In a nutshell, #SEODJWed is a group of SEOs from around the world with a wide range of musical tastes, each sending out links to music they enjoy, or have been asked to play… and it happens on Wednesday.  It’s been dubbed “Social DJing”, I just call it fun.  It’s the way radio ought to be, great music, an occasional interesting story and no commercials.  It’s defiantly NOT your parents’ radio.

To find out more about what it is and how it got started, I did an email interview with some of the frequent contributors.  I sent questions to Monica Wright (@MonicaWright), Tony Verre (@TonyVerre) and Steve Plunkett (Steve does his DJing as @djpaisley), and since I recently started pitching in, I figured I provide my own answers as well – that doesn’t make me crazy, right?

How did #SEODJWed get started?

Monica Wright is credited with creating the concept (before it got the hashtag), so I asked her how it got started.

Monica Wright:
It started really back this winter – one day I noticed Branko Rihtman (@neyne) was pushing out music via Grooveshark and not blip.fm, so I got on and we started sharing music pretty regularly. Then one day I threw it out on Twitter and asked if people wanted to hear Led Zeppelin or More Americana / AAA format music (The Doves, Conner Oburst, Hot Tuna, that sort of thing) and got a resounding response for Led Zeppelin. People started making requests, I started sending out tributes, and then next thing you know Tony Verre gave it the hashtag of #seodjwed. The following Wednesday Tony and I chatted about what we were going to play, and it went from there.

I’ve talked about music quite a bit with @djpaisley, @netmeg, @michellerobbins and Tony, so they were all part of the group. Contributors now just happen – you Jack started contributing – and I recall Branko doing an 8o’s stint once this spring. Now Steve Plunkett, and @melyssatweeting have joined in as well. Tony has been the most consistent, though. I try to take part, but most of my meetings happen on Wednesdays while in the office.

But the magic is that it just happened. Nobody really “owns” it, nobody is territorial, and anything goes. And it’s not just playing the music, people actually listen and make requests, share lyrics, you name it.

There was a subtle thing that happened at SMX Advanced this year… Chris Sherman asked attendees in advance what they want to listen to. I suggested a few songs, ones I actually really got into from #seodjwed. While at the meet and greet before the conference I heard one of the very random (and not well-known at all) songs I requested. Of course I pulled out my phone, DM’d Branko, “Holy crap they are playing PlayRadioPlay!”

And it wasn’t even a Wednesday.

How do you share music with Twitter?

There are a several different tools for “tweeting” what you are listening too, I asked each of these “Social DJs” what their favorite is and why;

Steve Plunket:
Blip.fm – integration into feeds.. prohibits download of music w/o buying from itunes, amazon or soundcloud of course.

Tony Verre:
Personally, I like Grooveshark. The interface is really straight-forward. It’s easy for me to create playlists, spending 30 minutes lining up songs, and then roll them out.

Monica Wright:
I like Grooveshark, but I use Blip occasionally as well. I just got used to the interface, and I have a desktop app, so all the ads and video aren’t flashing in my face like Blip. I haven’t really listened to Pandora much lately.

Jack Leblond:
I really like the selection at grooveshark, and the fact that it’s not polluted with people doing their at home karaoke versions of songs, but I stick to blip.fm because it creates a channel based on the #SEODJWed hashtag, people can jump in at anytime and start listening, regardless of who tweets the song and they don’t need to click each song individually.

How do you find the music you share?

To me, it seems the DJs have an endless supply of great music at their fingertips, I asked how they choose the music they play;

Tony Verre:
I like to pick themes each week, genres if you will. Sometimes I just have no inspiration, and field requests. Monica and I wanted it to be a spontaneous expression; just play good tunes. Unfortunately, when I think that people depend on something (and hopefully they do) I start thinking about songs and playlists on Monday. It’s sad, and little pathetic, but, hey, I’m a people-pleaser.

Monica Wright:
I just kind of go with it. I try to find new stuff from other people (that’s usually my mission), but I go with whatever I feel like listening to. And then when other people start requesting or sending feedback, sometimes themes can happen.

Steve Plunkett:
I go for breaking club hits from the UK, local hip hop radio playlists and secret releases from artists that leak to me.

Jack Leblond:
I play a lot of my favorites from “back in the day”, I ask for requests, but also rely on Google to provide “best of” lists that I pull titles from.  I know that’s cheating, but it’s amazing I often I find myself thinking “Wow, I forgot about that song – I loved that song back then.”

What’s your favorite music?

The music that gets played by these people varies wildly, I was curious if they had a favorite genre;

Monica Wright:
That too goes with the mood. I know it seems like I am avoiding the question. Maybe the better question is “What is your favorite genre lately?” That would be a lot of indie stuff (if you classify it that way) – The Doves, Vampire Weekend, PlayRadioPlay!… you can see what I’m listening to on Grooveshark and Blip, that would be easiest.

Steve Plunkett:
Electronica.

Tony Verre:
Jam-Band.

Jack Leblond:
As the old man of the group (you kids get off my lawn!) I tend to lean towards the classics of rock and punk from the ‘70s and 80’s.

What music won’t you play?

One of the great things about SOCIAL DJing is that people don’t feel compelled to play something they don’t like.  I asked the DJ’s if there was anything they wouldn’t play;

Steve Plunkett:
Country.

Tony Verre:
Been doing this for a while now, and I noticed I don’t play much hip-hop at all. However, that’s about to change (next #SEODJWed it’s happening). As for anything I won’t play? So far I haven’t had that challenge, and I hope it stays that way. J  I try to keep to fun and play meaningful, nostalgic stuff.

Monica Wright:
Haven’t gotten there yet, but anything REALLY noisy, violent or crude. It’s just not my thing.

Jack Leblond:
I’m really not a fan of hip-hop or rap, but if somebody requests something that doesn’t make me feel like jamming a pencil in my ear, I’ll still play it.

Why do you do it?

Given how busy I know these people are, I wondered why they took time from their work-day to do this every week;

Tony Verre:
#SEODJWed started out as something that Monica Wright (@monicawright) and I put together, after Michelle Robbins (@michellerobbins) suggested it. We’re both music junkies, quite eclectic tastes between us, but have a base in jam-band bands.

I’ve really enjoyed doing it the last few months. For me it’s another creative outlet, crafting musical themes each week and really stretching my music catalog. I really do believe it’s a more than sharing music; at sub-conscious level, you’re helping people share memories. Where you were when you heard that song, what you doing when you heard that song; your own personal wormhole.

Not to mention I think it’s another unique way to make the Twitter space less about hyper-information sharing, but give it more panache, in the same manner FollowFriday gave people something to look forward to each week.

Admittedly, #SEODJWed runs the risk of being “played out” in the same way FollowFriday did, but I think it’s still little to obscure for that yet (once people start spamming the hashtag, we’ll simultaneously know we’ve made it and know that’s it’s dead.  J)

Monica Wright:
Why not? It happened organically, now it’s an event.

Steve Plunkett:
I love music.. if I wasn’t doing SEO I would be dj’ing in a club.

Jack Leblond:
It gives me some time to “shut off the SEO” for a while and just have fun.  In the middle of the week, that can sometimes be a life saver.

Join Us

I’d like to thank Monica, Tony and Steve for taking the time to answer these questions – and for letting me play along on Wednesdays.  If you aren’t already familiar with these people, you really should make a point of checking out the things they do.

Monica Wright is a terrific Maine SEO.
You can find Monica at; blip.fm, Grooveshark.com, Twitter and of course on her on site www.monicawright.com.

Steve Plunkett is a great Digital Communications Strategist.
You can find Steve at; blip.fm, Twitter and on his site www.dallasseoblog.com.

Tony Verre is a phenomenal Milwaukee SEO.
You can find Tony at; grooveshark.com, twitter and his site www.themilwaukeeseo.com

As for me, other than right here where you have already found me, I’m on blip.fm, grooveshark.com and Twitter.

Please Tune In

If you don’t already have an account on blip.fm, or grooveshark.com, make sure you get one before Wednesday arrives so you can tune in and enjoy the music.

Post from: Austin, Texas SEO - Jack Leblond

What is the deal with #SEODJWed anyway?

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In my last article I published a list of “TEN DO’s” from the 1998 edition of “Web Publishing for Dummies”, today we review ten things the authors thought you should NOT do. You might be surprised, as I was, that all ten are still applicable today.

The great thing about this book (if you ignore references to CompuServe, Prodigy and GeoCities) is that it was written before the search engines moved to the front of everyone’s mind. The information presented is primarily focused on creating a better experience for your visitors, and that is something that we should all be working towards.

Take a moment or two and review this list – did I miss anything?

1)  DON’T inadvertently limit your audience

Be careful when designing your pages not to inadvertently limit your audience by using some oddball feature that can’t be read by large numbers of people who use different Web browsers. Stick to basic HTML and Netscape additions through Netscape Navigator Version 2.0. Think twice before using HTML frames, Java programs, or ActiveX programs; many people won’t be won’t be able to access them. Warn people if you u se nonstandard features. Often providing alternative pages, such as text-only versions of your pages, is worthwhile. And including links to the software that works with your pages often pays-off; a link to Netscape if you use Navigator-specific tags, or a link to the RealAudio site if you include RealAudio sound, are two good examples.

This is still true, however, this advice is all-too-often ignored.  While the various browser makers are getter better about following standards, some still offer “extended capabilities” that some developers take advantage of; ignoring the fact that the rest of the world probably will see none of their hard work.  A larger problem though is the remaining site-owners that insist on having their site mostly in flash.  Years ago people were leery of flash because not everyone had it, and the download for the player was large (based on slower connection speeds), eventually though the folks at Adobe managed to get flash pre-installed on almost all machines.  This made some owners and developers think is was OK to go 100% flash.  WRONG. Aside from the SEO issues (that’s a whole other post), there are millions of people that access the web via mobile devices that have no idea what to do with your flash pages.

2)  DON’T abuse netiquette

Abusing the etiquette of the Internet is easy to do and can bring you a lot of negative attention. If you make any serious offenses, your Web service provider’s server may remove your page. And you can even get into legal problems. Avoid dubious practices such as spamming, sending unwanted e-mail to publicize your site; flaming, being fervently disparaging of other people or other Web pages; or putting up offensive material without some kind of warning label. Netiquette is an amorphous and evolving area of online behavior, so you may want to join a Web-oriented newsgroup where you can ask questions before publishing. Also, check out this site for more info: www.fau.edu/rinaldi/netiquette.html (link no longer valid).

Netiquette is as important now as it was then, just the ways people can ignore it have changed.  I used to say “if you wouldn’t do it in front of your mother, don’t do it on the ‘net”.  Then I moved to Texas (it’s hard to believe what people here will do in front of their mothers).  Even if you WOULD do something in front of your mother, the web may not be ready to see it.  Don’t make assumptions about anything – ever.  Ask lots of questions, participate in the community.  After you know what they want – make sure you have at it.

3)  DON’T “borrow” content without asking

Make sure that content you get from the Web to use on your own Web page is labeled as being freely available for reuse, or else get permission to reuse it. Most people are quite happy to help if you ask nicely and credit their work. The best part is that you make some good contacts with other interesting people. You also keep the law on your side.

Stealing is wrong people, no matter what you call it or how you do it.  Aside from the legal and ethical issues, this is what the search engines call “duplicate content” and it’s a good way to get your site dropped from the listings.  You want good content? Create it yourself, or pay somebody to do it for you.

4)  DON’T make your site hard to navigate

Beginners often organize their pages so that their sites are hard to navigate. If your site has more than two levels, you should give some thought as to how your visitors will navigate it. Nobody likes wandering from link to link with no idea what is where or having to follow ten links to find one piece of information. Keep the relationship between your pages simple. Make it clear which links are internal to your own site and which go out to other sites. Provide an index page or a common menu. And make navigation work consistently throughout the site.

Good site structure is becoming even more important, at the 2010 SMXAdvanced conference, one speaker used a slide that said something like “site structure + SEO = BFF”.  This is another case of the engines liking something that is good for users.  Users have always liked it when it’s easy for them to get around a site and find what they want – now the engines like it too.

5)  DON’T abuse graphics and multimedia

The biggest mistake beginning Web authors- and some experts- make is overusing graphics on a page. Keep in mind that not everyone has fast, expensive T1 lines (special high-bandwidths phone lines) wired directly to their home PCs; by far, the greatest majority of folks receive your web page via a more limited 28.8 Kbps modem. Keep your page size, including text and graphics, under 100K. Here are ways that you can do this without sacrificing design flexibility;

• Convert all photos to JPEG format.
• Use simple icons and banners- images without very many colors or complex textures-in FIG format
• Lay out your site to limit the amount of graphics on any one page, adding pages if you need to display more graphics
• Use thumbnail icons to give access to larger images

All those strategies make your pages smaller and faster for others to download. Your Net surfers will thank you.

Raise your hand if you ever connected to the ‘net via a dial-up connection…bonus points if you remember what your “baud rate” was.

Of course page load times are still important, though I can’t imagine a non-mobile page being under 100k anymore.  Once again (you may get sick of hearing this) the search engines are mirroring what users like;  Users want fast load times and the engines have started putting more emphasis on it as well.  Even though most homes now have super-fast connections, and even mobile devices are getting faster, you’ll want to make sure you tweek every ounce of speed out of your site.

6)  DON’T forget ALT tags and text-equivalent menus

Another basic mistake is not using text-equivalent menus forgetting that many people surf the Net without graphics turned on. Who would turn off graphics, you ask?

Many home user turn off graphics to speed things along, downloading only the graphics that they really need. Some people pay a high hourly rate for their Internet access, especially in much of the non-Western world, and turn off graphics to save money on their connection time. Others receive Web pages via e-mail because they don’t have a direct Internet connection. And some people who are visually impaired use the web with software that translates text-but not graphics-into spoken words. Always use the ALT tag to provide text equivalents to your graphics, as described in Chapter 7. Using the ALT tag is easy to do and will make it possible and easier for all these people to access your content.

It’s somewhat disturbing to me that the primary reason (according to the authors) to use alt-tags was for potential cost savings for users and the last reason was for screen readers/visually impaired.  Sadly, it’s only slightly better now.  Most people include alt text in their images because it helps with search engine indexing and the fact that it helps with screen readers is a nice bonus.

7)  DON’T forget the basics

Your site may be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but if you forget to include contact information for yourself in the site, how will you find out that you misspelled “bureaucracy” all over the place? Similarly, you won’t get many orders for your spiffy new widget if you put the ordering information five levels down in a web page called “fruit bat guano statistics-1876.”

More basics:

• Use mailto: tags (HTML tags used to specify your e-mail address; for example, <A HRES=*MAILTO:comments@mysite.com>).
• Include a copyright notice
• Add an index
• give credit where credit is due
• Make the important info prominent. Be ready to revise, based on user feedback.

OK, this literally made me laugh.  You have a book “for dummies” and assume they know the basics and are reminding them not to forget them.  Alrighty then.  How about instead of waiting for a site visitor to tell you about your spelling mistakes, you use this new thing we have now…maybe you’ve heard of it – “spell-check”.  But otherwise, yes – do remember to include your contact info, and make it easy for visitors to use. Do have both a site index and a menu, and for the LAST bullet (which should have been first)… make important content easy to find, and adjust if it’s wrong.

8)  DON’T start by setting up your own Web server

There are several “easy-to-use” Web server packages on the market, and Web server capability is even being built into Macs and PCs. But even with these efforts, buying, setting up, and maintaining a Web server can become the most expensive, most complicated, and most frustrating part of Web publishing. Luckily, you can use the free services described in this book, or paid services, to put your content on someone else’s Web server while you learn the other tricks of the trade. Then, as your knowledge and experience grow, consider setting up your own Web server.

I don’t think most people would even consider this an option any more, thankfully there are lots and lots of powerful and affordable web hosting companies available – I’m a fan of hotgator.com.  There are very few cases where it’s necessary to maintain your own server.  Additionally, the phrase “easy-to-use” should never be used to described any web server package.

9)  DON’T forget the “World” in the World Wide Web

Remember that your Web pages are available and accessible to the whole world. Think a bit about that foreign audience. Is it worthwhile to include some foreign language content? Do you use colloquialisms that may not be understood by your foreign Net surfers? How do your pages look to your overseas colleagues who view them through the slow transoceanic Net link? Will your humorous or risqué content offend someone in another country of culture?

When you become a Web publisher, you also become a global citizen and your Web pages play on a global stage. Think through the meaning of your page in advance.

This really boils down to knowing your audience – and being able to adapt if needed.  Usually, a site’s content will fall into a consistent them or category and people who want to read about that content will understand most of how you write about it, regardless of where the live. However, writing for an international audience does take a little forethought.

10)  DON’T be afraid to learn more

Web publishing is not rocket science. It is computer science, but it’s relatively easy computer science. You’re not trying to land the space shuttle here- and chances are, lives are not at stake. Experiment, try weird things. Ask for feedback. Never be afraid to learn complex and hard stuff. (It’s only complex and hard because you don’t understand it yet!) Neat stuff is being developed (and some cool stuff is already out there) that will make Web publishing even more exciting- VRML, Java, new browsers and publishing tools, groupware, Net-based games, and online business infrastructure. All this new stuff is understandable and usable by normal folks like you. Don’t be intimidated. You can use all of them. (If you’ve come this far, you’ve got what it takes!)

Not only should you not be afraid to learn more – you should do your best to always be learning more.  Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, rarely do you learn something by doing it correctly.  Be sure to document how you do things, what works and what doesn’t – this sort of testing will make your life easier.

There you have it – Ten Web Publishing DON’Ts, straight from the web design time machine.

What did you do then that you find yourself  NOT doing today?

Post from: Austin, Texas SEO - Jack Leblond

Ten “DON’Ts” from the Web Publishing Time Machine

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I was somewhat startled to discover a copy of “Creating Web Pages for Dummies (1998)” on my desk this morning. The book promises I’ll be able to “Create Dazzling Home Pages – In No Time!” I’m still not sure who put it there, or what they are trying to tell me, hopefully that mystery will soon be solved, and hopefully they were thinking I’d get a laugh from it and not that I’d learn something from it. As I glanced at the table of contents, it did generate a grin or two – there’s a whole section devoted to geocites. However two chapters stood out more than the rest “Ten Web Publishing DO’s” and “Ten Web Publishing DON’Ts.” I just knew these tips from the early days of the web would create some laughs, so I flipped ahead and looked at the lists. I could not have been more wrong. Why I was wrong is connected to the fact that there is something very important to note about this book – the ONLY mention of anything search engine related is this brief definition:

Search engine: Web-based services that help you find things you are looking for.

Why is that important you ask? Because this book was written before web designers/developers thought that getting attention from Google was more important than giving visitors good content. The fact that the authors were concerned with content makes both of their lists still (mostly) accurate. Below is the list of ten “DO’s” along with my comments about how they may (or may not) apply today.

1) Do think about your target audience

Who is your Website targeting? A little thought along those lines can make your pages much more appealing to your visitors. Before you begin creating your website, choose the right look and feel and style of presentation that is appropriate for your audience. Include links that your visitors find interesting, not just the ones that you find interesting – unless that’s the point of your page, of course. In addition to using good sites as models (see the next “DO”), research other media, such as newspapers and magazines – the articles and the ads – that have a similar audience as yours to find good and bad examples.

This is still great advice – it’s impossible to deliver great content if you don’t know what your audience wants. Your site might hold the secret formula for free energy from the ocean, but if the reader is looking for instructions on how to make great mojitos, to them, your site sucks.

2) Do use good sites as models

Many good sites are out there. Ignoring those good examples when designing your own site is not the best idea. Take a look around and find the designs that work. Think about why each design you like works well for you. Is it the use of color and layout of the Web page? The fact that the site loads quickly? Well-organized content? Note what works and why, and then strive to duplicate that effect in your own Web pages. Look for conventions in presenting information that Web users have grown accustomed to, neat design ideas, and various types of content. You’ll be surprised how many ideas you get from this huge reservoir of Web expertise.

I had a boss once that was fond of saying “I don’t need you to re-invent the wheel, just find a better way to use it.” Keep that advice in mind while you research other sites for ideas. You don’t always have to do something completely different, just do it better than the rest. It’s interesting to me that in 1998 (when people were lucky to have a 56kbs modem at home) a quick load time and well-organized content where obviously important factors. Today, when most teens (college students) have NEVER used a dial-up connection, we are once again concerned about how quickly our pages load.

3) Do get permissions for content

You can easily peek at the HTML source of any Web page, and that’s a good way to learn new design techniques. But you can also easily grab any content that exists on the Web, even privately owned content that belongs to others. However, the fact that grabbing others’ content is easy does not make it right or legal. It’s also not necessary.

A great deal of public domain content is out there, and getting permission to use private content is not hard. If a Web page does not explicitly say that its content can be freely borrowed, assume that it’s copyrighted or otherwise protected – which means you should ask before borrowing any of it. Many people are happy to let you use their content in order to gain exposure on your pages, as long as you provide proper attribution and reciprocal links. In the process, you may just gain new friends or business contacts, as well as avoid legal problems down the road. (And in case you get tempted to borrow quietly, keep in mind that word of unethical practices gets around quickly on this amazing global network.)

Sadly, this is something that seems to always be forgotten. C’mon folks, don’t be a jerk – it only takes a minute (or two) to do things the right way.

4) Do use links to outside sites

No matter how great your content is, you’d be wasting the most important feature of the Web if you did not include links to sites outside your own. No matter what your topic, you can find complementary sites out there on the Web. Giving your visitors links to those sites is only courteous. If you research your links carefully and organize them well, your links can be a valuable resource to others. In your own Web surfing, you’ve probably found it to be true that one of the best experiences on the Web is the serendipity of stumbling upon some cool link that you had no idea existed; give your visitors that experience. Point them to the outside world. That’s why it’s the Web and not the Thread.

I can recall conversations with clients about this, they would get so upset about me linking to OTHER sites. “Why do you want them to leave?” they would ask. Thankfully, I think most people have now realized that links to other sites are not only NOT evil, but people like them. And, since people like them – guess what, the search engines like links too.

5) Do use graphics and multimedia

A prime attraction of the Web is that it is designed to present graphical information, yet there are still many beginning Web authors who are intimidated by graphics and shy away from using them. Include a picture, icons, bars, and graphical menus in your Web page. Go ahead, try out transparent and interlaced GIFs. Multimedia is a great addition tool one or two sound files, a QuickTime movie, even a simple animated GIF can really liven up a site. The bottom line is that sites rich with graphics and multimedia are much more interesting than purely text-oriented ones. Give it a go. (But be prudent)

This is still true, in fact it’s been shown that pages with images actually get more readers than those without. Just don’t go overboard, you don’t want to give people seizures.

6) Do think before you create

It may sound basic, but a surprising number of people lust jump in and start throwing around text and HTML tags with no clue about where they’re going or what they want to accomplish. That approach is fine if you just want to play around – in fact, that approach can be a lot of fun. But if you want to make a good impression on the Web, sitting down and thinking about a few things ahead of time really pays off. Sketch your Ideas on paper. Then describe them to someone else and ask for feedback. This prep work forces you to consider things that you may not think about otherwise: Page layout, graphic design, relationship between pages, target audience, content structure, link grouping, and other issues that, when properly integrated, can make your site a first-class Net surfing experience.

Back in 1998 look and feel were among the biggest concerns of somebody building a website. The web hadn’t started creating applications yet, sites were mostly information storage locations. While look and feel are still very important today, you need to go beyond that in your planning phases. Think about your site structure, what directories, file names, tags, categories – even how much traffic you might eventually get. It can be difficult to gather all of this, but if you don’t get it right in the beginning, your growing pains might be bad enough to kill a whale.

7) Do ask for feedback

You’ll be amazed by what people say about your pages. (Some of the comments may even be complimentary!) Put your e-mail address on your home page and ask for comments. People who have never before seen your site will have a good, fresh perspective and can give you feedback on things that you may not have thought about. Everyone can benefit from outside input. Criticism by your prospective audience is not only useful, it’s also educational. You can learn a lot about what people expect and want. Criticism can’t hurt anything but your pride, and it almost always improves your site.

It’s hard to believe, but there was a time when people would only tell you what they think of you if you asked them. Now, in the era of Twitter and Facebook, it can sometimes be difficult to make them stop talking about you. That can be good or bad, depending on what they are saying – but in any case – LISTEN TO THEM.

8) Do test your pages

Testing your pages is easy. You probably don‘t send e-mail without spell-checking lt. Similarly, you should not put up your Web pages without testing them. That means looking at your pages on your own machine before testing them on the web – follow links, see how graphics and text fit together and so on. Also, looking at your pages in different browsers doesn’t hurt. If you can`t do it, ask a friend or even a stranger to help. Oh, again, don t forget to spell-check your pages.

This is just plain crazy-talk, right? While some people are comfortable throwing up gibberish, I don’t know many people who enjoy reading it. And, as the authors pointed out – make sure all your images load correctly, links are coded with valid addresses and yes, even on 2010 you STILL have to check your site in multiple browsers.

9) Do publicize your site

Nothing is more frustrating than putting up a site that no one visits. Fortunately, publicizing your site is not hard. Add your site to the popular indexes, for example, through the excellent “Submit-it” site: www.Submit-it.com (NOTE: This is no longer a submission site)
You can also post to appropriate Usenet newsgroups, put out a press release, or shout it from the rooftops. Just building a site doesn’t necessarily mean people will come to it. You still have to get the word out.

Of course site promotion is still important, but I would certainly suggest you avoid sites/services that claim they’ll submit your site to thousands of engines and indexes. Press releases, done correctly are a good way to start. Does anyone use UseNet anymore? You should make sure your site has a valid sitemap for the engines to crawl, but beyond that – there are lots of ways to promote your site.

10) Do update your site

A static site is a boring site. True, it works for some purposes, but in general, if you want people to continually revisit your site, you must keep it updated. The best sites are those that continually provide new and interesting content. Include pointers to information that’s frequently updated, like “Thought for the day” or “Links to new, cool sites.” Let users know how often to expect updates and be sure to showcase new content. A “New” icon next to recently added or updated content can work wonders.

You’ve probably heard the phrase “content is king” more times than you care to remember, but it’s based on the fact that both people and search engines like for you to keep your site fresh and the easiest way to do that is with a steady stream of new content.

There you have it – Ten Web Publishing DO’s, straight from the web design time machine. What did you do then that you find yourself doing again today?

Post from: Austin, Texas SEO - Jack Leblond

Ten Web Publishing “DO’s” from the Web Publishing Time Machine

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One of the semi-new features is the ability to geotag your photos.  I say it’s “semi-new” because as it turns out, it’s actually been available since the OS2 update, but not everybody knew about it (more on that later).   With the release of OS4, it’s more obvious – and actually usable on the iPhone.

Geotagging your photos on the new OS4 allows the iPhone (and various other tools and websites) to sort your photos by location.  When you open the photos app, you’ll notice two icons at the bottom – “Albums” and “Places”.  Selecting “places” will provide you a map, similar to this one that I grabbed from my phone.

The level of detail at which the photos are geotagged is pretty amazing, though with the iPhones GPS capabilities, should not be all that surprising. The map I uploaded is zoomed out pretty far, but if you were to continue zooming in you would see the little dots continue to split and multiply as photos are sorted into smaller and smaller groupings based on their respective locations.  That’s cool, right?  This will be great for vacations, or events – it’ll be so much easier to upload your memories to Picasa, Flickr, Photobucket or any number of places and have them automatically tagged by location.  Welcome to the future my friends, or if you are an Orwell fan, I guess it might be the past.

I reference 1984 and Big Brother because I suspect that most of the people (myself included) that bought their phones after OS2 was released, and therefore missed all the hullabaloo of the “new features”, had no idea their photos were even being tagged. On pre-OS4 phones, the locations services feature was either ON or OFF – for everything.  You couldn’t set specific permissions, and it didn’t tell you what apps were using it.  I (and again probably most people) relied on the apps to pop up and ask you each time.  Even the Google maps app had to ask me, or wait for me to push the “locate” button.  It was actually a pain that when I wanted to check movie listings, Fandango had to ask me every time if it could use my location.

However, I don’t recall my camera ever asking me.  I found a post over on Wired that talks about the new photo tagging in  OS2 that shows such a request, so maybe my old brain just doesn’t remember ever being asked – do you?  I’ve also discovered that there are apps available that would let you view photos arranged by the tagging, so clearly somebody knew about it, just not me.  Not knowing I had been tagging my photos for the last year or so, I was a bit surprised when I opened my photos app and saw all the existing photos already sorted.  I had to stop and think about what I had shared and with who.

Remember that day you were in the backyard playing with your kids, and a butterfly landed on little Susie’s finger?  Remember how cute you thought it was and that you just HAD to put a photo up on the web for the world to see?  Remember how you thought nobody would know where you or little Susie lived?  Sorry Susie, that photo was geotagged and now the whole world knows where your back yard is and where you sleep at night.

Scary, right?  Go check you photos.

Thankfully, the new OS4 location services settings are much more clear about what apps have permission and which do not.  Even better, it allows you to individually turn them on or off.  Taking pictures from the beach, turn tagging on.  Taking pictures in the living room, turn tagging off.  You can clearly see within the settings that the camera is using your location.  Unfortunately, you’ll have to remember whether it’s on or off, because unlike other apps that use location service, the camera does not show the little “compass pointer” to alert you they are turned on and in use.

Overall, I think this is a pretty cool feature.  And, if nothing else we’ll help make Google street view more useful, right?

What are your thoughts on the new(ish) geotagging feature of the iPhone?

Post from: Austin, Texas SEO - Jack Leblond

iPhone Photo Geotagging – Who knows where you sleep?

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This post will be updated from time-to-time when there are significant updates to the plugin.  Items that are new to this post will be bolded.  Additionally, I’ll mark items that could be detrimental to your rankings with a caution sign.

Updated on 6/1/2010 – The version currently being covered is 1.6.11.

Version 1.6.8.2 contained some unknown updates so that it was compatible WordPress.2.9, also the developer introduced a “pro” version that is available for purchase.  As far as I can see the there are no functional differences between the two versions.  The pro version seems to intended for use by hosting companies and consultants who do not want the donation request displayed on the configuration pages of their clients’ sites.

Version 1.6.11 adds an language update, some bug fixes and code optimization.

I am disappointed to say that the author of this tag seems to have less and less time for answering questions and communicating with the millions of people that have made his tag so popular.  As a former web application developer, I know first-hand it is a time-consuming and seemingly thankless job.  I cannot fault the author for wanting to make some money with a “pro” version.  However, I completely disagree with how he has done it.  Monthly charges for upgrades is, in my opinion, crazy for this software.  I donated before the pro version existed, and I am sure that many others would gladly pay for this wonderful tag if not for the monthly fees.  According to the WordPress.org plugins directory, it’s been downloaded more than 5,000,000 times.  Lets all send him a dollar so we can get rid of the monthly fees and he can hire a team to maintain the tool while he sits on the beach…how about it folks?.

Visit the SEO pack creator’s page for a reasonably complete change log.

All in one SEO Pack Configuration – site settings

From within your WordPress admin, go to the settings area, then select “All in one SEO”. There are a lot of options here, but don’t feel intimidated, we’ll walk through most of them.

All in one SEO Pack Configuration – post settings

When creating a new post you’ll want to scroll to the bottom of your post editing page to the All in one SEO Pack section. There you will see the following four options.

All in one SEO Pack Configuration – page settings

When creating a new page, be sure to update the All in one SEO pack settings, found near the bottom of the editing screen.  Page settings are almost identical to the post settings, with just one additional option – menu label.

What are you waiting for?

There you have it, all the info you need to configure your All In One SEO Pack and get your page rankings climbing. This plugin makes it easy for anyone to optimize their WordPress blog posts and pages for better search engine placement.

Post from: Austin, Texas SEO - Jack Leblond

All in one SEO Pack configuration

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This is an e-mail I received from my parents today – I just had to share it. They are pretty amazing people, I can only hope that I mean as much to my children as my parents mean to me.

It doesn’t seem possible that it’s been 45 years. When you’re young you can’t wait to get older, now you don’t know where all that time has gone. You think of the good things, like seeing your face when we went into Disney world the first time, and wish there had been more, you think of the bad things and wish had been fewer, I guess it all evens out in the long run, just know we love you very much and wish you all the happiness possible, I love you very much, Dad

I’ve been thinking of you more than usual this week – counting the days down to the 25th.  I am so happy that you will have a nice birthday this year.  I tried to say that in the card that we sent but I’m sure I didn’t say it very well.  We were so sad to learn that there were many years when your birthday went unnoticed.  That happened to me once and I was devastated so I can’t imagine how awful it must have been to have it happen to you year after year. It was wonderful to celebrate your birthday with you last year – wish we could do it more often.  I’m sure you know it but I will tell you anyway – we never ever forget you on your birthday.  I always think of the first time I saw you in that little hospital crib.  The nurses tried to wheel you out to the nursery but I grabbed on to the crib and would not let them take it until I had time to check you out – I counted all of your fingers and all of your toes.  Dad remembers that when the doctor came out to tell him that you were a boy, the first thing the doctor did was to reach into his shirt pocket and take out a cigarette! Boy, how times have changed.  Grammie and Grampa Bragdon were there with Dad waiting for you to make your appearance.  By the time that Grampa and Grammie Leblond got there, you had started to look a little bit Chinese due to the jaundice but even so, everyone agreed that you were the most beautiful baby.  So many memories.

We are very proud of you and are so very happy that you are happy now and also, hope you understand this comment, we are grateful that you are appreciated.

We’ll call you Thursday. I love you very much, Mom

Thanks for everything Mom and Dad – I love you guys.

Now somebody pass me a tissue.

Post from: Austin, Texas SEO - Jack Leblond

I have great parents.

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The quote below is word-for-word from a rather expensive looking insert, in an even more expensive looking direct-mail piece I recently received.  Ordinarily I like (Well, I don’t hate it) direct-mail, when it’s done correctly.  But this thing, which is titled “Who We Are” just talks in circles.  I’m sure I lose brain cells each time I read it.  I’ll hide the name of the company, partly because I think they are idiots, but more importantly, I don’t want to help them spread their name even a little bit.

“XXXXXX is a full-service social technology partner.
A global leader in the practice of digital consulting, community building, technology solutions, and digital measurement, XXXXXX helps our clients leverage the power of social media to drive greater value and success for their businesses.

Using expert cross-discipline strategic thinking paired with leading-edge customizable technologies, we create unique and innovative solutions that thrive in the ever changing and challenging online environment.”

BINGO!

I think what that means is they have to cool, new ways to use social media that will make more money for their customers.  If that is what it means, why don’t they just say that?  Or at least speak plain English.

The flip side of the piece does have some of the same techno-babble, marketing-speak but is actually understandable.  When I read the “what we do” section, I actually come away with a good idea of what they do.  It’s hard for me to believe the two sides of the sheet were written by the same people.

However, the bad taste and foul stench of the “who we are” blurbage makes me wonder if that’s how they’ll try talking to me if I were a customer.  No thank you.

Social Media is conversations and relationships.

It’s great to have tools and technology to help you with your Social Media, but keep in mind that a fool with a tool, is still a fool.  If you can’t (forgive me) engage your community, all the tools in the world won’t help you.  Techno-babble, marketing speak won’t help you.  Well, if you’re targeting 1992 era marketing people, then maybe they will.

You need to speak the language of the community you are reaching out to, and hopefully since they are your customers you know how to do that.

If you’re trying to sell tornado insurance to an Arkansas trailer park resident, you better not talk to them like they are playing a role in Macbeth.  And visa-versa, of course.

It’s not rocket science folks, this is old-time advertising gospel;  People respond better to images and language that reminds them of themselves, or who they want to be.

I don’t know about you, but who I want to be is NOT a 1992 marketing professional.

Post from: Austin, Texas SEO - Jack Leblond

Social Media BINGO!

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Many people have asked me how I like it.  The quick and dirty answer is: After a year, I’m looking for something better.

I’m not overly disappointed with the product, but given a years time and seeing what’s now available, it’s time to change.

I still love the size and the look, it is a beautiful machine.  However, there are a few things that I am not thrilled with.

• Battery Life
  The max life of the battery dwindled quickly.  As I write this, I’ve had it running for about an hour with tweetdeck and safari running via a wifi connection.  My battery meter says I’m already down to only 55%.  I’ve learned over the year that if I want to have it running during conference sessions, I had better get in the room early and find the power plugs.  I’m usually lucky if I can get 2 hours of use before it must be plugged in.
• Solid State Drive
  When I was looking at the systems over a year ago I had thought that with fewer moving parts I would see longer battery life and improved performance.  Unfortunately I saw neither.  To be fair, the machine does boot very fast, but I would rather have a slightly slower boot and faster operating performance.  Also, the size of the drive has been an issue for me as well.  I have yet to run out of space, but that’s only because I carefully consider and evaluate anything I want to install.  I miss having a “real” hard drive.
• Dark Web Cam
  Thankfully I don’t do a lot of “camming” from the netbook, the picture from the camera is very dark, even when snapped in a very well-lit room at the the middle of the day.
• Super Glossy Screen
  The screen looks FANTASTIC indoors or low light environments.  However, in a well lit room you will get a huge amount of glare on the screen.  Try running the HP 1030nr outdoors, on a sunny day and you’ll have a hard time seeing anything.  If you’re on battery power, which further reduces the screen brightness, you might as well be wearing a blindfold.
• Screen Lag Time
  I don’t know what causes this problem; is it windows, the Atom processor, memory or something else.  But, fairly frequently I will be typing along and the screen will just stop updating.  If I stop typing for a few seconds the text will eventually update just as though it were being typed.  Weird.  Thankfully I’m not a speed typist or this might be a significant problem.

Please don’t think I’m saying this machine is a piece of junk, far from it.   My little HP 1030nr netbook would be perfect for somebody who wants to sit on the couch and surf, or since it does such a great job of reading videos from a flash drive, it would make an awesome entertainment device for the kiddos  – of course make sure you keep an eye open for power outlets.

Despite it’s quirks, it’s done most of what I wanted it to do when I bought it.  But now, I have different and more specific requirements.  Let’s say “it’s not you, it’s me” or perhaps “we’ve just grown apart” ;-)

What netbook are you using?  What netbook do you WISH you were using?

Post from: Austin, Texas SEO - Jack Leblond

HP 1030nr review – a year later

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I’m growing concerned that pretty soon people will be thinking the same thing about SEOs.

What if you were number 1 and nobody searched for you? Are you still number 1?

A while ago, I wrote about how to hire an SEO, and more recently about what questions you should be asking about your web measurements.  Both of those should help you become a more intelligent SEO shopper.  I’ve stumbled upon the site of Austin SEO company that made me realize there is still more you need to know in order to protect yourself from the snake oil salesmen.

This particular SEO Company had a pretty site, all full of keyword stuffed pages and links.  Their portfolio looked quite impressive, listing numerous clients that they had helped “shoot to number one on Google”.  Naturally, they provided screen shots of the page rankings so we could all see it was true, they even included some nice testimonials from the clients that were so pleased at now being listed so highly in Google.

We need an SEO BS flag.

There’s just one minor problem with the awesome rankings they achieved for their clients.  They are all useless.  All of them were for obscure phrases that have little, or no search traffic.  It’s great to rank well for a phrase, it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  But, if nobody uses that phrase when they search, what good is it?  None.  I’d rather have a site on page two of a search with volume than page one of a search with none.  Rankings are good, traffic is better.

How do you spot BS rankings?

It’s actually a lot easier than you might imagine.  First, before you settle on your keyword list make sure your SEO company can tell you what the current search volume is for those words – if it’s low, it may not be worth the money needed to get the rankings (HINT: If your SEO company can’t, or won’t, tell you the search volume – get a new one).  Second, have a set of baseline rankings.  When you hire an SEO you should get a report telling you where you currently rank for the various words and phrases you have agreed upon.  It’s possible that you already rank well for these phrases.  Both of these will help, but it won’t catch all of them.  Google’s keyword tool will help you with the rest.  You’ll need a Google account to use the tool, but there’s no cost to use it.

After you log in to the tool you’ll see a box to enter a search word or phrase.  Enter yours.  Below the box you’ll see a check box marked “use synonyms”.  Un-check it.  This tells Google you are only interested in results for that exact phrase.  Click the “get keyword ideas” button.  The resulting page provides information about your phrase.  Look at the two columns called “Local Search Volume” and “Global Monthly Search Volume”.  These tell you approximately how many times that phrase has been used.  The numbers for local are for a recent month, for global are a yearly average.  Looking at a search for “jack leblond”, a phrase I (thankfully) rank pretty well for, you can see that locally there is not enough data to report, but globally it was searched 58 times.  I’m pretty sure 53 of those were my Mom (Thanks Mom!).  So, while I can be happy I rank well for my name, I have to be sad because nobody is looking for me.  When your SEO firm calls to congratulate you on your new and improved rankings, be sure to ask them what the search volume is for the phrase – hopefully you won’t be sad.

Try this with a few of your search phrases, are you actually ranking as well as you thought?

Post from: Austin, Texas SEO - Jack Leblond

Rankings are great, traffic is better

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Not long ago, I was dropping some shirts off at the cleaners.  I had noticed that a few of my buttons were cracked and broken.  I asked the young woman working the counter if they repaired buttons.  She simply replied “No, we don’t.”  I was puzzled, I thought all cleaners did this – now I would have to either find a new cleaner, or repair them myself.  But then, possibly sensing the building frustration on my face, she added; “We can replace the broken ones if you’d like.”  What? I was dumb founded.  How could this woman be so clueless as to not understand that is what I had meant?  It seemed fairly obvious to me that I didn’t actually expect them to be sitting back there with a tube of crazy glue repairing the buttons.  Then it occurred to me, I had asked the wrong question.  Even worse, I had expected them to interpret what I asked into what I meant.

What’s your reason for asking the question?

Before you ask any questions, you have to have a qoal – or two, or 10.  What is it you want your Web site to do?  Guess what? Tony Robbins and all the other self-help dorks have something to teach us about SEO.  If you can’t measure it, it’s not a goal.  It might be interesting, but it’s not a goal.

Which of these statements might make a good goal for a Web site?

1. I want a web site full of silly pictures of cats that spreads joy and happiness throughout the world.
2. I want a Web site full of silly pictures of cats that attracts 25 bazillion visitors a day and makes so much money in ad revenue that I have to use a wheelbarrow to take my checks to the bank.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for joy and happiness, but how do you measure it?

Are you asking the correct questions?

After you have a goal, no matter how simple or grand, you must also set measurable steps to achieve it.  Each of those measures are the questions you need to be asking.

If you want to have XX number of visitors per month, that’s an easy measurement.  If you want XX dollars in ad revenue a month, also an easy measurement.  If you want to rank on page one of Google, well, that too is measurable.  However, is the phrase your are measuring the right one?  Does it support your end goal, or is it just interesting?  For example, many companies set a goal of ranking on page one for their own name.  While that certainly is something that every company should be able to do, I don’t see that as a worth-while use of time.  Simply because if you don’t rank for your name, you have bigger problems.  A more important question; How does your site rank for the name of the products you sell?

Just because you can, does not mean you should

It’s important for you to understand that just because you CAN measure something, does not mean you should, or need to.  If you are selling widgets for $10.25 a piece, perhaps 2,00 page views is pretty good for you.  Perhaps 10,000 page views translates into sales of 150 widgets, enough to keep your staff maxed out.  But are page views really what you should be measuring?  Are they what drives the success of your site? Sure, you could show a chart the demonstrates an increase in page views equates to in an increase in sales, but that’s selling harder, not smarter.  There’s a reason wal-mart doesn’t count people as they walk into the store.  They know it doesn’t matter.  Sure, there is a general correlation, but what really drives sales is shopper’s ability to find what they want quickly, and at a price they are willing to pay.  Can you say the same about your Web site?

What if the reason it takes 10,000 page views to sell 150 widgets is because your Web site is difficult to navigate? Or your products are hard to find, or your check-out process is too complicated?  Perhaps, the questions you should be asking are;

• What’s the ratio of completed to abandoned orders?
• How much time does someone spend on the site before they make a purchase?
• How many pages do they look at before they purchase?
• What are people searching for with your on-site search tool?
• What is your bounce rate?

Conversion doesn’t not have to mean selling something, maybe you want people to request more information, or to call an 800 number or download a white-paper.  Whatever it is, identify real things that may effect your conversions.  Those are the things worth measuring.

Compare Apples to Apples

While you may be able to make some broad industry comparisons, don’t get caught up in “benchmarks”.  Your site is your site.  Even if a competitor sells the same products as you, they will (probably) be using a different method and process to do it.  You can’t and shouldn’t model yourself after what you *think* they are doing.  Do what is right for you, for your company.

Test Everything

Now that you have your goals and measurements established, make sure you do lots and lots of testing.  It’s possible that something as simple as a button shape, or the hair color of a model could make a big difference in your sales.

Share the love

Now get busy setting your goals and determining the right measurements so that the next time your boss asks how many page views your site had, you can tell him “Sorry, we don’t repair buttons.”

Have fun!

Post from: Austin, Texas SEO - Jack Leblond

Are you asking the correct questions?

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