Time for the next article in our series 5 ways to leverage “Analog” SEO (A-SEO)  lets check out strategy #4!

Many today think the printed page is dead, and although its waning its still has huge potential to benefit your business. Physical magazine articles and newspapers about your brand give an immediate boost to your legitimacy and acts as powerful “social proof”.  Thats why  (A-SEO) Strategy #4 is…

Get press

“That’s great but I don’t have the budget” you may be thinking. Well not to worry!  In this post we are going to discuss ways to get free press that will boost your brand and your websites traffic. I recently attended a seminar by Melanie Duncan a very successful online E-commerce entrepreneur and free press guru where she shared some amazing tips for getting free press that I will share with you right now in this post.

Melanie Duncan free press tip#1 “Invest in your images”:

She brought out that if you already have fantastic professional images of yourself, your products etc you have a far greater likelihood of getting accepted for press.  One of the main reasons is that you are making things so much easier for the publication. You already have great images they can use and for a busy editor that could mean the difference between choosing you over someone else.  Not only that, many publications go to the net to find people and brands to write about, so if you have great images on your website that will make you far more attractive as a possible story.

Melanie Duncan free press tip#2 “Write a great pitch”:

Writing to publications can be very intimidating, and truthfully these people get thousands of submission.  On the bright side always remember that they NEED to produce stories all the time.  So if you can make their life easier by giving them one then they will be more likely to accept you.  How can you write a killer pitch email?  Let me share with you Melanies formula.

Time for the next article in our series 5 ways to leverage “Analog” SEO (A-SEO)  In this post we will be talking about a third “Analog SEO” (A-SEO) strategies that can help you promote traffic to your website or blog

We humans are social creatures,  that’s just a fact of nature.  We generally care about what other people think and we also care about having something others don’t.  We want to be cool,  we want to feel special.  We want this not just because we want to feel good about ourselves but because it also gives us a sense of “community”.  This feeling of “community” is served very well by social media and this is why so many businesses are focusing on Facebook, twitter etc. Creating “community” is a buzz word now in marketing circles. Now community is one thing, but exclusivity is something that is hard to achieve with social media alone. And yet its this sense of exclusivity that can have a profound effect on what us humans desire. Therefore “ASEO” strategy # 3 is to …

Create a Members club.

Now when I say “club” I don’t mean the bashing kind. I mean a forming a group of people centered around a particular interest. This interest should be you, your brand or your product.  Now a “club” generally isn’t available to everyone, you have to be admitted. This is what gives people a feeling of “exclusivity” and makes them feel special. Exclusive clubs generally have some special benefits that come from being a member that no-one else has. This “membership strategy” is’nt new. Websites offer membership all the time. The thing is more and more people are used to that.  Signing up for something that simply advertises to them all the time doesn’t make people feel special or more them to action. You need to make it deeper than just a glorified online account/newsletter. And that is where the “Analog” or “offline” aspect of this strategy comes in to play.

Here are some ways you can make your users or clients into a “club” that gives them a sense of exclusivity.

The secret powers of the “membership card”

Im all for going digital,  but when you cross the divide and give them something physical, something they can touch and see and carry around in their wallet, it has a much stronger emotional response.  It makes the club seem more real. This is why a company like Costco still gives its members a physical card rather than just having members state an email or phone number to the clerk when you check out. They even have a “bouncer” at the door to keep out all those “pathetic non-members”. Cards are also more likely to keep your brand “top of mind”, especially if the person is moved to put it in their wallet or purse. 

How can you help ensure clients hold on to their card?  Have a number on it and then have special gifts or promotions for people that have a specific number or a group of members who have a specific series of numbers on their card. If they throw it out, they might miss out!  You don’t have to wait for them to sign up either.  Do credit cards wait for you to sign up with them before they mail you a card?  No, they simply email it to you an ask you to “activate it”.  If you don’t cut up the card and throw it out right away, every time you see it your reminded you should “sign up”.  Don’t underestimate the power of the membership card!

Get out the velvet rope and hold “members only” events

This works especially for businesses that have  a local focus. Could you have a BBQ, golf-tournament, toy-swap, mini putt tournament etc exclusively for your “club members”?  The effects of this can be very powerful.  Not only does it make your club more real and exclusive, it also gives your clients and members a chance to connect with each other and even become friends. Do you think if a friendship is forged because of your brand that the loyalty of both members wont be strengthened? Also think of how many will  see the event advertised and actually take place. Don’t you think it will pique their curiosity.  If there’s one things I think we can all agree on its that people like to have what other people have that they don’t.   This ” keeping up with the Jones’ ” effect can be a strong force in favor of your brand.

The sky is the limit!

Special promotions, gifts, contests, all of the usual marketing strategies that come to mind can be implemented along with this strategy.   There are so many ways this “club” strategy can be leveraged and made into a powerful tool for creating a “community” around your brand while at the same time marketing your brand desirable to potential customers.  Keep checking in, I have a feeling I will be posting more in depth about this “club” strategy in the future!

Stay tuned for another great A-SEO strategy #4 in my next post.

Welcome back to our series 5 ways to leverage “Analog” SEO (A-SEO)

In this post we will be talking about another of our offline “Analog SEO” (A-SEO) strategies that can help to give your site and online brand in general an edge. Not just in search rank but also in other ways as well.

Strategy #2  Optimize Via Local Groups and Institutions

Now at first this may seem a pretty standard networking strategy. But things change when you start thinking about these groups as an “optimizing opportunity” for your digital marketing.  First of all joining your local Business Bureau or Chamber of commerce usually results in them listing your site on their web page ( kaa-ching! back-link).  This obviously helps your SEO as many of these organizations have a higher credibility score and Page Rank than most.  (For example our local BBB currently has a page rank of 6!!) But it doesn’t have to stop there. If you have a site or blog that is producing high quality content why not start writing some subjects that include that local organization and its interests?  Better yet if you tweet the article at them or share it with them along with your followers/friends your work may be highlighted on their site. Or you may even be asked to guest blog for them. Once again this can result in more high quality back-links not counting the general exposure it will give you and your brand.  

Combine strategies

If you have the ability to get a bit more involved with the group you may also find that  if you keep your eyes and ears open you will be able to find opportunities to do public speaking  at events and seminars. This in turn would allow you to implement the first A-SEO strategy we discussed in our previous post!  Also don’t forget libraries and schools.  Many of these institutions maintain resource lists which if applicable may list your website as a resource once again resulting in some seriously powerful back-links.

Get on their social radar

If your a member you are much more likely to get onto their social radar. if you are tweeting, liking and interacting with them on social media regularly you will not only boost your relationship wit them but they may be more inclined to re-share your posts, tweets etc.  These groups usually have many many members so getting promoted shared by them can really increase your social reach.

Twofold benefits

Beyond site optimization these groups can be excellent places to do standard person to person networking.  All in all this is a great strategy to implement. Take time to think about how you could implement this strategy.  Sit down with your digital media manager or agency and see how you could make the most of this innovative A-SEO strategy.

When we think of SEO we traditionally think of the digital a lot more than the physical. We tend to think In terms of technical terminology and ways to create useful and high quality digital content. However SEO strategies can also go beyond the computer screen. In the next series of posts I am going to share with you some what we call “A-SEO” (Analog SEO) strategies we live to use that can give your traditional SEO ( which are still vital) an edge over the traditionalists who just want to hide behind a screen. 

Strategy #1. Leverage Public speaking

Public speaking at conferences, seminars, local networking groups, schools or anywhere you can get in front of a decent sized group is a great way to boost your online profile. “How on earth could that boost my SEO?” you might ask. Well speaking alone doesn’t really help. It’s speaking with a plan and proper preparation that will really make this work. 

Make the seminar interactive

interactivity a KEY way to make your speeches affect your site or blog. 
Nowadays more than 70% (source) of Americans  carry a smartphone. What if we could take advantage of that fact to boost your sites profile? Could you post your key notes on your blog or website, or maybe some infographics so that those in the audience can check them out during your speech? This drives a large number of people to your site maybe even helping them to discover it for the first time. And not only that, now their browser will remember your site for future use. What if you direct them to useful tools on your website and then have them utilize these tools during your discourse so that they can see the benefits of using these tools and will have them top of mind for future use? 

What about leveraging social networking interaction? Could you have prizes or giveaways that you can give the audience if they like you on facebook or retweet your keynotes during the seminar? Could you have useful charts on your website that you could get the audience to bookmark for future reference? 

Hold back a bit of the juicy stuff

One key to remember is to always strive to make your speeches lively and extremely useful. Tell them some tips or secrets they have never heard before. Maybe even pack your tips into cool easy to remember acronyms or sayings so that they really stand out. But heres the key; Hold back a secret or two and make it available on your site or blog. Better yet have them sign up as a user to access those extra bonus tips. If they’re loving your advice don’t you think they will go home and read some more thereby boosting your traffic and in turn Search rank?

Seminars typically allow you to network. If you really gave the audience value, and then you ask them to their face to follow you on twitter G+ or Facebook don’t you think they will be more inclined to do so? Does social media interaction boost your sites SEO? Absolutely! 

These are just a couple ways to use public speaking as an A-SEO strategy. I will go into more ways to effectively work this strategy in the future. 

stay tuned for my next post which will discuss my Analog SEO strategy #2.

Buffer

One of the things I keep seeing over and over when we first analyze our realtor clients websites is that they are typically WAY to cluttered.  So many times realtors are so worried about SEO and getting to the top of Google that they fail to think of the user experience on their site.

I’ve seen realtors work vigorously to get to the first page of Google by hiring SEO consultants, blogging like crazy, working hard to network and get back links but then fail to consider the experience of the user once they reach their site!  Think about it, all that time and money to boost their page rank is rendered useless if users come to your site only to be bombarded by poor or confusing layouts, an overload of pointless images, widgets, and random un-targeted listings which causes them to become frustrated and click “back” to go to one of your competitors sites, never to return again.

Users are searching for your keywords for one reason, they are looking for specific information.  Whether that be information on houses in a particular area, tips on buying a home in Coquitlam, the availability of condos in a specific building or whatever.  Regardless of the information they seek, you want to make sure that your site is truly helping them find that information rather than distracting or hindering them with a cluttered site.

We have a philosophy we have coined around here we call “choptimization”  whereby we optimize pages by “cutting the fat” so to speak.  It can be tempting in SEO to just cram a site with “excess baggage” in the hopes that someone will stumble upon the keywords you have stirred into the mix.  And although at times that strategy can have some effect on search ranking remember that  Googles goal is not an internet of cluttered useless pages. Google wants people to find what will benefit them, and they want them to find it fast! Google gets smarter and smarter every day so why not “clean house” and take a good hard look at your sites design from the standpoint of a user who is looking for information your site can provide.  Ask yourself, “would it be easy for someone to find the information they seek on your site if they have never been there before?” 

Here are 4 quick tips to help you analyze your sites usability.

1. Have a relative or close friend who is not very internet savvy visit your site and then ask their thoughts on how easy it was to find what they were looking for.

2. Look at other non-real estate oriented sites that people use regularly to look up info or shop (ie. amazon, Ebay etc) and analyze how they make their site fast and usable while still promoting their brand.

3. Ask followers on facebook and twitter to give an honest “no holds barred” opinion on the usability of your site.

4. Ask your web designer to give you their opinion and then take that information and compare it to what others have also said about your site.

Don’t get so caught up in the look of your site or on standard SEO techniques (although they are both still important) that you fail to make your website useful.  And guess what? If someone uses your site and it was a great experience, then they will return and use it again, and again and again.  They will spend more time on your site per visit.  They will recommend your website to others. They will post it on their facebook and tweet about it. And interestingly enough all of these things will boost your search ranking!
So lets do some Spring cleaning,  lets “choptimize” your site!

Joel Fricke

Executive Strategist

Fireworx.ca

One of the things I keep seeing over and over when we first analyze our realtor clients websites is that they are typically WAY to cluttered.  So many times realtors are so worried about SEO and getting to the top of Google that they fail to think of the user experience on their site.

I’ve seen realtors work vigorously to get to the first page of Google by hiring SEO consultants, blogging like crazy, working hard to network and get back links but then fail to consider the experience of the user once they reach their site!  Think about it, all that time and money to boost their page rank is rendered useless if users come to your site only to be bombarded by poor or confusing layouts, an overload of pointless images, widgets, and random un-targeted listings which causes them to become frustrated and click “back” to go to one of your competitors sites, never to return again.

Users are searching for your keywords for one reason, they are looking for specific information.  Whether that be information on houses in a particular area, tips on buying a home in Coquitlam, the availability of condos in a specific building or whatever.  Regardless of the information they seek, you want to make sure that your site is truly helping them find that information rather than distracting or hindering them with a cluttered site.

We have a philosophy we have coined around here we call “choptimization”  whereby we optimize pages by “cutting the fat” so to speak.  It can be tempting in SEO to just cram a site with “excess baggage” in the hopes that someone will stumble upon the keywords you have stirred into the mix.  And although at times that strategy can have some effect on search ranking remember that  Googles goal is not an internet of cluttered useless pages. Google wants people to find what will benefit them, and they want them to find it fast! Google gets smarter and smarter every day so why not “clean house” and take a good hard look at your sites design from the standpoint of a user who is looking for information your site can provide.  Ask yourself, “would it be easy for someone to find the information they seek on your site if they have never been there before?” 

Here are 4 quick tips to help you analyze your sites usability.

1. Have a relative or close friend who is not very internet savvy visit your site and then ask their thoughts on how easy it was to find what they were looking for.

2. Look at other non-real estate oriented sites that people use regularly to look up info or shop (ie. amazon, Ebay etc) and analyze how they make their site fast and usable while still promoting their brand.

3. Ask followers on facebook and twitter to give an honest “no holds barred” opinion on the usability of your site.

4. Ask your web designer to give you their opinion and then take that information and compare it to what others have also said about your site.

Don’t get so caught up in the look of your site or on standard SEO techniques (although they are both still important) that you fail to make your website useful.  And guess what? If someone uses your site and it was a great experience, then they will return and use it again, and again and again.  They will spend more time on your site per visit.  They will recommend your website to others. They will post it on their facebook and tweet about it. And interestingly enough all of these things will boost your search ranking!
So lets do some Spring cleaning,  lets “choptimize” your site!

Joel Fricke

Executive Strategist

Fireworx.ca