As today's Marqui webinar "How to Build a Long-Term SEO Strategy" went considerably overtime, we promised to answer any questions that were submitted via the blog. So, here are the questions and answers!

Q: My site is on a content management system but the site pages load slowly. Is this going to have an impact on SEO?

A: Yes, it's likely that this would have a detrimental impact on your SEO program, Google released an update in April 2010 that gave lower rankings to slower loading sites. You can read more on the official Google Blog post here. You may consider using a different CMS platform similar to Marqui, which renders complete HTML files instead of querying a database every time a page loads.


Q: Any tips on training staff to do SEO?

A: There are lots of super valuable, free resources through Google and Bing's Webmaster Tools help documents. Here is Google's and here is Bing's  If you're into books, there is a great book called The Art of SEO by Eric Enge, et al., which is great for the fundamentals. SEO changes so fast though that online resources are usually the best. I like WebmasterWorld.com's forums the best, it's very focused on SEO and SEM in general and is worth the subscription cost.

Q: How do you avoid keyword stuffing?
A: First of all, if you write naturally, it's not likely that your keyword would appear even close to enough to be able to be considered stuffing, so that's not a big concern. If the intention is to build on keyword relevance on a page, or you're working on producing optimized content for preferred content pages, I recommend using tools like WebCEO to analyze your pages before publishing them.

Q: Can you overdo SEO activities up front and do more harm than good?

A: You can't really do too many ethical, healthy SEO activities like the ones that I recommended in the webinar, but on the other hand quality should take precedence over quantity in whatever you do. I would not recommend generating content en masse to try to build the amount of content that's on the site unless it's really great stuff. You can't optimize the code or site structure enough, so if you've covered off all the SEO best practice activities that you know about, I recommend checking out a site like WebmasterWorld.com to get some new ideas!

Thanks for your questions, we hope to see you on the next Marqui Webinar.

This week's post has another popular viral social campaign from Coke and a video on some of the issues with YouTube's "closed captioning" capabilities.

This campaign (as seen in the video below) from Coke, is a feel good social campaign that is right up there with the Old Spice Guy campaigns in terms of entertainment value. You can read more about the campaign on Mashable.




This amusing video from RhettandLink highlights some of the biggest issues with YouTube's "closed captioning" functionality. While we applaud YouTube for trying to improve usability--this video shows how this attempt may still need some improvements.




Have a great weekend!

When it comes to social media content, it’s important that you can catch your key audience’s attention immediately. There is so much content available to social media users that not being able to instantly engage their interest means that they won’t choose to interact with your content. When it comes to quickly catching attention, one of the most important things you can do is write a compelling headline for your social media content.

Writing headlines for social media is different than writing titles for content that you’re posting on your blog or your website in general. For one thing, many social media sites require concise titles (think Twitter – 140 characters max) so you need to be able to pack a punch with your headline. How can you do that?

1. Stick to the classics. One of the most interesting and effective types of social media headlines are the ones that are a play on classic phrases or ideas. For instance: “The Seven Deadly Sins of…” I’ve seen this title numerous times, and while we’re not suggesting you use that exact example, using ones like it can help you to catch your readers’ attention by creating a new twist on a well-recognized concept.
2. Don’t forget the shock factor. By including something controversial, emotional, surprising or downright shocking, you have a better chance of engaging social media users. Make them curious by using words and phrases that inspire strong feelings. 
3. Be urgent. Creating a sense of immediacy in your social media headlines encourages users not to pass your content by. If social media visitors feel like ignoring your content will be negative for them (ex. They’re going to miss out on something important that is only around for a short period of time) then they are more likely to take the time to click on your links or visit your content pages. 
4. Remember SEO.  Just because you want to focus on headlines that are catchy doesn’t meant that you can afford to ignore SEO. While you may not always want to include your keywords (they may take away from the overall effect of your headline) the fact is that many people use social media to find information now, and if your content isn’t found, it doesn’t matter how compelling your title is. 
5. Use powerful words. Readers often respond to content that resonates with them. By using meaningful words like money, love, death, etc you can catch readers’ attention by using phrases that have an emotional connect or tie.
6. Make strange comparisons.Comparing two things that seem completely unrelated is a good trick for capturing readers' interest. For instance using a headline like, "10 Reasons Why Your Blog is Like a Rodeo," will engage visitors just because it is an odd comparison, it will encourage them to think, "Why is my blog like a rodeo?"
7. Understand your audience.  You should know what types of content your audience is looking for and what words, phrases and ideas will have the biggest effect on them. Using that information to create headlines will help your content feel more relatable to your target customers.

Image by nhussein on Flickr.

It’s as important to measure the success of your blog as it is any other aspect of your online presence and there are several key data points that can help you track your blog’s effectiveness accurately. When it comes to blogging metrics, meaningful ones are generally related to how many people come to your blog and how engaged they are once they get there. 

So-which metrics can help you track the success of your business blog?

1. Reach. You can measure your blog’s reach by looking at the number of visitors you receive over a period of time.  This is useful because it gives you an idea about how many people actually arrive at your blog.  This metric can be broken down to help you understand which keywords are driving the majority of traffic to your blog.
2. Number of subscribers. The number of subscribers that your blog gets can give you a good idea of how effective your blog content is (how sticky it is). The better your blog content, the more people that will want to subscribe to receive regular updates from you. 
3. Quantity and quality of backlinks. How many other websites are linking back to your website’s content? Every reputable link that your blog content receives is like a vote for the relevance and authority of your website. A high number of quality backlinks means that your content is relevant and considered to be a good resource in your industry. 
4. Blog visitor conversion rates.  When it comes to online business, it’s all about getting sales, and turning leads into customers relies upon your ability to convert those prospects. In terms of blogging you can track conversions by looking at your blog visitors’ navigation paths to see how many visitors explore your site further (look at product pages etc) and how many turn into solid leads from that. 
5. Visitor engagement. How many comments does your blog receive and how relevant are those comments? The number and quality of the comments you receive can help to give you an idea of how engaged visitors are with your content. Measuring length of time spent on your blog pages can also help you better understand your visitors’ engagement.

Image by salendron on Flickr.

This week's post has a presentation on trends in digital marketing and advertising and a report on the state of the twittersphere.

This presentation from Space150 discusses several trends in the world of digital marketing and is definitely worth taking a look at. I especially liked the real world examples of the effects of social marketing technology.
This report by Kathryn Corrick has some interesting statistics on the, "State of the Twittersphere." If you're looking to get some deeper insight into things like twitter users, twitter accounts, tweets per day etc it's definitely worth taking a look at.

Landing pages are an important aspect of higher education institutions’ conversion tactics, but, if your landing pages aren’t converting your prospects to leads, then they’re most likely not optimized. Your landing pages are meant to prompt a certain action and by make them appealing, targeted and credible you increase your chances of turning your visitors into viable leads. So—how can you improve your conversion rates?

1. Differentiate. There is no set format that every landing page needs to follow. Using a unique format, with interesting functionality and including features like video testimonials can help you pages to convert much better than a standard, cookie-cutter landing page.
2. Match your target. Is your landing page relevant to the target of your campaign? Keeping each of your landing pages relevant to the target audience of each specific campaign can help your landing pages to convert much more effectively. 
3. Be Credible. Trust goes a long way towards increasing conversion rates. Using tools like customer testimonials and case studies can help your landing page appear much more credible, building trust and encouraging visitors to convert. 
4. Does your landing page match original offer? Nothing is worse than clicking on a link and arriving at a landing page that has nothing to do with the offer presented with the original link. Consistency is an important way to keep your visitors engaged. 
5. Only ask for necessary information. I know the temptation is strong to get as much information from each lead as possible but having to provide a lot of information is one of the biggest conversion deterrents.  Only ask for the information that you need. 
6. Test.  Different formats and content will work for different organizations, audiences and campaigns. It’s important that your consistently testing and experimenting with different landing page formats to help you see what works best for your organization.

Image by ChrisM70 on Flickr.

Effective demand generation is crucial for building interest in your organization’s products and services but many organizations are confused about the key elements of building demand. This post gives some of our top best practices for creating effective campaigns that interest your key audience, driving sales and ROI from your online efforts.

1. Have clear lead definitions. This is one of the most basic, and most important, elements for effective demand generation because if you’re not sure what a quality lead looks like, how can you tell if you’re building demand successfully? At the end of the day, your demand generation activities are meant to help you drive sales, and if you’re leads aren’t relevant, then you’re probably failing somewhere in your lead generation process. Understanding who you’re trying to reach, what they’re looking for by building lead profiles is an important way to help get the most you can out of your online efforts.
2. Keep campaigns relevant and targeted. The more specialized your campaigns are, the more intrigued your leads will be. Keeping your demand generation campaigns targeted helps improve your response rates. Remember: not all leads are alike, and developing careful lead profiles can help you succeed in this step, by reaching out to leads with what they’re specifically looking for. 
3. Find where your customers are. By doing a little research into where your key audience interacts online you can make sure that you’re using the right channels to reach them. Not all organizations have their customers using social media or email. If you’re not launching your campaigns where your customers are, the leads you get won’t be the kind of qualified, targeted leads you want to drive more sales.
4. Nurture your leads.  When it comes to lead conversion, the truth is that most leads you get online aren’t immediately ready to purchase your products or services. By developing an effective lead nurturing process that is targeted to each different type of lead you receive you can help to keep your company front-of-mind and build relationships to help improve your chances of a future sale. 
5. Optimize sales and marketing alignment. When your sales and marketing teams are aligned, you’ll have an easier time managing the leads you create ensuring that your get the most ROI you can out of your campaigns.

Image by Steve Rhodes on Flickr.

Happy April Fool's Everyone! This week's post has a list of the best April Fool's pranks of 2011 (in honor of today!) as well as some more marketing related material in the form of a infographic showing digital marketing trends in the middle east as well as a presentation discussing why the future of the web may in fact not be social at all.

This article from CTV discusses the top April Fool's pranks of 2011and of the 6 pranks listed 3 of them are based on social media and the web!

This infographic discusses digital marketing trends for the middle east in 2011 and gives us an interesting look at some statistics that aren't often advertised.


This video from TEDXConcordia discusses why the future of the web may not be social after all. It's an interesting (and different) outlook to what a lot of organizations believe about where the web is headed.




Have a great weekend everyone!