Pimp My Keywords

SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 65

There's plenty of advice - and lots of bad advice - from social media "experts" in the far corners of the Internet.

With Twitter, they'll tell you how to Tweet; when to Tweet; how often to Tweet and what to Tweet about.

They'll tell you that Twitter is a business tool and that no one cares about what you had for lunch today.

They'll offer classes for $99, but then they won't use Twitter for two weeks.

Hog wash.

Experts have forgotten the one key part of Twitter and other social media tools - it's called "social" media because we are being "social."

Get it? Sharing.

Go ahead and share.

Tell me - and everyone else who will listen - what you are doing (oh, by the way, Twitter asks the question on its web page "What Are You Doing?").

Share information.

If the critics don't like what you (and I) are sharing, they can "unfollow" us.

But, they won't. If they only unfollowed everyone, they'd only have to criticize themselves.

Purple Trout Enters New Pond, New Chapter

CINCINNATI – Nearly five years after the company’s inception, Purple Trout, LLC has much more to celebrate than an anniversary. With booming business and a hoard of new employee talent, the Cincinnati-based search engine marketing (SEM) firm recently outgrew its offices in Fort Thomas, Kentucky and dove into a much larger pond – new office space located on historic Monmouth Street in Newport, Kentucky.

Purple Trout, LLC began five years ago as a one-man search engine marketing firm first out of the apartment of President Steve Phillips. As business rapidly grew from five clients the first year to 55 the second and 110 the third, Phillips continued to add staff and resources, all of which were then crammed into the lower level of his tri-level home. The team was literally packed like sardines - desks were pushed together, conference calls were held in the kitchen and employee interviews were conducted at the local Starbucks.

“This is a huge stepping stone. We started in a converted apartment living room and later moved into the lower level of a tri-level house. We had eight people crammed in there, but we were very productive” said Phillips. “The new space allows us to grow not only in both client services and support, but in staff as we expand into new areas within Internet search.”

In the past year, the Purple Trout has grown from five employees to 15 full-time staff members with more than 200 clients. Now, the company resides in a two-story building at 336 Monmouth Street in Newport. While the office offers more space than necessary at this point, there is plenty of room for future expansion, and for the simple things – like room to have a private phone call, room to host meetings and most importantly, room to think.

“The new space allows us to spread out and get more accomplished for our clients. We can work together in teams on projects, and develop our services even more. While I don’t see this as our permanent, long-term home, it’s a great next step in what I hope will continue to be a very prosperous future,” said Phillips.

As the largest search engine optimization (SEO) firm in Cincinnati, Purple Trout helps a wide range of national and regional clients strengthen their Internet presence by targeting on-site and off-site optimization factors. By conducting extensive keyword research and examining a company’s competition, Purple Trout develops a SEM strategy that focuses on keyword-rich content, strong meta tag codes and other key SEO factors that play a strategic role in creating a strong online brand.

About Purple Trout:
Headquartered in Newport, Kentucky, Purple Trout, LLC is a state-of-the-art search engine marketing (SEM) company that specializes in honest and ethical techniques to obtain higher rankings for company web sites in Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines. Services include: Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Paid Search/Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns, Social Media Marketing, Video Search Engine Marketing, Usability Analysis, Conversion Tuning, Web Analytics, Competitive Analysis and more. For more information, please visit www.purpletrout.com.

SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 64

Websites are like brochures. You need to update them.

Why?

• Update your website to reflect new services and products.
• Update your photos (that bad haircut is no longer in style).
• Research your targeted keywords. Searching habits change, so a once popular keyword may no longer be popular and vice versa.
• Write stronger Page Titles, Page Descriptions and other important tags.
• Rid your website completely of any "old school" black hat techniques, including hidden keywords; stuffing keywords in ALT tags of a page border; doorway pages, etc.
• Write relevant and keyword-rich content.
• Remove old press releases (even those from last year) and update your media/PR page with new information.
• Update your About Us/Staff page. Do you have a former employee listed there?

You would never mail or offer an old brochure, so why allow potential customers to view your stale website?

Remembering Apollo 11 - Forty Years Ago Today

When astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made history 40 years ago today, I remember my Dad coming into my bedroom, waking me and telling me to come watch something on television.

Now, mind you, I was only 8 years old at the time and, at best, we were not allowed to waste or summer days - or any time for that matter - watching television.

But this was different. It was history. I guess that made it OK.

I remember sitting on the floor in our living room in Shelbyville, Indiana and watching the glow of the TV as man walked on the moon.

I experienced many other sleepless nights as a child and I can blame them all on my father:

• Hank Aaron breaks Babe Ruth's home run record on April 8, 1974.
• Indiana University goes undefeated and wins the NCAA title in 1976 (lots of late nights watching basketball in those days).
• Endless Monday Night football games.
• Endless World Series playoffs.
• A few hockey games here and there.

One year, we even had a motor newspaper route delivering The Indianapolis Star. Then, instead of staying up late, we were up at 4:30 a.m. to deliver newspapers.

Once, we lived on a farm in Flat Rock, Indiana. There, we were up late at night listening to crickets as we snapped green beans and back up again early in the morning with the chickens (literally...we had chickens!).

I stayed up late in high school (and got up early) and did the same thing in college.

I lost more sleep during my sports writer days covering high school, college and pro sports and meeting deadlines at 12:30 a.m.

Even today, I am up late working on my search engine marketing business and, while there are no more chickens, I feel the need to get up at 5:15 a.m. and read the newspaper. Thank God, I am no longer delivering them.

Sleep is over-rated, especially when history is being made. You don't want to miss it.

It all started with Apollo 11. I'll never forget it.

Thanks, Dad.

SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 63

SMI Magazine (National Association of Home Builders) recently published an excellent article on "The Dos and Don't of Internet Marketing".

While I won't steal or reprint the article here, author Scott Huber offers "Five Things Executives Should Do." His No. 1 tip:

Embrace The Internet

While "embracing the Internet" seems basic - and painfully obvious - it continues to amaze me how many business owners are cutting marketing budgets; halting website work; not participating in social media efforts; don't have a blog and don't both with search engine marketing (including search engine optimization and pay per click campaigns).

No, you don't need to do everything on the Internet today or this week or this month, but do something.

Start a blog. Write an article or fresh content for your website. Conduct keyword research. Budget a few dollars for a PPC campaign. Talk to an SEO consultant.

Do something.

SEO Gone Bad

There are many reasons why your search engine optimization project has gone bad. Here are a few for your consideration:

• You're using old school methods that no longer work, which usually means stuffing keywords into meta tags and other codes.
• You're using "black hat" techniques such as creating a doorway page or hiding keywords in your website in an feeble attempt to fool Google.
• Your websites' content doesn't contain your targeted keywords. Or, better yet, your website doesn't contain much content at all.
• You went on the "cheap" and hired the neighbor's son who knows a little bit about computers and is a whiz in FrontPage.
• You spent a little bit more money and fell for a telemarketer who promised Top 10 rankings in Google (and you're still waiting...)
• Your website designer "did some SEO for you" (translation: he/she stuffed some keywords into meta tag codes and charged you a few hundred dollar to "get you all set" for Google.
• Your (insert relative's or friend's name here) who just got laid off from his/her (insert former job here) and is now, suddenly, an SEO expert and will wave a magic mouse and have your site in the Top 10 in Google in 2-3 weeks.

Isn't it time to quit playing SEO and take your website and your business serious?

SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 62

A colleague recently asked me "if you could focus on one thing for search engine optimization for a website what would it be?"

Easy answer: content.

Content is king.

When is the last time you updated your website with fresh content? Do you have any new articles? Press releases? Upcoming events?

Don't re-write your website for the sake of something new. Make it meaningful. Perhaps, your products and services offerings need to be updated from the old, stale text that's been on your website for five years collecting search engine spider dust.

Content is why blogs are popular. A regular blog writer/editor contributes new content on a regular basis. Humans like to read new content (CNN, ESPN, etc.) and search engines like it too.

(Of course, content should include targeted keywords, anchor text links, etc., but my friend's question limited me to only one answer.)