As part of the audit we do to kick off SEO strategy development, we ask folks to let us know who their competitors are.  Then we look at the competitors for search visibility on  the search terms we’ve been provided, and sometimes find, (through OK, way more meticulous research than might be needed, but you never want to leave any stone untermed), many times the competitors the client provides simply aren’t players.

We’ll find those URLs in the 20’s and 30’s ranks, or not present at all in the top 50. Checking out the top 20 URLs, competition that may be lurking just outside the client’s radar often emerges.  Sometimes an entirely new category of competitors emerges.  For instance, in an industry where dealers, affiliates or aggregators develop a lot of content about the industry (franchising, for example), those aggregators actually are your stiffest competition for getting your corporate URL seen in ranks 1-20.

This is a great example of why it pays to hire SEO out.  If you are coming up to speed on SEO, you might start your research by looking at which URLs are present on the terms you think are the best.  Then, if you don’t see your competitor’s URLs…you might think SEO isn’t all that important - since none of your competitors seem to be doing it.  What you don’t know by guessing is that there are probably dozens of search terms that people are using. Between not quantifying the Total Available Search Market(TM) and not understanding the competitive landscape, you may be overlooking the potential gains from SEO entirely.

The truth is, your prospects are searching.  That’s all you need to know, to know investing in SEO campaign management and analysis makes sense.  Besides, you really don’t want to look through data on who’s out there in the top 50 ranks for hundreds of terms on a zillion search engine pages, do you? And I do…

One thing I believe in, really and truly, is the power of stories. If I have a religion, it’s one of words. No matter what the context or era or medium or place or culture or language, stories are one of the most important and compelling parts of our humanity. Beyond Maslow’s basic hierarchy, what motivates us? Why do we care deeply and fanatically about some companies, while others could cease to exist without it even hitting our radars? It’s the story.

I’ve been AWOL on the blog a bit lately, but I’ve been tucked away planning and thinking and developing some things that you’re going to start seeing in the coming months. We’re marketers first, so there are always tactical and strategic things to consider. But often while everyone is clustered around those things, I find myself trying to figure out what the core of the thing is. Because the core, you see, the core IS the story. You can do all the strategical maneuvering you want, position yourself perfectly, but will anyone care if you aren’t compelling?

Companies who have a story that is an integral part of their identity invite us to be a part of that story with them. (more…)

Recently, I received an invitation to join John’s network on TimeBridge, a social media site allowing groups of people to share schedules and availability. TimeBridge may be a good solution, but my relatively short experience was pretty bad.
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One thing I love about Twitter is getting quick links to interesting posts from people in the industry I respect. Posts by poseurs on Twitter being slow today? Not so much…hey guy, you’re not helping!

So, even though Seth Godin is in our search marketing blogroll and one of the best and brightest writing on marketing, I had not seen this post on The Secret of the Web (hint: it’s a virtue) until today. (Gosh, I was out of the loop for almost a day!) It’s a good reminder that the hard things, like refining your content to be more relevant for a golden nugget of a search term that nobody else has discovered yet, are ultimately worth doing. The cool things that keep you from doing the hard things, like SEO? He talks about that, too.

I happened across an interesting article from Sean Carton with the Clickz Network. It’s titled, “Why Social Marketing Nirvana Escapes our Reach.” Sean talks about the not-so-distant past where businesses were hot to set up “portals.” Portals were sure to keep people coming back … keep them staying on YOUR site … keep them from looking elsewhere for things like news, sports, stock prices, etc. Fortunately, the corporate portal goals have died (and Sean explains why). Unfortunately, the push for the must-have portal sites has become a push for must-have social networking sites. Or, so it seems.

It’s not prudent to create a social networking site just because some businesses are doing it, or because some experts say you have to have one. Your site might do just dandy by only providing customers the information they need to make a purchase decision and the ability to find/buy your products. Of course, you must optimize your site so those customers can find you, but you don’t necessarily have to create a new social “neighborhood” to get - or keep - their attention.

RefreshWeb staffers know an awful lot about social media and we do believe there are benefits to social networks - where appropriate. We’re also good business people and would advise against putting the time, effort and money into something that isn’t strategically important for your business. Are you feeling pressure (from your company or the media) to jump on the newest Internet bandwagon?