

Six Search Engine Friendly Navigation Tips

If you want to build a deep site that is rich in content, than you need to consider these SIX SEARCH ENGINE FRIENDLY NAVIGATION TIPS.

These navigation tips are both user and search spider friendly. User friendly because they offer a variety of navigation options in various locations within page, as well as provide a sense of place within the site.

Spider friendly because they are HTML text based links, which every search engine can read and index quickly and accurately. They also provide spider access to deep internal pages both vertically and horizontally.

Note: ALL text and headlines on your page should be HTML. Use text as graphics sparingly in images only. The more HTML text on the page the better. Google prefers 250 to 1,000 words per page on a single topic or theme. Focus on one to three keywords per page. 250 words for topic relevancy, and up to 1,000 because that's where it stops crawling/indexing the page.

So here are the SIX:

1. Place text links as secondary navigation at the bottom of every page.

2. Use breadcrumb links/navigation at the top of every page.

3. Place hypertext links embedded in the main body text. Best to use keywords as links to more content on the topic.

4. Provide text links to internal pages from: framesets, HTML site map, body text, HTML navigation at bottom of page.

5. Submit interior pages to search engines and directories to be indexed.

6. Provide and encourage links to interior pages from other sites, white papers, press releases, articles, blogs, twitter, Facebook and other social media channels.

These tips will help your site rank higher on organic searches and drive more traffic deep within your site where you have lots of great content waiting to be discovered.

Bing Rocks the Search World

I have been using Bing side-by-side with Goggle these past few days, testing and comparing each using the same search terms. And I must say, I llike the new Bing. It seems to serve more targeted, relevant and fresh content than Google. And it does so in a cleaner, crisper, more appealing SERP design.

But the biggest benefit to Bing, is the cool little mouse over that allows you to preview the main copy points of the web page before you click on it and waste 4 seconds waiting for a page to load to decide if it’s what you want. Try mousing over just to the right of the listing and see what I mean.

I ran an experiment to test my theory that Bing was serving up more current content than Google. I published a new site and URL 10 days ago. I did not submit it to any search engines or directories. Within 12 hours Bing had crawled, indexed and served up the site at the top of the SERP. To this day Google has yet to index the site.