Business Management Consultant - Stuntdubl Search and Marketing Consulting

It’s pretty easy - write a SEO marketing plan for a non-profit of your choice, and you could win a scholarship to learn how to become an even better, more well rounded marketer. Worst case scenario, you will have written a SEO marketing plan for a non-profit that you can share with the people who run your the non-profit for your cause of choice. Pretty cool right?

MarketMotive, is allowing each faculty member to award a scholarship for certification courses valued at $3500 for the upcoming semester which starts on April 15th. All-star faculty members teach the certification courses: Dave Szetela, Matt Bailey (Fundamentals), Jennifer Laycock (Social Media), John Marshall (Web Analytics), Avinash Kaushik (Web Analytics), Greg Jarboe/Jamie O’Donnell (Online PR and Video marketing), Bryan Eisenberg (Conversion Optimization), Michael Stebbins (Email Marketing) and nailing down PPC Advertising. The goal of the scholarship is to help deserving folks (like you!) to help us in creating something great for a non-profit marketing group. If you already work at a non-profit, feel free to pull double duty, and tell me how you would continue to improve your site, or even someone elses. If you’re already a marketing pro - you’re welcome to enter as well, and donate your prize to the person you deem most worthy. Our goal is to help some deserving folks (like you) attain master certification in their field, and provide a valuable service to non-profit marketers everywhere.

If you would like to win a scholarship to earn certification in any of the offered topics, pick one non-profit web site of your choice and submit a short SEO marketing plan that you think would help improve the campaign results for your chosen charity. You can choose to publish it on your website and let me know about it, or email to me (todd at this site name.com).

At the end, each winner gets a complimentary $3,500 course to earn certification. If you are already an expert in SEO, you can donate the course to whoever you feel is most qualified. In addition, each faculty member will link to the plans submitted by other finalists and winners – the sum of which will form a wealth of of information for nonprofit marketers.

Rules: Submitting a plan means contestants agree that their plan may be be posted (with attribution) and/or sent to the charity. Plans may be edited before being posted at blog owner’s discretion. Winning plan (s)will be selected at the discretion of MarketMotive faculty chairs. All entries must be submitted before 12:01 am PST on April 1st, 2010, and the winners will be announced on April 5th.

There is a misnomer in search marketing and SEO that things change all the time. I think I stopped consuming SEO blogs and news sites on a daily basis about 2 or 3 years ago when I decided enter full time consultancy with no one else’s safety net. There was no extra time for anything accept a low information consumption diet. I had to develop unflinching confidence in the work I was doing to execute on various strategies based on my understanding of how search engines have historically worked, and the assumption that they will continue to function in basically the same manner for some time to come.

This is from a conclusion that there have only been a handful of changes that affected how I conducted my business. I learned from both blackhats and search engineers both to come up with a strategy that fit my ethical code while indulging my competitive nature and hunger for success. I am convinced that the cat/mouse dynamic between blackhats and engineers has helped to form the current state of information retrieval based on strong needs to stay relevant in certain areas that were exploited solely for capitalistic monetary gain.

I’ve found some great posts and articles about search history and how search engines have evolved over time, but not many mentions of how search optimizers have changed their strategies over time. There are a few good resources listed below, but none quite summed up the changes that affected what I like to refer to as the “SEO mentality”. I’m hoping to create a fairly comprehensive document for Market Motive Internet Marketing Training (where I’ll be discussing this shortly with legendary SEO’s Greg Boser and Marshall Simmonds, to help add to the increasingly comprehensive body of SEO training we’ve developed over the past two years (Over 40 Videos now!).

I learned what SEO was in about 2002 - shortly after offpage factors started to strongly determine relevance. I spent several years and thousands of hours on forums reading, learning, an interacting and teaching to figure out how search engines worked. When I made the choice to work for myself at home after another great year of learning and consulting at We Build Pages (with Jim Boykin - one of the sharpest SEO’s I’ve ever known), I decided it was time to start doing. I built sites, and strategies for myself, using consulting money to fund development of website projects, and parlaying to thinks like being able to even afford the insane cost of living in the SF Bay area. It was based on the unwritten understanding of the changes that are mentioned below, and not listening to a lot of the SEO garbage that is spewed all over on the interwebs.

When I started doing - I realized that not much changes with SEO in terms of strategic execution. It is a pretty logical art and science of determining risk to reward ratios, and implementing strategies in a sequential fashion following certain established rules based on intended outcome. I’ve developed a playbook and these SEO rulesets by understanding the HISTORICAL GAMECHANGERS in SEO. Feel free to add some on twitter with #seogamechangers

I’ve been taking a mental inventory of these game changes for a few months, and here is what I have them broke down to:

1. Onpage factors (1995 – 1999)
2. Offpage factors (2000)
3. Florida update (2003)
4. Fresh Crawl/ Everflux (2004)
5. Sandbox effect (2005)
6. Duplicate content filtering (2006)
7. Human editorial (2006)
8. Onebox/ Universal Search (2007)
9. Paid linking handling (2007)
10. No follow (2008)
11. User data validation and segmentation (2009)
12. Brand Mentions (update Vince - 2009)

Some of my dates may be a bit off, but for the most part these are the major factors that affect my actionable SEO Strategies. These are the major changes that contribute to the hurdles, filters, and challenges of ranking a site on a search engine.

I’d love to hear from other folks on the things that you think should be included in the list. There are MANY minor things that full under these categories, but after revisiting most and asking twitter, I think this is pretty comprehensive, as things like local search 10 pack, personalization, geotargetting all fall under one of these other areas (even if the dates aren’t exact). Please let me know if you can think of anything I missed. I’ll try to watch the comments on the post closely for once:) Please post any great resources, or suggestions for adding/updating to the list.

Resources

• Brett Tabke
• Danny Sullivan
• Aaron Wall’s extensive writing on SE history
• Jim Boykin
• James Svoboda
• Rand Fishkin
• Mark Knowles
• Funny from Pat

Link development is tough. Not everyone can create amazing linkbait, as easy as the experts make it sound. It’s not an easy proposition to get people to link to your website if you’re a local realtor, mortgage broker, or holistic doctor for that matter. It is POSSIBLE though with the right approach to actually solicit and develop links that will help your search engine rankings. From LOTS of trial and error, here’s the process I’ve developed for training link developers to become true link ninjas that will hunt and pursue links that actually make a site rank high for targeted terms.

The updated "How to Train a Link Developer for 2009 Guide"

Teach them why links are important and the basic criteria for establishing their value

1. Overall value of the link theme (use cost per click as a rough metric)
2. Total links
3. Total unique linking domains (find with linkharvester)
4. Anchor text and surrounding text variables
5. Placement on page
6. Check Age (Archive.org)
7. More link value factors

Explain the contradiction of pagerank mattering

1. It is a quick indicator to dismiss low value websites
2. Toolbar pagerank is for entertainment purposes only, and can be spoofed
3. Finding high pagerank (or global link popularity) sites is a great starting point to finding authority links

Show them how to find good starting points
(and WHY this is important)

1. google directory (sorted by PR)
2. keyword combination tool
3. creative queries (soloseo link tool)
4. Competitor backlinks

Explain how to find contact information

1. Page search for name or webmaster
2. Whois.sc or other whois tool
3. Phone number search
4. People search

Explain how to search source code and within the browser to find things quickly on a page

1. Firefox - control+U to view source
2. Control+F to find text
3. Find text on the actual page
4. Open tabs with shift+click or other methods
5. Mouse gestures FF plugin

Explain the 12 different types of links

1. Order of importance
2. How to get each
3. How much time to spend on each type
4. Links is to SEO’s what Snow is to Eskimos.

Explain how to write contact emails (see pickup tips below for more)

1. Explain how to write converting titles to improve open rate
2. Explain how to write an link request

Write some descriptions and anchor text

1. Explain getting content for article links
2. Explain writing titles and description
3. Explain varying anchor text
4. Explain current keyword strategy
5. Co-citation techniques

Demonstrate how to negotiate

1. anchor text or alt text
2. type of link
3. rates
4. term
5. exclusivity

Explain how to tell if a webmaster is cheating or if a site sucks

1. Non-cached pages
2. Linkfarm pages
3. Sneaky redirects
4. Robots.txt
5. Nofollow
6. Buried links pages

Let them go out and get some links

1. Setup a paypal account with limited access
2. Setup a one time credit card with a limited amount
3. Have them verify purchases

Allow tool use for link development

1. Link Harvester
2. Linkscape
3. Hubfinder
4. Local Rank tool in SEObook community
5. Majestic SEO
6. Link Management tools (like Raven SEO Tools, or BuzzStream)
7. FF Quick Searches
8. Other tools?

Explain how to mine a competitors backlinks

1. Linkscape
2. Link Harvester
3. Yahoo Site Explorer
4. Quirk Search Status plugin for FF
5. Hubfinder (in SEObook community, and a few legacy versions)

Start a persona for your website

1. Real or psuedonym (real are much more credible)
2. Be consistent across websites (and interlink within reason)
3. Have picture and bios
4. Make sure you own your brand (in addition to generic personas)- Secure with KnowEm

Explain they are a brand advocate, and their actions represent the company

1. Similar to business development
2. Establish phone etiquette
3. Establish email and IM etiquette rules

How Link Building for SEO is Like Picking Up a Girl

Approach **

1. Learn to get a response (of any type) from a target
2. Use Twitter, IM, Email, Facebook, or any other communication method
3. Overcome approach anxiety and approach sites early and often

Transition

1. Discuss webmastering
2. Discuss content of a similar nature
3. Mention the website you are associated with

Attraction

1. Demonstrate value as a webmaster
2. Demonstrate value as a web user
3. Demonstrate value to the webmaster’s users

Qualification

1. Allow the opportunity to have a webmaster help you in return (ask intelligent questions)
2. Find attractive opportunities to work together (perhaps brainstorming ideas or content trading)

Comfort

1. Discussing opportunities to work together through trading links
2. Discussing advertising opportunities

Seduction

1. Discussing anchor text and surrounding text
2. Discussing ad placement and terms

Relationship

1. Discussing the duration of the contract
2. Discussing renewal terms of the contract
3. Discussing mutual arrangements of the contract
4. Make sure there are no lies (nofollow, robots.txt, javascript redirects)

**Numbered points are from the "Emotional Progression Model"

For more on information on SEO and link development training, check out MarketMotive, or let me know if you need something more custom.

Inspiration:

• Emotional Progression Model
• Original Link Development Training Post
• Link Popularity is like high school popularity

Additional Resources:

• @NinjaJen’s version of Art of getting a link and picking up women
• Advanced Linkbuilding in 2009 from Christoph
• Linkbuilding A-Z
• Big bunch of link dev ideas
• 11 Link Experts Speak Out
• Old Link Hunting tips

Anything I missed? Great Tips? Great Tools? Great Links about Links? Leave ‘em in the comments.

Don’t be a failure at your social media marketing. Your message and how you distribute it is very important to your brand and future success. You’ve got on the cluetrain, and decided it’s time to start embracing social media as an important part of your marketing mix.

You’ve seen and heard the success stories, but you’ve been floundering with no traction for the last 6 months. You’ve figured out what social media is. Before you reappropriate that budget, take a look at what you’re doing wrong - or better yet, know the common problems and how to fix them from the start.

1. You Chose the Wrong Channels

You’ve seen the stats on facebook and myspace. They are HUGE. There is massive reach the size of google. This does not mean if you make a profile company for Chevy, everyone will be their friend and buy more cars. There is a HUGE disconnect between wanting to USE social media for marketing, and embracing it for better communication with customers.

How does a campaign that is on television only get a couple thousand friends on facebook? Improper distribution. I hope the *cough* branding was worth it.

Solution: You choose your social media channels by finding where the customers who want to talk about your company are talking. If they are NOT talking about your company anywhere, then you need to find common topics that a given community is interested in.

Example: If you have a site about young tech males - digg is definitely your place. If you have a site about cooking and gardening, you’re going to have to pander to young techie males on digg, or you’re going to need Kirtsy.com. Find the community that your customers are most likely to hang out in. Then maybe explore a few bigger ones, and try to find a few of your people out of a crowd.

2. You Used the Wrong People

Just because your web designer twittered once and had a myspace profile from day one, does not mean that he understands how to market on social media. Just because your advertising agency knows how to market in print, does not mean that they understand how digg, reddit, and stumbleupon work. Yes - your SEO got you some good rankings, but he’s only getting you 5 diggs on the content you’ve spent weeks preparing. Not exactly the big win you were hoping for.

If you’re using the wrong people you’re toast. We all figured out the hard way what the website looked like when the network admin created it, and how well it ranked when the print designer posted the all image version. Don’t let someone who plays on twitter while they’re at work try to run your viral marketing campaign.

Solution: Firstly, it helps to find someone who’s actually DONE what you’re trying to do. Yes, they may be more expensive, but you won’t pay for the service two or three times learning these same lessons in failure.

3. Your Content Sucked

You wrote a top 10 list. So did 3 million other sites. It wasn’t entertaining or resourceful, and you forgot to use even a single linkbaiting hook. Even the best social media promoters out there won’t be able to promote pure crap. Being one step better than crap is not remarkable either. Your content needs to be on another level to get referenced throughout the web these days. You’re not going to get buy with a $30 article from elance, and expect it to get 1,000 backlinks.

Solution: Spend some time and research. Run some of your keywords on Aaron’s awesome keyword tool, and see what was successful. Take that idea, and make it three times better. Then edit the hell out of that idea, and improve it another couple times. Then cut out all the garbage you added as filler, and add one more round of good stuff. Be sure that you don’t use words like "good stuff".

• Edit yourself mercilessly.
• Be succinct.
• Be entertaining
• Research and list better (and more) resources.
• Have a hook (or two or three)

4. Your Team Didn’t Believe in the Project

You had the right people internally, but they didn’t think it would work. They’d rather be playing guitar hero and ping pong instead of helping the project succeed. Social media isn’t quite as measurable as other methods, and the sales pitch really wasn’t all that convincing.

Solutions: You have to sell the project better internally. You need to convince your team that this is how you increase revenue from their efforts, and it is directly attributable to them. Beat "through the fire and flames" on medium mode (or watch a bot do it on expert), and put guitar hero down, and don’t pick it up again.

Explain to your team why this is the difference between success and failure of the company. This is important to the bottom line, and even though it seems like fun and games - it’s the driving force behind successful marketing right now. Everyone needs to be on board, and pushing in the same direction to execute effectively.

5. You Didn’t Execute

The number one problem that social media campaigns don’t succeed: POOR EXECUTION.

The site imploded when you hit the homepage of digg. Because you didn’t test all of your scripts under high volume duress, your webserver nearly melted, and wouldn’t serve pages. Half of the people trying to access your site had ridiculous load times, or never saw the content at all. Needless to say, those visitors didn’t subscribe for anything, or check out additional pages on the site.

Solutions: Fire your network adminstrator, because there’s no excuse for downtime. Find someone who understands apache a bit better. Cache your site, make sure all cylinders are a go, and PRACTICE. Release some b-material first to see how smoothly things go.

Start small and test. Increase your success through understanding and improvements of the larger social media sites by using the smaller ones to channel success and vice versa. If you can get to the digg homepage, you should probably be able to get a good amount of delicious bookmarks.

6. No one Trusted You

Your site is plastered with ads. You’re selling get rich quick schemes. Your web host went down. Your design sucks. There’s no contact information. There’s no pictures of real people. Everyone has seen your stock photos before. There’s no address. There are plenty of reasons people won’t trust your website. Social media transparency will magnify trust issues, and people will really take swings at your potential flaws. Don’t set yourself up for failure by having people not trust you.

Solution: Read Matt McGee’s great article about building trust, and improve your credibility. Take down your advertising for social visitors, and give them a single call to action that is simple and not asking much.

 

7. You Forgot about Search

You built a site for social media. You pander to the audience, and gave the fickle crowd what they want. You forgot to create sustainable content around topics that are of interest to someone selling something. You brought in a bunch of WEB GRAZING SHEEPLE who don’t actually consume anything except media. Your users spend all day on stumbleupon, because they can barely afford more than their rent, an high speed internet connection, and a laptop with the meager salary they are able to earn working throughfeeding their need to be entertained 23 second attention span.

You didn’t realize the main goal of your social media marketing was to help ultimately rank high for a high volume, high converting competitive phrase that drove your revenues through the rough for the next two years of sustaining the result.

Solution: Here’s the shameless plug. You need someone who understands social media marketing and other forms of search engine marketing to develop a comprehensive strategy for your online marketing efforts. You need a SMOSEO (social media marketing search engine optimizer).

Better yet - you need to learn about becoming a online media marketer yourself and understand how all forms of marketing can affect social media, search engine rankings, converting traffic, and what these services are worth. Educate yourself on becoming a better online marketer if you want to succeed yourself working on the web.

Resources I found while writing this:

12 Tips on Creating Content for Social Media

Top 10 Reasons Great Content Fails

Tools for Social Media

Ultimate Social Media Resource List

Social media predictions for 2009

Social media gut check

SEO is about more than meta tags, title tags, and targeted anchor text. Call it "competitive webmastering", "SEO", or any one of a slew of other titles - it is the thought process of lateral thinking and understanding of website creation and marketing combined that matters most. It is a line of thinking that necessitates doing what is optimal: when to balance user experience with "bot experience" to create a site that will harvest any legitimate traffic without detriment to conversions, or without venturing into areas beyond the given risk threshhold for the project.

Technology and marketing were formerly unique disciplines with very different types of people. SEO’s are the folks in between. In my mind, the reason SEO goes well beyond just search marketing into most areas of business is because search engine marketing IMPACTS many of the decisions that are made in a business. Marketing, infrastructure, customer relations, analytics, accounting, human resources can all directly impact search marketing and vice versa. SEO has become more and more of a strategic vision as top rankings become more competitive, and more valuable. SEO is in large part the communication gap between marketing and IT, combined with top level executive strategy (The only good SEO’s that leave the field at this point, do so to become CEO’s - visual illustration).

This is intended to be an "advanced beginner’s guide" - which is a bit of a paradox, but the idea is that even the most proficient of SEO’s often revisit the basics, and that execution on simple solutions can be very elegant and effective. It will also help to cover many of the things that all too often get overlooked. Executing on basics is the most advanced play in the search engine marketing game. A little secret I’ll let you in on - Even the "SEO Pros" go back to basics - content and links. They’re only pros because these two critical elements have become second nature, and nearly every waking thought is based around how to create mo’ betta content, or get some new links in creative ways.

Even if you understand every single technique available - no matter what play you call - you still have to block and tackle to reach the endzone and score your top rankings. The most proficient SEO’s realize that search ranking, branding, marketing strategy, conversions, and postive conversations consist of two major elements - CONTENT and LINKS.

Content

User Experience and content organization

The user experience should be concise, and simple. Simple is elegant. You can have multitudes of functionality locked within a extremely simple streamlined interface. Read Don’t make me think, and the Big Red Fez.

Key tips with site architecture:

1. User architecture and bot architecture don’t need to be identical. A bot will determine the heirarchy of a site through it’s link structure. A user will determine the heirarchy of a site through the placement of the main navigational elements.

2. Search engines are becoming extremely proficient at incorporating semantics into link structure. Keeping a site sectioned into themes is extremely important. The importance of internal anchor text to this factor is rarely over-rated.

3. Internal search is incredible for gathering data on your site.

Resources for understanding information architecture, and balancing the user experience with the bot experience:

• User expectations for common ecommerce elements
• Search engine theme pyramids

Content Creation

Keyword based content

Creating content specifically to rank for keywords. This is a borderline practice, depending on the intelligence level of the content. A thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters could lookup and change content based on a set of words.

User generated content

The beauty of web 2.0 - people decide to connect together to do something. Whether it’s worthwhile or otherwise, two heads are very often better than one, and conversation is the backbone of the web.

How to content

Everyone loves to know how to do something. I really wish I could download things like "how to do your own plumbing", and be able to figure it out. Someday, perhaps a well optimized and informative video will be able to do that.**

**after publishing Rob pointed me to these installation resources on Vintage Bath and Tub (who have some cool clawfoot tubs) - great examples of howto content

Blog content

Write what you know. Talk about a relevant, cohesive topic.

Linkbait content

Make a GREAT idea even better. Be remarkable.

Commodity content

Sometimes cheap content is better than no content. Don’t be lazy.

Content Resources:

• 10 Web Tools to Help Generate Blog Content Ideas
• Adding content pages - 78 possible topics - Jim
• Can your content pass a hand check - Martinibuster_
• Content Planning for Search Engine Optimization - SEO by the SEA
• Content to create links - SEW
• Read Copyblogger through twice
• Directory of Government RSS Feeds _ Threadwatch.org
• Fifty (50!) Tools which can help you in Writing - lifehack.org
• Search’s Long Tail
• The Long Tail_ SEO Tips
• When Unique Content Is Not “Unique” - Sugarrae
• Finding Hidden Content - Content idea - RogerD’s notebook
• Editing Press Releases
• Writers' Block_ Breaking Out With Ten Simple Ideas

WebmasterWorld Supporter’s forum:

• 63 Questions to Ask Prior to Building a Content Site
• Content creation What do you know about writing for the web
• Providing Decent Content vs Providing Crap Content

Content Structure:

Duplicate content thinking

LINKS

The "Bot Experience"

"Create a site with your users in mind" has become an oft-quoted mantra of search engine representives when asked about how to rank better in search engines. While the logic is sound, it is also somewhat incomplete. The "experience" that a bot has when visiting your site will often determine the initial experience that a user has with your site as well. Controlling where the bot enters the site, and how the bot "sees" the site is of paramount importance to determining how users will find and navigate through your site.

Information architecture is one of the most overlooked areas of good search marketing. Mainly because it is one of the most difficult areas to retrofit on a site, and it’s extremely difficult for consultants to demonstrate the value to justify the workload needed to overhaul a site.

Link Development

Old is good - Old sites are trusted. Trustrank is a part of the game, and if you don’t believe it you’ve been sleeping. There is no sandbox, there is only the trustbox, and the trustbox emphasizes old, aged links that are on trusted domains that are relevant to your targeted query.

Link equity is the new brand building. Perhaps I’m a bit wrong - link equity, strategy, and development is the new brand building. Brand building and link building should coexist peacefully. Those folks out there that you’re paying $10 - $20 per hour for link building, are building your brand for the future. Why? because a brand is only a google search away these days. If I want to know how strong McDonald’s brand is - I do a google search. Perhaps I’m ahead of the curve, but even Joe sixpack isn’t that far behind me. He knows that google is a verb, and he’ll soon figure out how to change his default search application from windows live to yahoo or google. New brands don’t underestimate the intelligence of their consumers. Default search doens’t "WOW" anyone. Relevance, and information quality does.

Types of links and how to get them. Learn what they are, and how they apply to you. 12 types of links and how to get them.

Article link development

Write articles - submit to various sites based on automation for quantity or personal contacts for quality.

Press link development

Write articles - see above.

Partner link development

Network at conferences, through IM, or email, and make nice with friends.

Affiliate link development

Start an affiliate program with a service that is in the know. Redirect appropriate pages.

Paid link development

Buy text links on relevant sites

Viral link development

This one is probably among the toughest because it is becoming increasingly difficult to do something remarkable that people talk about.

Try learning what linkbaiting means.

Directory link development

Proceed with caution - you don’t need many.

Reciprocal link development

See above.

Link Development Resources:

• Graywolf’s Linkbuilding roundup on TW
• 10 steps to getting links to your site from M$ employee
• 101 Ways to Build Link Popularity in 2006 _ SEO Book.com
• 131 (Legitimate) Link Building Strategies
• A Few Quick Link Building Tips - Jason Hendricks
• Advice_ Increase Email Response Rate _ Justilien.com
• All links are paid - More No-Follow Fallout
• Are You Guilty of Stinkin’ Linkin’ Thinkin’_
• 7 Even More Effective Ways to Build Links SEO Black Hat
• Building an outsourced team of link builders
• Buying Links - O’Reilly In Debate Over Link Selling
• CSS Redesign list - How-to increase your links through a redesign
• Delegating Link Development_ Outsource or In-house_
• Determining the Value of Links from Link Renting
• Does Your Site Have Link Building Potential
• Doing SEO in a Vacuum - natural link development
• Email is Still the Key to a Successful Link Building Campaign - seomoz
• Filthy Linking Rich by Mike Grehan
• Finding Most Relevant Powerful Page for Link from Jim
• Getting Links 1 of 5 - Neil ACSEO
• Google s New Link Filter
• How to Request Links From Picky Sites - mm - seomoz
• Increase Your Link Request Conversion - Don’t Do This!
• Interview of Patrick Gavin
• Jump-start Your Link Building (without Getting Sandboxed) by Andy Hagans
• Link Building 101 - SEW
• Link Building for Blogs Online Marketing Blog
• Link Building Guide - jim westergren
• Link Building Services - How much $$ per link_
• Link Building Strategies - Who To Link To
• Link Building Wiki - Main - Link Building Wiki
• link building with affiliate programs — does it work_
• Link Building with Landing Pages_ a basic guide
• Link Popularity and Link Building Basics-Linking101.com
• LinkHounds - Great Link Building Tips & Link Popularity Tools
• Linking Strategies that work in 2005
• Linking Strategies, items 1 to 50
• List of Searches for Link-Popularity Building
• Natural Backlinks - Getting backlinks without even asking. - Jim Boykin
• Natural link paterns - How “Internet Phenomenon” Gain Links Over Time
• Recommendations on Content to Attract Links
  Secrets from Debra M
• SEOmoz - Unconventional Link-Building Ideas
• SEOmoz Blog _ 5 Rare & Valuable Link BuildingTactics
• SEOmoz Blog _ Long List of Link Searches
• SEOmoz Blog _ What a Good Link Request E-Mail Looks Like
• Seth’s Blog_ What makes an idea viral_
• The Link Building Knowledge Base by Andy Hagans @ www.linkbuilding.info
• Threads of the Web - Linking for Success
• Threadwatch to Build Killer Link Analysis Tool

Linkbaiting

• 21 KEYS TO LINK BAIT SUCCESS
• Blogger Relations 101 - Lee - How to pitch a blogger
• How to Attract Links and Increase Web Traffic The Ultimate Guide
• I Just Hired A Billion Linkbuilders _ Scoreboard
• Link Bait - jim westergren
• Linkbaiting or Link Baiting Strategies - Aaron Wall
• Linkbaiting or Link Baiting
• Linking The Unlinkable_ When Digg Won’t Work
• Viral Marketing With Blogs _ Copyblogger
• What is Linkbait

Webmasterworld Link Development Threads

• Bad Webmaster - No Donut for You!
• Basic Link Dev Strategies
• Buying text links
• Confessions of a Link Building Casanova
• Explaining to Clients How to Get Links
• How can I get inbound links
• How much to quote for link building_
• It's time to get some new links!
• Link Development in the Blogosphere
• Link Development Persona_ Male Versus Female
• Link Development Post Toolbar PR
• Link Development Strategies In the Age of Sandbox
• Link Development vs. Traffic Development and Staying with the Times
• Link Strategies To Build Presence and Gain Exposure
• New Link Spamming Technique
• Promoting deep linking
• Quality Content as Passive Link Development
• Research your Competition
• The Art Of Persuasion in Link Exhange Requests
• The Dark Side of Exchanging Reciprocal Links
• Buying Links - 'Staying under the Radar'

Supporter’s Forum (worth every penny of membership)

• How many new links per month to be on the safe side
• Things to watch out for when outsourcing link development
• Tips For Attaining One Way Inbound Links
• If I was a search engine, part 1…
• "Triangular" link exchange
• Brainstorm On How To Get One Way I.B. Links
• Employing Link hunters
• Hints from Search Engine Engineers about Links
• Link Patterns
• The text link market
• They Handy Dandy [Sponsoredy] Linky Getting Guidy
• Paid Links - Is it time to take it seriously_
• Part 2 Explaining to Clients How to Get Links

 

Welcome to the Rabbit Hole Alice - Resources for those figuring out what SEO really is.

You can take the blue pill or the red pill. The blue pill will take you back to your cozy desk job coding for the man, and the red pill might lead you to insomnia induced by ideas of how to turn your startup into a real company using only your laptop combined with some technical and marketing skills, and a realistic gameplan to pull it off. Or you might end up going from self employed to unemployed real quickly.

The first converstation I have with folks generally consists of them asking some questions about what SEO is. If they are REALLY interested, and get beyond thinking about the fact that I tell them meta tags generally don’t matter much, I would guess it feels a bit like Alice falling down the rabbit hole. I am still overwhelmed with information overload on a daily basis, and this is after over about 6 years of studying and experimenting with SEO techniques on a daily basis. I think the information overload stems from having so many opportunities to apply the information, as well as trying to keep up and evolve process with emerging opportunities. Digesting, managing, and even thriving on the information overload is extremely important in a business built on timely, relevant information.

Here’s where to start with your SEO Training if you’d prefer the red pill:

• SEO Glossary
• SEO Beginner’s Guide
• Google hot topics (Tedster is truly amazing)
• Search Engine Ranking Factors V.2
• SEO Tools
• SEO Tools 2
• SEO Manifesto
• Jim Boykin’s best posts

If that’s not enough, check out Lee’s list of SEO/SEM blogs, or Search through them. 

More resources on site strategy: 18 questions your CEO forgot to ask when building your website

Practice your blocking and tackling every day. Read these long enough, focus on refining tactics, and experimentation, and you’ll always have a team to play for; your clients, vendors, employer, or partners will be dumping the gatorade all over you for being the one that "made it rain".

What resources do you use for your SEO Playbook or your SEO blocking and tackling?

 

There’s probably a lot of better more cool names I could label myself - but I will forever consider “being an SEO” an honor, despite the beating it often takes from those that sully it’s good name. Below are the principles and qualities I would consider for qualification as a “good SEO”. I’m sure there are plenty that I missed - and hopefully there will be some debate of what can be added or removed, but these are the areas I personally feel are unique to “being an SEO” - and common traits and ideals that I see in those that I would consider top SEO’s. Why do you need a flashy title if you can sum up what you do in a three letter acroynym?

1. SEO is a marketing school of thought…not a process.
There are plenty of people that understand the process, and don’t “get” SEO. Here’s the process - SEObook, SEO glossary, and Ranking factors. There’s still only ten spots that matter.

The process of SEO is fundamental in just the same way that there are formulas for headlines in direct marketing that have MUCH higher likelihood for success - read the playbooks and the process becomes second nature.

2. It’s much easier to plan a website than to retrofit it.
Understanding fundamentals makes it much more valuable when you hire a consultant or agency. 18 questions your CEO forgot to ask.

3. Search increasingly impacts every form of media.
Every media distribution point is doing their best to incorporate search to personalize the conversation rather than just screaming at random people.

4. It’s all about the links (but also about the exposure, rankings, conversation, and conversion) Building link equity is the new brand branding. It’s really all about the conversion - but you gotta love links (and openly admit to it).

5. Any marketing decision impacts search engine rankings - and vice versa
TV, radio, print and other ads can all be used for attracting links. Want to use all flash as the homepage? Pick a different school of thought.

6. Creating a “purple” idea is much easier than begging for links
There is always an extraordinary, remarkable new angle to any industry.
SEO is about understanding the indirect correlation of things to execute on great ideas that no one else has envisioned by having a unique perspective on marketing. Looking for quick fixes and the latest loophole is NOT SEO. Drinkbaiting is SEO - if you can’t figure out why - you’ve never spent a full 40 hour week asking for links.

7. Social media can be optimized
Optimization does not mean manipulation. Optimization is examining the rules of the game and using them to your advantage. Social media increases both exposure - as well as the level of public scrutiny. People appreciate when bias is disclosed, and conversation is HUMAN.

If you are not authentic - you will not last. The higher the value for financial gain of the industry - the more reluctant consumers and agents of distribution become to helping you distribute your message for free.

8. Top rankings won’t fix a shitty product

9. Blackhat is lying to clients, customers, partners, or vendors.
Whitehat is proactively discussing risk tolerance, process, expectations, and contribution to a community instead of just bilking people into teaching you to think.

10. It’s all about the results
Great results can be rankings, sales, or the spread of ideas. There are many great business leaders that don’t realize they are SEO’s. It is more than a process - it is understanding the process and stacking the deck in your favor within the confines of the game - which ultimately changes the game. SEO is the understanding of the dynamic game of business marketing.

Summary, references, and comments

Now I’m starting to understand why many marketing companies hate search - We persist in telling them how wrong they are (their school of thought that is).

This manifesto was inspired by Hugh’s rewrite of the Hughtrain, and his call for manifesto’s as well as, of course, the original cluetrain. (it was tough to play by the rules and get it down to 500 words).

I’m sure there are other founding principles to the SEO school of thought that I am missing - please tell me what I missed, or what sounds way off. Feel free to let me know if you think I’m a wanker or are things or read and agreed with every line.

Search engine optimization is no longer a process - it is a business school of thought - a philosophy. SEO is a thought process of using specific search marketing tools and principles for creating a successful business. SEO is making specific business decisions based on previous knowledge that will ultimately impact bottom line profitability.

Many “SEO’s” have went through a fairly specific lifecycle of becoming successful entreprenuers. Stumble into the web. Learn SEO fundamentals. Apply SEO. Rinse. Repeat. Apply to personal or affiliate projects. Start a new business based on SEO principles. Re-apply SEO. It’s a shame we don’t have a cool fancy term for what many seasoned SEO’s turn into.

Fundamental philsophies of the SEO school of thought

1. It’s all about the links
2. It’s all about the traffic
3. It’s all about the conversion

These principles are used when making nearly any business decision to someone from the SEO school of thought. These newly evolved thought processes directly conflict with some of the principles from previous marketing schools of thought.

I spend far too much time wondering why most the world views SEO as black magic, while so many within our industry (including myself) hold such high regard for the top level SEO practitioners. After a lot of pondering and discussion on why SEO’s are viewed as shady worthless criminals, I have come to the conclusion that search engine optimization may still be a process, - but I’m convinced SEO is a school of thought.

Most people view SEO is a mystical process (which it’s not) - what IS mystical is the creative ideas that come from some of the top minds in the field by applying the principles to business. THIS is magic - because no one with out the SEO school of thought would ever stop to think of them. SEO’s are the brains and inspiration behind many web 2.0 business models. Sometimes these innovators aren’t even aware that they are applying SEO principles.

Just as psychology has various schools of thought, business does as well. Marketing, advertising, and management all have their theorists. I’m sure SEO could be classified into the first two, but there are many areas where it is different.

The BEST SEO’s…

…are not SEO’s at all. They are now successful entrepreneurs and businesspeople. Many of them that owe a large part of their success to organic rankings will always claim “to be an SEO”, or to “know SEO”. They are always looking for other folks who have the same philosphy - unfortunately it’s hard to hire them, or keep them for very long due to the entrepreneurial spirit it takes to learn the SEO philosophy. From Brian Provost at scoreboardmedia: The better I got at SEO, the less I did of it

“SEO’s are the new real estate developers. Our skillset gives us an amazing opportunity to develop an audience on the cheap.”

SEO has become a conduit to learn business

For our brief history of time - a window of opportunity opened. Over the last 10 years, the barrier to entry to learning business, and all it’s backroom antics has been opened up to a select group of people.

The nature of SEO requires that a business provide their SEO person with an abundance of important information for making decisions. The need for this transperancy has taught lots of SEO’s some of the finer points of business. I know I have learned a LOT about business from some of the great clients I’ve had over the years. Since I learned a majority of this through my understanding of SEO - I consider many of these business principles that I learned a PART of SEO.

Why SEO is blackmagic, and most folks will never “get it”

-The don’t abide by the principles above.
-They think links are solely for clickthrough.
-They have never tweaked a title tag.
-They’ve never performed a link request, or hunted for links.
-They have their own school of thought that they don’t want to stray from.
-Search is a threat to their business model.

SEO is a noun, verb, and adjective

I am an SEO.
I need SEO services
I need my site “SEO’d”
It’s an seo site.

The process of search engine optimization is straightforward and easy; the understanding of the SEO thought process is ongoing and exceedingly complex.

Additional resources:
This is sort of continuation from the “SEO is a catchphrase” series a while back.

I was nearly finished with this post when I stumbled across the fact that Randall at 14th colony also thinks SEO is a school of thought. The power of the internet and having similar independant thoughts simultaneously is really strange and amazing sometimes. My apologies for the similar title - I have been thinking about this one for months, and was astonished to come across your great post.

My previous claims about SEO: There is no such thing as SEO.

Anybody else have examples of how SEO is more than just a process now?