Moderator: Carolyn Shelby
Speakers:
Brett Tabke, CEO, WebmasterWorld.com
Marty Weintraub
Gary Kirk, Co-Founder, Technical Director, Rating Room Ltd
Gary Kirk - No cost local content - high value conversions
Most sales happen near the home
3 Basics for a Successful Site
- Good, relevant Linsk to your website
- No obstacles to search engine spiders
- Content that attracts and converts
Good content is available to all at $0 so well be concentrating on that.
Why is Cotnent King?
- google cant send valuable, relevant users to your site without it
- its a vital component in the decision making process for visitors
- you can get people to sites by writing content for people and the search engines.
- it doesnt have to cost a cent, but is always worth investing time into
You CAN win the content war
- Whoís your top 10 for your local searches? If you are in the local space you wil see yellowpages, google local, local businesses, review sites. Alot of the time, Google does favor the bigger sites on certain terms. these sites dont rank for the longer tail terms.
- Content is the key to outperforming larker competitors in search engines but that tends to be alot easier on the long tail and when you pick the right searches.
A Provider or THE Provider
- good content on local subiness webistes will reassure the visitor ìThis is the right service provider for meî. You should have the mind set to get them to think that when landing on your site. Take testimonials a bit further and go over the top. Take your content and expand on itÖ go over the process and if you target a dozen areas, you should link to the testimonial 2 ways. 1. Link to them with name/location and 2. Service/description.
- 750k visitors a day are from organic, 650k different phrases (stats for Garyís sites)
- you can target zip codes, town, county, neighborhoodÖ. Go after the bigger towns areas and the more common names that are used.
- Pick the right service descriptors.
Look at the combo of locales and service descriptors to cover as much as possible
Rewards from local content
- conversion from visitor to customer can be remarkable for specific searches like ìblocked toilet austin txî- targeting lots of well researched local phrases can and often does work fast- better orfanic results, often combined with ppc, can reduce overall ad costs
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Marty Weintraub - Dirt Cheap SEO/social Hacks for Good Corporate Citizens
Case Study - no budget for link building, no ppc, little time, no budget for content
- Sourcing PR Feed Content without creating any new content & viral tactics
- fools gold link exchange
Set up to publish quick, clean and viral
- Primary cms = however you manage your site (ftp, stupid custom cms)
- secondary CMS(mashup) = blog
Publishing Correctly
- Existing content + fanatacial attitude + half a brain
Ask ìwhat do you already do?î
ìwhat if we could get billyís mom to talk about us? - getting things to go viral
Talk to:
- media relations
- investors
- community
- customer
- internal
- human interest
- crises management
Nuclear ìSend To Friendî - it is your friend
Vanity Bait with Business Feeds
- employee jelly of the month club
- requests for input
- stories of valor, tragedy and human condition
- product naming contests
- employee product recommendations
- customer, client or vendor features
What communications occur already?
- software updates
- human resources news
- weekly specials
- any press releases
- owners manul updates
Tips for content SEO Sourcing SEO Sucesses
- set up a schedule and stick to it
- these are your best friends in the world - they are finding you
Fools Gold Link Exchange
At the core is a reciprocal link exchange
- we no follow everything
2 Nodes of Link Value
1. Link Juice
2. Traffic/promotion
Google made me do it - do/nofollow sculpting
Trading partners perceive holistic reciprocal promtion and traffic
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Brett Tabke
What if there were no search engines? What are you going to do if you lose all of your traffic? Going to go over a list of all the little alternatives that we dont take time to go over.
Worst Case Scenario - What if you lose 80-90% of your traffic?
20-40% comes from search engines
60-80$ comes from trafictional means
- Recip Link Exchanges
- alterantive directories
- topic directories
- investigae the directory
Press releases - low cost alternatives (local paper) - national through internet press wires
Contests - do your homework first, legal issues, management issues, Can certainly be repeat traffic generators and good lost leaders.
Awards - they are old and tired but still work
Guest Books - use them properly. View the site, say something nice, include your url if offerend. egreeting carsds - we all thing they are a dead idea, its repeat traffic. Article Submission - free content and links.
Affiliate Programs - viral and do your HW
Email Newsletters - huge amount of work, production costs, taking care of lists, boucnces and unsubscribes
E-a-friend - still great
KIDS! - ultimate viral promotion
Pete and RePeat - get people to resend your best material
Usenet & Forums - used properly, Usenet and forums can be excellent qualified traffic producers. Always check the TOS of sites to see what is acceptable. There is little that is more powerful that a good ole profile referral.
Building a community - (WMW)4 full time employees
Coupons - 60% that come to WMW used a coupon this year
Blogs
Traditional offliners - classifieds, trade mags, tv and radio. Got bodget to burn or a small market? radio can be quite affordable. (Brett sugests to stay away from radio right now)
Once you get people - do something with them. Email, email, email, email. Follow up with any and all inquiries. Think viral, think repeat and recurring billing.
Coverage by Dave Rohrer
