Facebook Fan Page Changes…

Facebook has announced that effective August 23, there are new sizing requirements for Fan Pages (and they are removing the Boxes tab – to which I say yay!!).

The new width for custom pages is 520 pixels wide.

Facebook is offering a preview now so you can see what your page will look like (go to your Fan Page while logged into the account that “owns” the page and you will see the preview).

You have until August 23 to resize your pages.  The resizing of the pages will happen automatically during the week of August 23 and if you don’t make the changes in advance – your page will truncate.

Here is a  screenshot of what my page is going to look like after it truncates (I circled the truncated areas to better show you where it cuts off):

Obviously that won’t do!

Many people are not going to be happy about this change because it will mean extra work or incurring extra costs to have the pages redesigned.

Facebook says the changes are a result of feedback from developers.

I can’t imagine people will ditch their custom tabs (and they shouldn’t!!), so I imagine a lot of people are going to be scrambling to get their page redesigned.

It’ll be interesting to see the reaction.  Most Facebook changes are met with initial grumbling and complaints.

Popularity: 3% [?]

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How much should you spend on SEO?

It’s a tough question, especially in a bad economy.

The question really begs another question – what is your goal for your site?

If you are operating it as a real business where you hope to either supplement your current income or rely on it as your sole source of income – then you need to be prepared to invest in search (it’s often the foundation of your marketing and a consistent source of regular traffic).

You can invest time or money and in most cases, you usually need to invest both.

I think there is someone out there spreading some erroneous information about starting a business online.  There is a lot of the “build it and they will come” mentality – in other words throw up a site and voila insta-business!

While in many ways, it is easier to do business online because you don’t need to set up physical stores and have a lot of the issues you have with brick and mortars, it is by no means a “sure thing” – you still have to work for your success.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying you shouldn’t start an online business -  I am just saying if you expect your business to grow and treat you well, then you need to treat it like a serious business.

So, yes, it will be necessary for you to invest both time and money into generating traffic.

So back to the question at hand – how much should you spend on SEO?

You need to crunch some numbers and see how many visitors it takes to get a sale and how much a sale is worth to you to really fine-tune your budget – especially if PPC is part of your plans (so many people waste money on PPC that isn’t converting – spend wisely or it can suck you dry!)

For organic SEO you will find everything from $19.99 mass submission (avoid like the plague, you may as well burn your $19.99) to tens of thousands of dollars per month.

Most small to medium sized businesses spend between $300 – $800 per month, although I’ve also heard people say numbers a little higher, like $500 – $1500 per month is the norm.  So somewhere in that range is what you should expect to pay for quality SEO work.

It always amazes me that people are annoyed they have to pay for SEO.  People will pay for a doctor or a mechanic, or even a web designer but they seem to resent having to pay for SEO.  If you have the time and knowledge, then by all means, don’t pay anyone, do it yourself.  However if you don’t have the time or knowledge, it’s a valid, and important expense and not something you should begrudge.  Driving traffic to your site is the foundation and not the area you want to go cheap.

I’m jussayin…think about your goals and think about what you are prepared to do to get there.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Time To Take Action!

“How does social media work with SEO?”

“ Do I really need to do Twitter?”

“How much will it cost to get my site on top of the search engines?”

“What are the best keywords?”

“Why did my traffic just take a hit recently?”

These are just a few of the questions that I hear almost every day.  Thankfully my head doesn’t spin too much (because I know the answers ), but yours must be doing cartwheels!  I mean, this is the KEY, info you need to grow your business!

I am here to help you make sense of social media and SEO.  Plain and simple.  I am here to determine what marketing strategies are going to work best for your business.

Yes, I want to earn your business and I hope that whatever services you use, you decide to hire EcomBuffet to handle them… BUT my offer of a consultation and giving you 3 action items you can use to improve your site and profitability comes with no strings attached.

This offer is to serious business owners only – it will require you answer some questions and take a good hard look at what you are currently doing and what you are willing to do to grow your business.

I hate to say it, but here’s the reality.  While you continue wading through the sea of SEO and social media confusion (through no fault of your own), several of your (pesky) competitors are armed with the exact info that YOU NEED.  And the worst part of it?  They’re using this info to outrank you, outsell you, and out-earn you.

The good news?  It doesn’t have to be this way.  All that stands between catching and surpassing your competitors and leaping your way to the top, is tapping into the 12 years of knowledge and experience we’ve built up by making this business our obsession.  (I know, I’m a little over-the-top today but it’s only because I really want to show you the importance of figuring out the next steps and taking your business to the next level).

So, if you are serious about taking your business to that next level, fill out this form (no cheating – every question please!).  Request your consultation now: http://ecombuffet.com/Consultation-request.htm

My promises to you:
•    You will receive 3 suggestions to improve your site.
•    You will get a suggested plan of action to grow your business.
•    You are under no obligation to do anything other than hear my suggestions and decide what makes sense to you.

Can’t wait to dig a little deeper into your business and see how we can really get things rocking for you!

To YOUR Success,

Jennifer Horowitz
Director of Marketing
www.EcomBuffet.com
562-592-5347
jennifer@ecombuffet.com

http://ecombuffet.com/Consultation-request.htm

Popularity: 4% [?]

Twitter Update

About to head to the airport to hop on a plane but wanted to share the news before I got going.  Here’s a Twitter update from Mashable:

http://mashable.com/2010/06/15/twitter-chaos/

Popularity: 5% [?]

Facebook Fan Page Creation: Save 15%

Facebook Fan/Business Pages are pretty important.

If you aren’t sure of the difference between a Fan Page, Group and Profile, read more here: http://www.ecombuffet.com/fbfp.htm.

If you have a Fan Page but aren’t sure if it’s a killer page that’s really going to get you results – email me and I’ll do a critique at no charge.

Don’t have a Fan Page and know you need one?  Save 15% on a custom designed Fan Page until midnight June 15th.  Check it out now: http://www.ecombuffet.com/fbfpspecial.htm

A quote from Danny Sullivan at SearchEngineLand:
“This is also a good time for search marketers and marketers in general to think again about Facebook, if you haven’t already. More and more Facebook content has been made visible to search engines over the years. “  Sullivan then goes on to say “ Google’s move makes having Facebook fan pages even more essential. Without one, you’re missing out on a chance to be found within yet another area, Google’s real time results.”

Danny said it all – if you don’t have a page – now is the time!

Don’t forget in addition to the Notes, Links, Discussion and Wall (default tabs on a Facebook Fan page) you want to create custom tabs with FBML to make the page more compelling and a stronger marketing tool.  If you don’t know how to work with code, let us build a page for you!

Jennifer Horowitz
Director of Marketing
www.EcomBuffet.com
562-592-5347
jennifer@ecombuffet.com

Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ecombuffet

Facebook Page: http://www.ecombuffet.com/SEO-Fanpage/

Popularity: 6% [?]

Back To The Basics

People are always wondering what they need to do to really grow the traffic to their website.  A lot of people ask what they should do and what order should they do it in.  Here is a little blueprint to help guide you and keep you on track.

It’s important to recognize that there is a lot to do and it can’t all be done at once.  The first step is taking stock of where you are at.  What areas are you lacking in?

Here’s a quick checklist of everything you should be doing to promote your site.

1.    Get your site optimized (make sure the code is clean, fast loading, keyword rich and optimized for the engines)
2.    Set up a Blog (Wordpress hosted on the same server as your site is the best set up)
3.    Create a Twitter account and start building followers
4.    Create a Facebook Fan page (and invite friends, family, followers, colleagues etc to become a fan, post a Facebook badge on your site and Blog)
5.    Feed your Blog into your Facebook page so that your Facebook Fans are seeing your great content
6.    Write Blog posts that are “article style” and then tweet them out to followers (by article style I mean content that is informative and not self promotional so the article directories will accept it)
7.    Syndicate the articles you posted on your Blog to article directories (once they have been spidered on your site)
8.    Add content that is keyword rich to your site in addition to your Blog
9.    Explore PPC and other advertising sources
10.    Repeat  steps 6, 7 and 8 (as well as building Twitter followers which is mentioned in step 3)
11.    Build joint venture relationships and find affiliates to promote your services as relevant.
12.    Market to your mailing list on a regular basis through newsletters, a series of emails such as a “mini course” and special offers.

I know it’s a lot, but there are pieces of it you can outsource.  Do the best you can and work at it consistently – getting a little bit done every day is better than not doing anything.

Tips:

Articles/Blog posts don’t need to be really long.  If you are syndicating them they need to be at least 400 words.  It’s often easier to write shorter articles.  If you have a lot to say make it a multi-part series.

It’s possible to do all this without taking over your whole day.  Set time frames for each task and set a timer.  Only work for the allotted time and when the timer goes off, move on.  Even small bits will add up over time and its better than doing nothing – which is what most of us do when we are overwhelmed.

Use Google Alerts to stay on top of hot topics in your industry.  It can help make it easier to pick topics for articles and Blog posts.

Keep a running list of topics you want to write about.  A lot of times it’s hard to get started when you don’t know what to write about.  Refer to your list and pick a topic and then get writing.

Not sure how to optimize your site or if it’s optimized already?  Request a site review and proposal so you can see where your site stands and see what the costs are for getting the site optimized.

Need help getting going on Twitter?  Don’t waste time, get proper training and get the most out of the time you spend on Twitter.  Check out Twitter Quickstart Success Training System.

Want more info on Facebook Fan Pages?  Click here: http://www.ecombuffet.com/fbfp.htm

Popularity: 8% [?]

Social Media Overtakes Google…In The UK

Hitwise’s latest report shows social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter got more visits than search engines but ONLY in the UK. According to Hitwise, during May 11.88% of UK Internet visits were to social media sites, while only 11.33% were to search engines.

Hitwise also found out that 55% of the overall Internet visits were for Facebook, while YouTube and Twitter follow in the second and third spots.

Suggestion: If you are running a business in the UK – you need a Facebook Fan Page!!

Popularity: 7% [?]

Mayday Google Algorithm Update

Get comfy – this post is one of my longer ones.  But it’s full of very important current information about some Google changes.

The Mayday Update

Have you been hearing all the talk about the Mayday update and all the fallout?  I’m going to break it all down and tell you what it means and what you need to do.  Let me just start with a quick overview for beginners.

If you own a website, you want top rankings.  With more than 8 out of 10 people using search engines to find what they need online, you are missing out if your site isn’t ranked well in the engines.

We can all agree on that!  So, how do you get those coveted top rankings?

While I wish the answer was “magic fairy dust” but it’s not that simple (which is too bad because I happen to have a fresh supply of fairy dust – my niece shared it with me!).

Search Engine Optimization is the process of optimizing your site for the engines.  Don’t know what SEO is?  Then likely your site isn’t optimized and missing out on traffic.

Already had your site optimized in the past? That’s great and it’s a start but SEO requires on-going efforts on your site to gain and increase rankings.

Why?

Because the engines frequently make changes to their algorithms (the formula used to determine how to rank your site in the search engine results pages [SERPs]).  We’ve heard rumors that Google changes their crawling/indexing or ranking algorithm as often as once a day.  Sometimes these tweaks are minor and other times they are bigger and the impact is widely felt by webmasters and site owners.

Here is an explanation of what’s going on from Ex-Googler Vanessa Fox:

“Last week at Google I/O, I was on a panel with Googler Matt Cutts who said, when asked during Q&A,  ”this is an algorithmic change in Google, looking for higher quality sites to surface for long tail queries. It went through vigorous testing and isn’t going to be rolled back.”

I asked Google for more specifics and they told me that it was a rankings change, not a crawling or indexing change, which seems to imply that sites getting less traffic still have their pages indexed, but some of those pages are no longer ranking as highly as before. Based on Matt’s comment, this change impacts “long tail” traffic, which generally is from longer queries that few people search for individually, but in aggregate can provide a large percentage of traffic.

This change seems to have primarily impacted very large sites with “item” pages that don’t have many individual links into them, might be several clicks from the home page, and may not have substantial unique and value-added content on them. For instance, ecommerce sites often have this structure. The individual product pages are unlikely to attract external links and the majority of the content may be imported from a manufacturer database. Of course, as with any change that results in a traffic hit for some sites, other sites experience the opposite. Based on Matt’s comment at Google I/O, the pages that are now ranking well for these long tail queries are from “higher quality” sites (or perhaps are “higher quality” pages).

What’s a site owner to do? It can be difficult to create compelling content and attract links to these types of pages. My best suggestion to those who have been hit by this is to isolate a set of queries for which the site now is getting less traffic and check out the search results to see what pages are ranking instead. What qualities do they have that make them seen as valuable? For instance, I have no way of knowing how amazon.com has faired during this update, but they’ve done a fairly good job of making individual item pages with duplicated content from manufacturer’s databases unique and compelling by the addition of content like of user reviews. They have set up a fairly robust internal linking (and anchor text) structure with things like recommended items and lists. And they attract external links with features such as the my favorites widget.

From the discussion at the Google I/O session, this is likely a long-term change so if your site has been impacted by it, you’ll likely want to do some creative thinking around how you can make these types of pages more valuable (which should increase user engagement and conversion as well).”

More notes that Fox got from Matt Cutts at Google.  This update:

•    has nothing to do with the “Caffeine” update (an infrastructure change that is not yet fully rolled out).
•    is entirely algorithmic (and isn’t, for instance, a manual flag on individual sites).
•    impacts long tail queries more than other types
•    was fully tested and is not temporary

More good advice from Fox:

“Google made between 350 and 550 changes in its organic search algorithms in 2009. This is one of the reasons I recommend that site owners not get too fixated on specific ranking factors. If you tie construction of your site to any one perceived algorithm signal, you’re at the mercy of Google’s constant tweaks. These frequent changes are one reason Google itself downplays algorithm updates. Focus on what Google is trying to accomplish as it refines things (the most relevant, useful results possible for searchers) and you’ll generally avoid too much turbulence in your organic search traffic.”
(Source: http://searchengineland.com/google-confirms-mayday-update-impacts-long-tail-traffic-43054)

The Take Away Here?

This isn’t the end of “long tail” – which is something people are spouting on Blogs and ezines the past few weeks (someone is always declaring the death of something SEO related.  SEO has more lives than a cat because it’s outlived many proclaimed deaths!)

Optimization is important to get top rankings – but optimization does not mean manipulating the current “hot button” or “hot topic item” that everyone is speculating about with the algorithm.

Consistent site updates, high quality relevant content and good on-page optimization and clean code, as well as earning links because your site is a good site (and not because you play a link exchange game or belong to a link network) are the way to get top rankings.

Rankings aren’t constant and you do need to maintain them and weather some storms but the sites that don’t fall for the latest rankings ploys are the ones that do better long term.

These days most site owners realize they can’t just rely on Google alone for traffic and they are looking to Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites to help boost their exposure online.

So your action plan?

•    Check your stats and see if you were in fact impacted by the Mayday update (did you lose traffic from some long tail phrases).
•    Check out your linking practices and make sure you haven’t done any shady linking lately.
•    Look at your link strategy and make sure you are passing link juice to your internal pages.
•    Bulk up your internal pages with unique content and quality info (other than just manufacturer supplied product info)
•    Make sure you have a Facebook Fan Page/Business Page
•    Get going on Twitter
•    Contact me for a no obligation consultation or SEO and Social Media proposal if you aren’t where you need to be!

One final thought: while it’s important to stay current and be aware of changes, it’s just as important not to freak out and start making too many changes.  If you are using a strong and stable SEO strategy that covers the fundamentals, then you will be just fine for the long haul.

If you need an SEO and/or Twitter & Facebook proposal, call or email me!

Jenn Horowitz
Director of Marketing, EcomBuffet.com
jennifer@ecombuffet.com
562-592-5347

Popularity: 13% [?]

New SERPs in Google

In May 2010 Google launched their new Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) – for the beginners who are not familiar with the terminology the SERPs are the page you see your results on after you perform a search in Google.

With the new design, Google is forcing users to notice all the options available to them.

It’s a common belief that this new layout will change how people interact with the search results and people will play with the various options now that they are more prominent.

Notice you can narrow your search for News, Images etc in the top left section.  Then you can access various search tools and then they offer “Something Different” which gives you other options that they feel are related to your search.

Tip: To be sure you come up on top when people click for the “Latest” results, you want to be sure you are updating your site regularly.

WebProNews reports that Yahoo shared when they added features to their left-hand navigation bar, engagement increased.   “We’ve been steadily adding more filtering options and relevant search suggestions to our left-hand navigation bar…and have seen engagement and click-throughs for those features double over the past seven months.”  (Source: http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2010/05/06/yahoo-weve-got-a-left-hand-navigation-bar-too)

The Take-Away:

It is going to be very important that you evaluate the related search queries and available options for phrases you want to rank for, to make sure you do well when users engage with the various options in the new results page.

Popularity: 8% [?]

SEO Questions & Answers

Time for more common SEO questions…

1.    What is more important – content or links?

I love this question!  My response is: why is it one or the other? If both are important to the engines (and they are!), focus on both!

I will say that the engines fluctuate a lot in what links they will credit your site with. You may see Google crediting you with 200 links one day and only 20 a week later.  People try to manipulate the engines through linking and Google has gotten pretty good at weeding out links they don’t think should count.

But good content has never been devalued – it’s always been important to the engines.

So my suggestion is to start with good, clean, search engine friendly code and then build your site with strong content that uses your keywords well and then focus on building quality links.

You don’t want to ignore links or content but you want to focus your efforts on what will have the most impact and you want to cover all areas.  If you are writing good content, you should be putting it out there via your Blog, Facebook Fan Page and Twitter account and that should help your content spread and help you pick up links.  So although both links and content are important, I personally always come back to content as the foundation and then build from there.

2.    How do I know if I should hire an SEO Firm?

If you don’t have the rankings/exposure/traffic you need to grow your business AND you don’t have the time or knowledge to handle the work yourself, then you need to outsource the work.

If you aren’t sure if you will benefit from search engine optimization, you should contact me to schedule a consultation.  I will look at your site, determine what the issues are, take a look at how much potential traffic there is for you to tap into and go over costs and options.  There is no obligation.  Contact me at 562-592-5347 or jennifer@ecombuffet.com

So to summarize: if you think your site is lacking in rankings/exposure/traffic , you should definitely contact me.  While it’s true rankings increase over time and history matters, if your site doesn’t have a solid foundation, good content, some linking and on-page optimization then rankings won’t magically appear.

That’s all for today.  Stay tuned for future questions and answers and as always – keep sending me your questions.

I’m here for your success!

Jennifer Horowitz
Director of Marketing, EcomBuffet

Popularity: 9% [?]