The Maine SEO Blog

Yesterday, Rich and I did a speaking engagement for the Great Bay Foundation – an organization which supports nonprofit social enterprises; in other words, social entrepreneurs. Before our over arching sessions on all things Web marketing, Laura Quinn of Idealware spoke about some other technical gadgets used for nonprofits for email, constituent data, and collaboration.

While at flyte we talk about a lot about web marketing for corporations, the fact of the matter is many business laws and best practices are the same for nonprofit organizations. You’ll find the slideshare presentations below for Web Design & SEO, Blogging, and Social Media.

For many of these small organizations, the day was a lot to handle; and yet, and invariable pupu platter of technical needs they will soon be able to use to satisfy their organizational needs. [Remember: do what's right for you.]

Web Design, Usability, and SEO

Blogging

Social Media

Recently, I blogged about a session at Social Media FTW (Search Engine Optimization and Social Media). In it, my boss, Rich Brooks, gave a great analogy for incoming links. I didn’t share it then since I wanted to give it its own special place…because I think it’s that powerful.

The analogy

Let’s say you’re visiting Chicago; so naturally you ask 10 friends what restaurant to go to while you’re there (as opposed to Googling it. You’re smart, you want recommendations.) 7 friends suggest Restaurant A, 3 suggest Restaurant B. All things being equal, you’re going with Restaurant A.

That is, of course, until you realize that those 3 friends are Chicago natives and the group of 7 are tourists, just like you. The 3 friends might even tell you “Tourists say Restaurant B, because they don’t know about A”. Then things change – the 3 friends have established their expertise now, and you’re on your way to B for some fine dining.

The same rule applies for Link Building

More links may be pointing to Website A than Website B. At first glance, that might mean that search engines would give more “value” to Website A (all other things being equal)…

But just like our restaurant scenario, things aren’t always as they appear. You see, as far as search engines are concerned, quality incoming links matter – not quantity. Sorry, A.

What’s the takeaway?

Sure, try to get out there and get all the incoming links you can. But the low hanging fruit won’t help you in the long term. Shoot for attaining links from those high quality websites that will help you establish your expertise.

Nicki Hicks
Visual Learner

Thanks for all the photos.

This week, I gave two presentations (or rather, the same presentation, twice) for a senior Business Seminar class at Saint Joseph’s College. Though it’s always nice going back to my alma mater, more so than usual, I feel for the senior class.

A year and a half ago, it was easier to find a job. Obviously, it took some work, but it’s nowhere near the type of competitive environment these soon-to-be grads face in the next 6 months of their job search. So how are you supposed to differentiate yourself in such an atmosphere? Why, with social media, of course!

The full presentation is in Slideshare below, but here are some of the key points:

• On Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter already? Great…now go in and clean up and fill out your profiles. Not on them? Join! (Note: only join Twitter if you can devote the time to it.)
• The next step: go above and beyond. Engage people by friending/fanning, following, and connecting with the right people and groups.
• Jobs in ME/VT/NH and many of your other favorite job listing sites have a presence on all of the major social media networks. Why go to their website everyday when you can engage them via Twitter? or Facebook? or even an RSS feed?
• A really neat find: when I was doing research for the presentation, I stumbled upon some video resumes on YouTube – what better way to add depth to your resume? But be careful – you have to do your video resume the right way; check out the presentation for tips and tricks for YouTube!

SEOQuake

I’ve been using the SEOQuake toolbar for a while now. It’s a gem for any search geek: the ability to quickly see statistics in the search results, from PageRank to indexed pages in Google v. Bing, from incoming links to Alexa rank.

You can also dig a little deeper by getting more information about the site you’re currently visiting; which is a nice one-stop shop for getting any of your basic need-to-know information for client statistics. Here’s a screen capture of what that looks like:

Aside from the SEOQuake Toolbar, the SEOQuake Toolbar also has two products for statistics: SEOPivot and SemRush.

SEOPivot

SEOPivot is essentially designed to show you the potential of ranking for certain keywords for particular pages on your website. For example, a post I did on GetListed.org and Local Search currently ranks #152 for “live local search”, a search term with a potential volume of 1,362 visitors if the post were ranking #1.

SEOPivot reminds me a lot of Google Webmaster Tools’ top search queries. Here are Maine SEO’s top 10 queries in Webmaster Tools:

Very similar, but I will say that SEOPivot offers two added benefits above and beyond Webmaster Tools’ top search queries.

1. The potential traffic you could receive if you were #1. While it isn’t a perfect number, it is interesting if nothing else.
2. More importantly, the average search volume. How many people are searching for this keyword a month? (In other words, is it even worth trying to optimize for?

All in all, SEOPivot will give you some interesting information about where your pages could rank – and you can query 10 websites a day for free, with 5 keywords per site. Want more than that? You’ll have to pay a little.

SemRush

The other SEOQuake tool, SemRush, gives a little more insight. Like SEOPivot, you are still served up keywords from your site, where they currently rank, search volume, and the URL. The benefit here comes in the form of some really great AdWords data, should you be using it, including CPC and competition.

Like SEOPivot, you can get several free reports, but have to pay if you want more than that.

All in all…

SEOQuake remains my favorite, although if you want some interesting statistics about where some of your keywords stand (sometimes keywords you never even thought to rank for), SEOPivot and/or SemRush are for you!

Nicki Hicks
SEO Tool Afficiando

When’s the last time you revamped the copy on your website?

The leaves are in the midst of falling, and now might be the perfect time to rework your website a little.

It’s about the title

It’ll be the first place any SEO suggests adding your best keywords, the title is the easiest way to increase your search engine visibility. If you don’t want to (or need to) do a lot of copyediting, this might be the perfect place to start. For some ideas, you might want to head over to Google Insights or Trends for what’s hot right now.

Content

When it comes to the copy on your pages, you know your business far better than anyone else could imagine to. However, the point is to see your company through the eyes of your customers. Optimize for the keywords they’re searching for. Do you come up in a Google search for the right queries? Move through the site like they do. Is it easy to navigate? Think like your customer.

‘Tis the season

You might need a change simply due to the nature of your business. Do you notice your customer flow changes seasonally? If you run a lodging or hotel business, the answer is obvious; but for other companies it might be more subtle. Update your copy accordingly.

Blogging makes it easy

This is where a blog comes in handy. Even if you do have a blog, you should still spice up your copy and titles every so often. But with a hot topic or news, you won’t have to as often. Just blog about it! That post has the ability to rank (just make sure you funnel people from your blog to your website).

Give it a facelift

There’s no need to update every page on your website, but maybe a facelift here and there – starting with the homepage – could really do some good! Search engines love fresh, unique content. Then again, maybe your copy is perfect the way it is. Either way, pay it a visit every once and again and just read it through. Make sure everything is still accurate and up-to-date.

Nicki Hicks
Content is the Spice of Life

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