Online Publicity Articles by SEO Speedwagon

February 08, 2008

Tracking Local Press Release Syndication Performance

If you are a PR professional and looking for a way to track your newly syndicated press releases across a local platform then you've got to check out "Google's News" new local search feature. Now you have the ability to look up your news via zip code, city, or state and see what's showing up in your local market. You can use this information to see how well your local PR campaigns are doing online and get a better feel for other places to possibly syndicate your news.

To check out the new Google News local search feature go to news.google.com and scroll down the page, look for the "Local News Category", and enter your pertinent information into the search box. You will then be presented with the latest local news that reflects whatever region you are searching for online.

Your news results will look like:

Then to monitor your local news with ease on a daily or weekly basis create a Google Alert with your local news preferences are you are good to go!

Tracking Local Press Release Syndication Performance
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September 28, 2007

The Emergence of Universal Search Engine Optimization

In May of this year, Google announced its new Universal Search System which blended traditional search results with news, video, music, images, local and book search engine portals, as well as Blogs on a single page to help users find information with greater ease. Universal Search, a new platform which represents a major shift in information display and retrieval, is causing search engine optimization companies to rethink how they conduct service offerings. So what does this mean for SEO professionals?

For those who conduct Search Engine Optimization services for clients, “Universal Search” is yet another marketing opportunity worth considering. Our industry is already known for dealing with extreme change on a monthly basis, and as a result of being able to adapt to this ever-changing market, this has enabled us to thrive in the industry. With these changes, we must re-invent or enhance our offering to meet the growing changes presented by Google in order to stay ahead of the curve. The emergence of Google’s Universal Search now forces SEO professionals to look outside the box for providing their customers with bleeding edge Internet marketing solutions.

To be able to help our clients rank in the top Google search results, we now have to look towards creating effective SEO strategies that involve RSS, news, videos, audio files, images, local and book search engine portals, and Blogs. With so many new things being displayed in Google’s search results it will be much harder to attain a top ten search engine listings for clients. However, this doesn’t mean that the world is coming to an end for SEO’ers. Nevertheless, it means that we must look towards existing Google search platforms and integrate them into a new strategy called “Universal Search Engine Optimization.”

Universal Search Engine Optimization encompasses traditional SEO (on-site & off-site) methodologies as well as combines Web 2.0 marketing tactics, i.e., RSS, Online Optimized Press Releases, Podcasts, Vodcasts, Blogs, Social Bookmarking, Social News sites, Image and Book listing optimization, as well as Local Search, that aids clients in gaining a greater market share within Google’s Universal Search results.

The following Internet marketing activities make up a large part of Universal SEO:

"Definitions in parenthesis taken from Wikipedia"

RSS -- “RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts.”

Online Optimized Press Releases -- Tailoring a company’s news in such a manner to gain greater visibility online through optimizing elements within the press release.

Podcasts -- “A podcast is a digital media file, or a series of such files, that is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and personal computers.”

Vodcasts -- "Video podcast (sometimes shortened to vidcast or vodcast) is a term used for the online delivery of video on demand or video clip content via Atom or RSS enclosures.”

Blogs -- “Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject such as food, politics, or local news; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic.”

Social Bookmarking -- “A way for Internet users to store, organize, share, and search bookmarks of web pages. In a social bookmarking system, users save links to web pages that they want to remember and/or share.”

Social News Sites -- News aggregation (social network) sites that gain stories from community members online.

Image Optimization -- Effectively optimizing image file names, alternate text, and the utilization of photo sharing sites such as Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket, etc.

Book Listing Optimization -- Optimize Book company Web site pages to enhance placement in search engines for the titles of books for sale.

Local Search Listings -- Create local business listings and optimize Web sites to better perform amongst local search engine (Google Local, Yahoo Local, etc) listings.

To stay competitive in the ever-changing SEO industry, we need to create strategies for our clients that focus on all aspects of Universal Search. I believe this new form of search results presented by Google will open many doors for companies seeking to embrace the evolution of search.

The Emergence of Universal Search Engine Optimization
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August 21, 2007

Microsoft Talking Points Parroted: Day II

Article or Press Release?:

It's always seemed strange to look for information on a brand, and to see it appear both in the organic search results and at or near the top of the paid listings. Why spend money on a brand term that's going to deliver a top five organic result for the same query anyway?

If this sounds eerily similar to what many Wagon Riders thought yesterday was a lede of questionable intelligence, then your parotid attention may have kept you from swallowing full gulp. For those caught in the act of mastication, though, it's good to know that the above meme is being pushed by Atlas, owned by Microsoft, neither of which are owned or own or like Google, beneficiary of the great majority of the branded ad spend currently under PR assault.

Here at The Wagon we get the same strange feeling the Talking Point pushes in the quote above when we fix our eyes on a graph like the below:

With search behavior like that, why in the world would you want your brand to appear more than once, let alone a single time, in the same screen space above the fold? Good advice from the originator of democracy of screen space.

Microsoft Talking Points Parroted: Day II
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November 09, 2006

Can You Place a Value on Macaca?

We have discussed macaca before, concluding that its value, or more precisely, that of a Racial Slur Pointed Directly into a Camera is priceless. Does it make sense to say that something has become even more priceless?

Certain people might tell you different things about the value of macaca. George Allen might tell you about 16 points and a presidential bid. Jim Webb might tell you about millions of dollars in campaign funding. Still, those values seemed foreseeable as soon as macaca drew national exposure. Its greatest value was not so foreseeable prior to Tuesday night, and will not be fully realized until today when George Allen concedes.

Can you place a value on a word that ultimately decides who controls Senate? I think we’re still in the priceless realm, just more so. And can you place a value on the Jim Webb 2.0 Committee, those brilliant souls who used YouTube and Wikipedia to draw national exposure to macaca? Knowing what we know now, we should probably throw a priceless tag on them, as well.

Can You Place a Value on Macaca?
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September 11, 2006

Welcome to the Real Wiki, George Allen!

Allow me to play Oliver Stone for a moment. With the exception of the initial incident, I’m filling in the blanks entirely because I don’t care about the blanks. For the purpose of this post, my sole concern is illustrating how Wikipedia is impacting Election 2006, at least in one race (does anybody appreciate puns anymore?).

The initial incident is this video. Virginia Senator George Allen twice threw a racial slur at a gentleman holding a video camera. All else is conjecture.

Somebody at the Webb Campaign must have realized the power of natural search and the power of Wiki with respect to natural search. Perhaps it was the same person that realized the power of a blog. When the Webb campaign members got together and thought aloud about how to get this video in front of as many people as possible, somebody must have said, "YouTube!" Maybe those same people sat with Jim Webb and wondered how to get people to YouTube, and further, they just might have wondered if people would recognize this racial slur.

At this point, our conjectural hero would have gazed triumphantly over at Jim Webb, as theme music filled the room, and proclaimed, "You just keep talking about macaca. Wiki will tell people what macaca means AND show them the video." You see, our hero would know that search engines love Wiki, and our hero would also know that, although anybody can contribute to Wiki, it bears the authority and credibility of an encyclopedia. Get your story at Wiki, and trusting eyes will find it.

Now let’s see where google directs people that want to know more about macaca.

ADW: Macaca fascicularis: Information - Doesn't appear relevant. Move on.
ADW: Macaca fuscata: Information - Doesn't appear relevant. Move on.
Macaque - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - "For the slur see Macaca (slur)" I wonder who added that to Wiki.
Macaca (slur) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - that looks about right. And what do they see when they get there? A definition, and later "Macaca and the George Allen Campaign Incident." And what else is there? A link to the Washington Post article and the YouTube video. Funny, those are the 5th and 7th Google results, respectively.

Now allow me to play Mastercard for a moment.

George Allen's Campaign - Big Bucks, One Whammy
Jim Webb's Campaign - Smaller Bucks, No Whammies
Video Upload at YouTube and Contribution at Wiki - $0
Racial Slur Pointed Directly into a Camera - Priceless

Update: The Wiki Battle Rages On
One of the coolest Wiki features is the edit history for a given page. Do you want to keep your eye on this vicious cock fight (politically speaking, of course)? Click here. And after that, click here.

Update Update: Destiny Takes a Hand
Macaca is now redirecting to Macaque. The former Macaca page is still here.

Stay tuned to find out how our fearless hero responds . . .

Welcome to the Real Wiki, George Allen!
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May 04, 2006

Silent Bob Carries a Big Stick

When Kevin Smith releases a movie, his audience knows about it. In fact, when Kevin Smith does anything, his audience knows about it.

A Kevin Smith movie will not have Titanic advertising, and it will not have Titanic returns, but there will always be Kevin Smith movies. His movies make more than enough money with limited enough advertising to afford him auteur status, a rare condition these days.

Kevin Smith's online presence is largely responsible for the life he leads, and the films he makes. He does not have to rely on offline expenditures to sell tickets. His audience hears about upcoming work from him online. Below are just some of the ways Silent Bob is growing his audience for Clerks II.

• The Main Site
• The News Site
• The Message Board
• The Blog
• The Movie Site
• The Merchandising
• MySpace
• Wiki

The Clerks II site was purchased in 2004, and the movie is not due out until this August. I doubt Kevin Smith is worried about the sandbox effect.

Silent Bob Carries a Big Stick
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April 18, 2006

SEO: The New Establishment in Online Marketing

I'll get the disclaimer out of the way: I think the Million Dollar Homepage was a brilliant and cunning concept, and like many, I rooted for founder Alex Tew as his little boxes filled up with garish, cryptic signs.

The brilliance lay in the site's ability to run the gamut from creation to supernova in only a few short months - and making Tew a millionaire in the process. The cunning lay in the inventor's keen method of creating a concept that simultaneously raids the bank vault and boobytraps it so others will never enjoy the same haul.

As many predicted, wannabes (here are two examples, although there are thousands) learned that "first-mover" status really does mean something.

But wait. Even for the first movers, what exactly did they get? Here's what they saw, and what they have to look forward to:

Do any of the pixel buyers expect that line to shoot up again? Maybe a new PR campaign - something like "Hey, we're still sold out!"? I'm sure that many of the sites that spent $100, $500, even $1000 could have eeked out enough conversions to make it worthwhile, but 25 businesses spent $3500 or more, and some spent as much as $10-15,000 - some even after the initial spike. Ouch.

As SEO celebrates its 10th birthday, it's worth noting that online marketing dollars can be spent to give you a chart more like the following:

In online marketing, old-school, organic SEO isn't the only game in town, but it's one of the surest. It's like a solid investment in a fund with a proven track record. Pixel advertising, and whatever other flavors of the month that follow, are like scratch-offs. A few will win big. The great majority will lose.

SEO: The New Establishment in Online Marketing
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April 13, 2006

Search Engine Management on a Friendly Level

I have long come to terms with the fact that search engine marketing services cannot be of use in the event of most offline emergencies. If a bomb is moments from detonation or my fellow man is stalked by an ugly mob with redcurrants, my ability to optimize a web page seems inconsequential. Our industry, mighty though it is, leaves me with a lower hero quotient when I put on my civvies.

That is until now!

An old friend called me yesterday. More than a few years ago, he gave some quotes to an acquaintance that was struggling to complete an article about an unsavory topic. She, in turn, made the article about him. This has been the source of great embarrassment, as anyone – friends, family, business associates – who googles him sees this article at #1.

My friend needs search engine management just like McDonald’s, but not on a super sized scale, although You would think the two entities were reversed in terms of respective concern. He’ll jot down Doogie Howser nightcaps on a well-named blogger account for a few months. Maybe a few external links, and the first results page will be his.

Emergency averted. Add a few points to the hero quotient.

After all, he is not a business battling entire sites. He is a human battling one article. I left my friend with the following thought to end this episode, ala Doogie.

… besides, if Traci Lords has a clean first results page, I don't think it should be that difficult for anyone else!

Search Engine Management on a Friendly Level
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August 17, 2005

What Happened to Optimized Online Publicity and PR?

It seems like all you hear about these days is link building, link building, link building. Of course link building is a critical component to rank higher for specific words and phrases via keyword-rich links to web pages. But what ever happened to leveraging optimized online publicity for a similar impact for link building & beyond? Lately, it seems like companies have neglected optimized online publicity.

Online publicity should DEFINITELY be used as not only a link building component but for other reasons as well. Intrapromote knows that using optimized online publicity with immersed anchored phrases in the article(s) can have a direct impact on rankings for specific phrases but there's more.

Other benefits of optimized online publicity are many. For one, optimized online publicity can and most likely will assist a company in generating buzz about a brand, service, or product. Just think about having the ability to earmark a solid angle and write up a piece about your product, service, etc., and get that article distributed via distribution channels targeting your affinity base. The sweet thing is the article will potentially rank well on the search engines for specific phrases in its own right and will indefinitely remain as an archived item on other websites. In addition, a well-written article can drive quality traffic to a company website via immersed hyperlinks within the article, drive traffic from sources other than just the search engines, and create followup article potential with editors in the US and/or around the world.

Here at Intrapromote, we know that SEO, PPC, and Link Building are all important factors to creating quality traffic channels to website owners from the search engines. Let’s not forget that well-written, optimized online publicity can also directly impact SEO efforts and reach beyond the search engines to an affinity base online and in some cases, offline.

What Happened to Optimized Online Publicity and PR?
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