We are not flooded and we are safe. My staff is safe. In 2003 I had a decision to make on where to put our servers and I opted for Atlanta. We had just had TS Allison and never lost service. Since then we have had Hurricane Ike and although my Houston web hosting support office worked for 3 weeks on a generator, we never lost service. And in 2017, as we are still going through Hurricane Harvey, we’ve never lost service. Atlanta still houses my servers and have taken the lead on things. And I have staff who took their laptops home and are working from their dry homes but surrounded by water. We are truly very fortunate. God continues to look out for us.
I keep running into businesses that do not have or need a social media/digital asset policy for their company and their office. I have been tasked by a new client to review the policies sent forth from the c-level and write a “social media policies for business” and then come in and present it to the employees. And I thought what a great idea for a blog post and later video.
Now the people who asked me to do this are a church, but as I stopped to think about this, there are so many different groups that need social media policies. And, management of these organizations needs to understand these policies, written by lawyers.
It seems that maybe LinkedIn has finally arrived. I know. I know that’s not the case, but I have had four people ask me how to optimize their profile just this week alone. Even at a business resource committee meeting we devoted a good 10 minutes discussing Bikini-clad LinkedIn profile pictures. So, I guess it’s time to put together a primer on how to fix your profile so you look like a superstar instead of a washed-up supermodel.
It’s been a busy start of a new year, with a lot of weirdness. I have met a few people that wanted to tell me SEO is dead. What they really mean is SEO is way too much work for them and requires way too many components to do it right. Of course, several of these people were selling impression-based advertising from long dead phone company directories trying to stay afloat, but I digress.
Happy day after the 4th of July. I am a little late in my day with the post because everyone who was off decided to write in with questions and it’s been a get caught up from all the people that also celebrated kinda day.
I received a question on Saturday as I was on my way to the beach that jumped out of my mailbox flashing the words blog post on it. The question went something like this. If you’re the SEO lady, what do you care what I do with my social media?
I think over the last 20 years, we have strayed away from a tenant of marketing 101. The website drifted out into its own space and got treated as a redheaded step child. That is no longer acceptable. And in 2016, all marketing efforts need to be well- coordinated and integrated. Google has demanded this to have ANY success ranking in their search engine. Let me say that again. Google basically requires an integrated marketing plan.
Every one of these items i vitally important for a site to rank well.
So why does the SEO lady care if the website closes deals; if the message is right; if the blog is pushed out through social channels; if the content is compelling and natural; if people click on your page? Because if these things are not done right and sending the right signals you do not have a ranking website. I have used this graphic for years to explain everything is necessary for good Search Engine Rankings Additionally, PPC is also dependent on appearance and conversion as well. Plus, having a good SEO presence helps shoppers at the top of the sales funnel to buy and use the PPC link for the brand they know and trust. Even traditional marketing in the form of TV, Print and Display ads support the overall health of the website and affect how well your website ranks. If all these things are not right the website will not rank.
Now let me say upfront, I suppose in lieu of doing things right you can employ black hat techniques and be forever chasing an algorithm or being one crazy zoo update away from being out of business. And I know people who do this and SEO companies that act in this way as well. More times than not, I’m asked to go in and clean up their craziness.
Why SEO and Social Media are conjoined and inseparable?
The word Conjoined is not often used in marketing. It’s a great word to use here because it really paints the right picture. We’ve all seen conjoined twins and in many cases when separated one of the twins flourishes and the other twin lags behind or worse. And so it goes with SEO and Social Media since the beginning of 2016.
Officially Google says that it is not dependent on the social networks for high ranking websites. But they don’t really put out statements on why things do or don’t rank, so take that with a grain of salt. But let’s look at this first Google is dependent on great content. And what happens when you have good content, people link to the great content. And how would people find the great content? If only there was a way to push that content out into the world.
Now theoretically people will make links to great articles they find. And those links are a vote. So when you think about the social networks, why wouldn’t you want those folks to count. It’s an army of people validating a website. So every great piece of content that goes up has the potential to send links and/or signals back to the website. So the social networks basically are sending endorsements or votes to your websites. If you don’t hook up and do this properly, the site is missing these signals and is not really an option any longer.
Next is tackling the need to build a large audience and become a social media influencer. Influencers definitely carry more weight. Influencers bring more traffic. More traffic is a signal to Google. And how does one become an influencer? Well, by writing great content of course.
Now one thing it takes to be an influencer is followers and what most will tell people in the know, say you should post at least 10 times a day. Now that for the normal small business is just not possible nor is there that much to say for most of them. Additionally the mistake I think most people make is they post other people’s stuff. So this morning I was watching a video by Eric Enge. And theoretically I could of/should have shared that on twitter with my comment. But who gets that credit. Eric Enge, not me or ACTWD. So as I say 10 things a day, it really doesn’t help the small business owner to post 10 links to 10 other websites.
But here’s what else you don’t want to do. Post silly stuff, just to post. I saw one guy years ago that would put up a spammy article on gondola shelves and then just go spam his social networks with them. So he and 3 of his friends would like the post and he would do this every day 30 times a day. This doesn’t help anything either.
You need to post a well written useful graphic or article, video, slide presentation and share that with great hashtags and make people want to like you or make sure they hear what you say on a daily basis. And once you get enough posts, start repurposing and reposting. You then begin to influence how things happen, how people perceive an industry or in my case I’m always teaching how not to be taken advantage of or how to run a website, from the front end Marketing side to the under the hood web hosting side.
Why Don’t Other People Have To Do This?
I hear this a lot from customers, and then they point to someone that is much larger than they are. And 9 times out of 10, it’s not right or not effective. I had a friend recently show me something on Exxon’s site. And asked me about how they could do what ever it was. Exxon for starters has 3.7 million links point to them from over 16,000 unique websites. This makes them have a lot of lead way. I have a custom tour operator that wanted to know why he couldn’t make his site like The Knot. The knot has 13.7 million link point to it and 53,000 unique domains. So they have a completely different set of rules than a local tour operator in Houston Texas. I did promise his wife though when we got as big as The Knot I would be happy to do what they wanted. Bottom line is the smaller you are the more things you have to do right within Google’s mind to overcome these large sites.
And even for me, I’m not a huge fish compared to a GoDaddy or Network Solutions. I have to work to get every link I can. Sure some of my customer link to us to say we run their sites, and that’s helpful. But when they are little guys with no power I often think their well meaning may hurt us. But I have a long way to get 38 million sites linking to me with 800,000.
So what does this all get me?
So remember I said that Google says that social is not a ranking variable. Let me tell you an antidotal story. Three months ago I went to PubCon in Austin and I love Pubcon, because I often walk away saying yes I knew all this but it adds a perspective. Also often there are nuggets buried in the talks that a sharp minded pro will identify and run with it.
When I came back home to Houston, I decided I was going to put full efforts into getting this blog running right and see what impact it had on the ranking of this website. Mind you this is a really old domain that I’ve taken care of it though the years. In fact I let it sit for about 10 years with just one-page links for our customers. So there was pretty well no traffic.
Since I’ve put this blog on the site and am writing it myself with my personality, quirky as it may be, we are now on the first page for some very coveted terms locally as well as some other terms nationally. The content on this blog and the social twitter interactions are driving this site. No doubt in my mind. I’ve gained only 4 links and none of them have been great ones. But I’ve gained followers, and people are interacting and voting on my posts and with all that going on my SERPs just keep rising.
So as with conjoined twins, website owners need to understand that separating SEO and Social will damage one side of the equation. And honestly, I think that if you were to separate Social and SEO, Social can be well developed and do well. SEO the job is far harder because you’re missing a huge component. Sites end up missing the link building that is needed and you begin missing the signals that allows google to know what your site is about. If you’re Exxon it doesn’t matter but if you’re a Business trying to go national, it’s simply something you should not be missing if you intend to do with driving traffic to your website.
I have been teaching Houston SEO for over a decade and I always said I would not do one particular thing. Well today I relented and I officially think this might be okay. So what did I do? I streamed my class live via Periscope.
I did it for a few reasons. But first let me tell you why I have been unwilling to stream previously. Students actually make the class. Each class is easily tailor my discussion to each of my participant. If I remove them from the class or try to interact with them via a scroll, I think the class will not flow as well. The content may not be as useable and the lessons not as valuable. We after all learn from each other. As sure as I’m sitting here people will start telling me hey can’t you just stream this so I attend at my own pace.
Besides all of that, people are funny. Those of you that have actually attended a class, know that almost every class a protagonist arises. Whether its Rich and his gym shorts and masking tape or Greg who argues just to argue, we have a diverse group of personalities that make things very lively and entertaining. I hate to do anything that may dampen that.
So why change now. Honestly today’s subject matter, I keep having to explain todays’ topic to clients. I figure this way i can park them in front of a video and them get the basics and then come back to me with questions. But I sat back and watched this, it opens up a host of possibilities for us.
So why did I choose Periscope instead of FaceBook Live. When I first told the Minions, Stuart Minion thought I was a little crazy. But after today, she said I did great and she loved the idea. I think she wants to be the moderator from here on out. Initially I was leaning towards Facebook but here is why I chose Periscope.
Periscope let me keep my video on my camera roll. For business that is super important. What that means is that I now can control that content after the fact and use those videos in 2-3 minute segments. From a purely business standpoint this makes sense and it is something that Facebook does not offer me. I want a copy of my own video that we can make work else where. I am a big believer in repurposing content in a way that best benefits us and this one sure does that. Also I didn’t want to have to pay Facebook for the honor of listing my stuff first. Very annoying.
I always say my customers make the absolute best blog ideas and the best training experiences for the minions. Case in point, one of our very old customers called me today to tell me that their site isn’t ranking any longer and wanted to know why. Now they on and off had employed us to do SEO, at least two tours of duty on this site. I think the last time we touched the site was maybe in 2011. And we all know how much time had passed and how rapidly Google continues to evolve.
As I like to say, SEO is no longer a stand-alone event. And, I really don’t think you can do ‘just’ SEO any more. The proper term is Digital Marketing. I will keep saying it. But for someone calling on the phone to look at a site that hasn’t been properly maintained in about half a decade, how do you encapsulate that?
So I put together a list that may offer some solutions. Understand that this is written for a site that used to rank but doesn’t any longer, so it assumes there is proper title tags.
#1 Content
Well, of course, you had to know this was going to be my first item. But, it’s not sufficient to just say add content any more to a website. It has to actually be good content, written properly, and not just keyword focused. I know many of my old timers heard about keywords and adding keywords. And, why keywords are important, but I’ve had to adjust that over time. Just like the writing you see here. I dare to say none of it has been keyword oriented, but more thematic and helpful.
To my mind, this is how you pick up links properly. It also is a great way to build engagement and get people clicking on your site.
#2. Google Analytics
Yes, this may be a little of an odd thing to put on this list, but you would be surprised how long-time site owners still do not have Google Analytics on their website. The old log file readers like AWStat and Webalizer just don’t go far enough anymore to make a reasonable guess at what really is happening with your website.
If someone asked me now, I would not say I was overly concerned with the pure number of visits, and I’m more concerned with how those folks got there and what is the intent of the user. Am I meeting the needs of the user, and are they doing what I want them to do, like buying or contacting me? I can’t adjust pages people are landing on if I don’t understand. And if I don’t have my conversions set up, I’m not able to track the success or deficiencies of my website.
Overall I don’t see how it would be conceivably possible to run a website without Google Analytics at this point in time.
#3 House Keeping
I know, another very odd duck to see on a list, but if you don’t keep up with the security of your website, you may just find out that people are exploiting it. That can happen from various directions, but it’s incumbent on the customer, not the web host to patch WordPress installs. I can’t tell you how many times people call me to tell me their website isn’t working, and it’s because they have not patched a plugin or WordPress core.
Lots of bad things happen when you don’t keep your site up to date. And that just doesn’t go for WordPress. Magento has a bad record, and Joomla, we tell people yes we will host it, but you are on your own because of how insecure it is.
The problem with not monitoring or maintaining your website properly is that as things happen to it that you are unaware of, the site becomes damaged. Just like house neglect is never a good thing.
#4. Webmaster Tools aka Search Console
Why they changed the name has yet to be made apparent, but if you do not have a webmaster tools account set up, set it up. It tells you all sorts of neat stuff about your website, so when you’re wondering why it is not ranking, it will help you understand if the site is hacked, or if the site has bad quality because 404s are not handled right. Often it can help you find improper use of 301s and 302s. Frankly 302s are devastating and should NEVER be used, and someday I will address that too. It also will help you make a list of links and then allow you the opportunity disavow bad links (which is the next topic). Also, make sure you set up proper sitemaps in WMT.
#5 Links
Not keeping up with your once-ranking website also may be caused by bad links. We now live in a world where links can hurt you just as much as they can help you. Here we audit our sites constantly to unearth bad sites linking to us. It’s not easy, however, it needs to be at least checked. If you see a bunch of Chinese sites linking to you and you have no business in China, it’s a safe bet there is an issue with either bad link building, bad webmaster or neglect.
#6 Bad Webmasters
Yes, bad or incompetent webmasters can really screw up a site. As I was talking to the minions on this topic, Christina minion said to me this is why you tell us ‘know who you’re getting into bed with.’ Yes, that is the exact reason that you don’t just trust your website to anyone. Understanding how to run a website and understanding how to care for a ranking website is often an art form. Unless your webmaster has extensive tech skills and understands how to structure and work on a ranking site, they can do a lot of damage.
I admit this is one of those things that rub me the wrong way. If you don’t think our company is the right company for you, we are fine with that, but more times than not I have the new, less qualified and often cheaper webmaster standing on my doorstep asking me how to perform the job they were hired to do. If you find yourself in that position, it probably means you have the wrong person for the job.
Bad web designers are very hard to spot. But they are lethal to a website.
#7 Social Media
So this person that called me yesterday asking why her site wasn’t ranking anymore, and telling me how she hired a PR Firm to do her content also hasn’t posted one single item since 2014. For the seasoned Digital Marketing pro, you may have rolled your eyes. For the rest of you, social media is imperative, and far too often social is not done properly or overlooked.
I admit that I’m not a social person. I could sit in a house by myself for hours and read or play video games and not interact with another human and be perfectly happy. But when it comes to the health of my website, what I know is that I can no longer ignore social media, and I’ve been really pushing Twitter in my Houston SEO classes. Yes, I typed that right. In fact, I have a 2-hour seminar next week that explains how to do social properly. Gratuitously, you can see our class schedule here.
#8 Blogging
Yeah, so this has now changed. Blogging for SEO used to be way different, but now, to have a sustainable site, it is not possible to avoid this or not do it right any longer. One blog every 6 months really isn’t going to cut it, but neither are BS blogs that just reiterate a keyword, which is how we used to teach blogging.
Now blogging must be real. Blogging must be authentic, and it must be relevant. I used to prescribe to a short and punchy blog, but now, if you have something to say, say it. For example, this post is at 1336 words right this second. It is not set in stone, and there are some time considerations with this post, so it’s not an article. It’s also got my opinion throughout it.
When I teach I often say the blog is like the op-ed page of the newspaper or your website. It lets your readers see how you think and how knowledgeable you are. You know those bad web designers, they could never have a blog like this, one reason is because they don’t know enough.
#9 Old Brown Sweater
One last reason to have issues is not to have a modern web design. Old date websites telegraph bad things to your end users. This will lower your engagement and really stop people from doing business with you. Millenials are particularly suseptible to this.
So, 1518 word story short, if you are not actively working on your website daily, or at minimum weekly; if you are not doing the things outlined here in their totality and every facet then you are at a severe deficit, and if your site ranks it’s probably a fluke or a niche in the modern age.
I still see so many businesses that don’t understand what they are suppose to do with social media and why it doesn’t work for them. I think some of it is that some of the social media managers don’t understand that there is a value to the website or how this should integrate. As I type this integrated seems to be the word that keeps getting over looked.
#1 Inconsistent and Disjoined Messaging
I saw one go by today that inspired me. The first thing was the image was counter intuitive to the Facebook page. Being disjoined in messaging only confuses your end user. So here was this Facebook post with a few random hash tags, one of which was the business name and a few ‘likes’ for the image but nothing that actually tied this back to the business. You could not tell what the picture was or how it related to the site or the hashtags posted with it.
Additionally, the graphic had a quote on it that was not right. The person quoted although a famous person, had absolutely zero to do with the business. If quoting someone, I would pick someone that was related to what i was doing. So for me I might quote Steve Jobs, not Elon Musk, although I might gratuitously add him to this post to newsjack the post. This type mistake is far too common.
#2 Non Existant Branding
The next thing with this graphic is was the logo was profoundly small and hard to identify. Therefore there was no tie back to the brand. And by not using the brand properly, the end user at a glance gave no one an idea of what the website is about. And speaking of the website there was no mention of the website. And again, this too is a common mistake. Especially from social media managers that have limited experience or younger. The artwork is great, but having no brand and no website reference. Its just ‘cool.’ If this did by some chance go viral, it would not benefit the business. Infact, instead of warm inviting pictures that personalized the brand, conversely there were no smiling faces enjoying the product.
#3 Forget the Cool – Help People Understand
It just continues to be apparent that many businesses have no clue how to harness social to help support their business, build a brand and rank. They don’t understand the level of integration that is needed and how there has to be reciprocity and that the viewer or participant has to understand what the graphic has to do with the business in seconds especially when you aren’t offering any written perspective.
So the picture may be cool but if viewers can’t identify how that picture is related to your business in a split second, they are moving right past it. Picking the wrong picture or doing things in a cool factor that gives no nod to helping customers understand kills engagement and therefore will kill rankings.
#4 Correct Your Click
Often links are not passed back in a way the end user thought they would be. When posting to social with a buy now link, it would be a good habit to get into to actually send it to to the website where they could buy now. Additionally, if you make the transition from the social platform to your site too difficult you end up losing users there too. These are all things that damage your credibility and stop people from interacting with you in the future. Be clear, concise and trustworthy in all the places you take your end user, or risk losing them for good.
Just remember keeping your social integrated into your brand strategy is imperative for success. Keeping is isolated or treating it as a second class citizen is a real restrictor to digital success.
Yeah yeah I’m from Jersey and you all know it! And no one says Joisey, so we need to debunk that while I’m thinking of it.
But seriously, do you know who your talking to on social media. I don’t mean like do you know the person, but more do you know the audience your trying to go after and what the right social media platform is for your post?
I think this is part of the confusion of what to do with Social Media. You all know I hate the gratuitous Dilbert hates his job, Facebook meme. If you hate your job get a new one is my theory. But it lead to the pix at the right, what exactly are the right places to be posting and why.
So in class I asked this question ad as you can see in my basic drawing it sort of classifies things, to give a perspective.
The first thing you need to understand is who your client is and answer that question. What I mean is are you B2B, B2C maybe your both, like we are. And then how do I reach out to those folks.
I often wonder if people know who their customers are. Or who they want their customers to be. I think about that every day. I have a genuine part of my personality that wants to help people. But I want clients who understand how much extra you true get by using our web hosting services. Yes sometimes its intangible. I love our customer that sends in and ask me why their Facebook scroll isn’t working right. It tells me that they value our opinion. I love saying the sentence, we are a little odd, all of our hosting accounts are protected via our firewall. You don’t actually have to ask us for this. I truly know who my clients are and how best to help them. Everyone should put this level of thought into their client base.
So what that means is that I’ve had to sit down and really think about what I wanted to do with social media. Where were we going to be most effective. I think Twitter first and foremost because of the seer number of SEO professionals and web designers. It was a great place for us to interact with peers. I also think we have a great home on Google+ for similar reasons. So this is where I put a bulk of my effort. I also think we are effective on LinkedIn, so when I think about it, I’ll go post there as well.
I hesitate to even address Facebook in this post, but I hope I’ve painted a clear picture of how to decipher your audience. It’s an integral cog in having a successful Social Media strategy.
Happy June everyone! We are less than 100 days until football season! It also means we are approaching the half-way pole to the year and I’m always looking to see how I did on those resolutions and if they have helped. So as I was sitting thinking about this i saw a tweet go by that had the gist of don’t build your content on social media, but use your blog.
This one simple tweet said something that really summed up what I’ve been stressing in my SEO Classes here in Houston since the first part of the year. I told the class that I had made a resolution to start posting on my blog more and actually having me be the blogger. My feeling is no one can blog about your business as good as you can. And to date, I’m full of ideas and have about 30 some topics sitting on a trello board incase I get writers block some day, doubtful as that might be.
Also, I saw a post from the #socialchat people that said most CEO’s think they are cool to have a twitter account but don’t know what to do with it. And although I do agree that I am pretty cool, I definitely see the value to my Twitter account and it has nothing to do with rants about world politics or the state of my beloved Texans/Yankees. I think the problem is bigger that most don’t know how to use it to reach their customs and many haven’t even defined who their customers are.
Both of these tweets sum up how and why you should be blogging and tweeting. and how to do it. But being it may be a little obscure to the untrained eye let me try to add some perspective to this. First and foremost, I know who our clients are. They are people just like us, small to mid-sized business that needed someone to give them honest answers. In the early days, they would call me on the phone and I would help them with everything from how to build the site to how to incorporate their companies.. They still send in questions to my support desk that often more seeking my opinion. In fact this weekend I got an email asking me about Trademark Law, so after I disclaimed the fact that I am not a lawyer and one should consulted, I offered my opinion as an answer. This is our ideal customer and its this group that my Blog is aimed at.
Now where else I see is this, “Hey Beth, I read a post and tweeted it” Or, I write my stuff on linkedin directly. The problem is a pretty basic one. If you share, tweet or post on a social media platform, how does this help your business. I love when I say this to a room of people and I see the lights come on.
So when I want to write my opinion on something, I sit down and use my blog for what it was intended for. It’s place to showcase how our company thinks and how much we really do know. We’re like having a friend in the business and I never want to lose that feel about our company. But the most important thing is when I put it on my own website it stays mine. The other byproduct of this is that as the social landscape continues to shift, my content is safely on my site for me to push out though social any way I see fit. Follow this one simple rule and you will have a solid foundation to move in what ever way the digital wind blows next
It’s been a busy start of a new year, with a lot of weirdness. I have met a few people that wanted to tell me SEO is dead. What they really mean is SEO is way too much work for them and requires way too many components to do it right. Of course, several of these people were selling impression-based advertising from long dead phone company directories trying to stay afloat, but I digress. 
But seriously, do you know who your talking to on social media. I don’t mean like do you know the person, but more do you know the audience your trying to go after and what the right social media platform is for your post?