How To Prove You Can Do the Job at an Employment Interview

Want to get that job? Want to know the #1 secret, the single most powerful thing you can do to nail a  job interview?

Even if you're not asked, explain how you would solve a typical problem that is related to the job. Or, even better, ask what one of their toughest problems is at the company at which you're applying.

If they won't tell you what a major problem is at the company, then say, "Well then, here's what I have observed to be a very common problem in this industry, one that is very difficult for most companies to solve."

Assert yourself, show some initiative, and say, "May I now tell you my thought process for solving the problem of __________________?"

Go into details about what you would do to solve a problem, how you would identify the real root of the problem, how you would test your hypothesis, how you would analyze what is wrong or lacking, and the steps you would take to fix it.

If you have actually solved a similar problem in the past, without revealing too much about the company you worked at, talk about how you solved the problem there.

An anecdote about an actual problem-solving event is even better than a theoretical approach. But if you're young, or new to the field, a theoretical approach, well thought out and well stated, is good too.

Tackle the problem and communicate to the interviewer the expertise you would bring to the situation. Explain how amateurs would handle it and what makes your approach better.

Also add, "You know what the biggest myths are about ________________?" or "Let me tell you what I see as the biggest mistakes people make in _____________." Explain why these are myths or mistakes and what the truth is.

I can almost guarantee, no other job applicants will do anything like this. They'll be passive sheeple, just hoping they have memorized the "correct replies" to standard interview questions.

They probably won't show any initiative. They won't seize control of the interview and use it not as an interrogation of themselves, but as a platform to perform in a hypothetical situation.

See the job interview not as a scary event where you're being tested, but as an exciting opportunity, a stage on which you get to display your superior talents and knowledge.

Prove that you can handle the job. Have a blog that showcases your expertise, so the interviewer can see more of your vast intelligence and skill.

Job seeking is war. You must win the war with advanced firepower and overwhelming gusto. You must out-maneuver your competing job seekers. This is one way to do it.

Companies aren't looking for employees to hand paychecks to. They're looking for problem solvers who will increase their revenue. Prove that you're a problem solver.


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Phrases to Eliminate

(1) "That ship has sailed" = It's too late to stop a process or event or policy. Dissent is not allowed. There will be no further discussion about it. Resistance is futile. Shut up. BUT -- that ship can be torpedoed.

(2) "I want to make it perfectly clear..." = often the preface to making something as clear as mud. Implies "because I'm saying that I'm making it perfectly clear, this means I'm being totally honest and transparent."

(3) "Nobody likes change" = an attempt to dismiss criticism of something that has nothing to do with adjusting to change, but is based on other issues or aspects of something. We all like and even crave certain types of change. We like exploring new things, learning new skills, seeing new movies, trying new restaurants, changing our hairstyles, experimenting with new art techniques, etc.

(4) "Hindsight is 20/20" = an exaggeration, since no sight is perfect, there are always errors or bias or mis-remembering involved.

(5) "It is what it is" = "It cannot change, that is its nature" -- but who defines "what it is"? This is sometimes another attempt to silence dissent, critique, or deeper analysis, or to deflect ethical questions. "Just accept it, you can't change it, leave it alone" is often the implied meaning.

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Complete Guide to SEO Copywriting

SEO copywriting involves a clear understanding how search engines view a webpage. The goal is to write content that answers questions and includes relevant keywords that occur naturally.

When a webpage has sufficient, up-to-date, and credible content, search engines will drive more qualified customer traffic to it. A website that attracts the right visitors and moves them toward buying a product is a productive website. Qualified customer traffic can result in increased sales and other valuable conversion goals, helping the overall SEO program to be a success.

SEO copywriting today must be based on the new Google Hummingbird semantic search engine, which places less emphasis on content keywords, and more emphasis on a conversational content that answers customer questions.

Instead of just wondering “Do I have enough high volume and long tail keywords?” you should also ask “Is this content really great at explaining the topic or product to customers?” Keywords will always be important, but satisfying customers is the real key to successful content.

When I did some online research, I was amazed to discover how most "SEO Copywriting Tips" type articles were extremely skimpy, often being no more than 3 to 5 tips and included such dopey advice as "replace poor content with great content."

Here's what you really need to know to write good SEO web content.

One Theme Per Page. Each webpage must be devoted to a single theme (a topic, service, product, product category, or idea). That theme will be expressed in the HTML document title tag, meta description, image filenames, image alt attributes, and H1 and H2 headings.

Google wants to match a customer search query with the best webpage that will meet the need of the customer. If multiple topics are contained in a webpage, the primary theme will be diluted, and Google will not consider that webpage to have adequate focus.

Separate Themes on Separate Pages. When multiple themes, product categories, etc. are on a webpage, consider breaking that page into separate pages. Give each distinct idea, topic, product, service, etc. its own webpage. This will enable customers to drill down for more specific information as needed.

Know Your Target Audience. Ask yourself, “Who, or what type of customer, would go to this webpage? What would they hope to find on this webpage?” When you identify the theme of a webpage, Google the keywords and read a bit of the conversations and debates going on at other websites, blogs, and forums. Discover the hot issues and questions people have.

Do Some Competitor Research. Look at some competitive websites that rank well for top keywords. What do they seem to be doing right? What deficiencies do they have that you can exploit by writing better content for your client?

Also look at some other websites that don't rank that well. What do they seem to be doing wrong? Learn from their bad content. Consider how disappointed a customer would feel when they visited this poor content website. Decide what is lacking and make sure you don't have the same lack in your client's website.

Internal Linking Strategy. When a theme is complex, internal linking to subpages is the solution. Make sure the link wording (anchor text) has keywords in it, instead of “read more” or “click here” or “learn about the options available”. Revise such phrases to “read more about _________”, with “_______” being the keyword phrase (specific product, service, subordinate concept, etc.) that is the link anchor text. In other words, “heart surgery” should be the link, rather than “read more about heart surgery.”

Don't overdo it. Too many internal links can make a webpage look spammy.

No Keyword Stuffing. Don't write generic copy, then try to plug in keywords for SEO. Instead, use a set of recommended keywords as ideas for content amplification. Lists of recommended keywords should be used as possible synonyms or aspects of content that you may have overlooked. They are not to be used as magic bullets to sprinkle into otherwise generic copy to trick search engines into thinking the content is relevant and authoritative.

Long tail keywords are terms that are not used very often, but when they are used, they tend to be used by customers with deeper understanding of a product and are ready to buy now. Be sure to have some of these long tail keywords in your content, in addition to the more popular, high volume keywords (which are more competitive and harder to rank for).

Get Info from Client. Before writing a webpage, gather as much information as possible from the client. Client-provided facts are the most important aspect of copywriting. You can't pull these facts from the thin air or guess what they are. The account representative should contact the client with a list of questions or topics that need explanation and detailed information. This is the #1 priority for copywriting.

Do Some Research. Once you have the client-supplied information, you will probably find parts that could benefit from elaboration or simplification. Google the keywords or topic of the webpage and see what competitors and authoritative sources are saying on that same subject. You may discover new angles or directions to follow that you had not thought of yet.

You may see that competitive websites are using charts, videos, or other presentation formats to help clarify certain aspects. Consider doing something similar, but better.

Talk Like the Customer. Be sure to put information into the language of customers, while retaining the technically precise terminology. This is where definitions come in. Define the technical terminology in customer language. You may need to read customer testimonials or visit online forums to discover how customers are talking about a topic, product, or problem.

Use Conversational Language. As much as possible, make your content sound like a good friend or trusted adviser engaging in sincere, intimate conversation. Customers are turned off by stiff, institutional sounding content. Try to get a genuine, warm, human feel into the copy. Look at what you've written and ask yourself, “How would I state these ideas if I called my best friend on the phone and wanted to tell him these facts, quickly, simply, and in a way that would not bore my friend?”

People Buy Benefits, Not Features. It's easy to forget that features and technical specifications don't arouse buy behavior, unless they are translated as promises and benefits. People have problems and needs. They seek solutions and answers. Be sure to always explain the advantage of a feature and not just list features alone.

How Well Does This Webpage Answer Questions? Look at a webpage, not just from the point of view of the client, but also from the viewpoint of a customer. What may seem adequate to a client can be woefully incomplete to a customer. Think: “If I had an urgent need that this product can fulfill, would this webpage satisfy me so much that I'd buy the product, or set up an appointment, or contact the company for more information?

Expand on Bullet Lists. Often a webpage will have some introductory copy, then a bulleted list. The items in the bullet list could usually use at least a couple sentences or a short paragraph. For example, a list of diseases treated by a clinic. Why not add a definition of each disease and maybe some common symptoms?

Almost Nobody Reads Content. People tend to skim and scan content. They typically don't read it like a person would read a book. Web users are impatient, multitasking, and in a hurry. Keep this in mind. Make it easy for customers to quickly zip through the content to zero in on the exact answer they need at that moment. Break up long, dense paragraphs into shorter paragraphs. Use bullet lists and subheads. Use images to add variety and separate ideas.

Start Some Paragraphs with “You” or “Your.” When you think in terms of customer needs, you won't write copy with an “our” and “we” emphasis. Try starting some paragraphs with “You” or “Your”, as in “You'll get _______ (benefit) with this _______ (product).” or “Your _________ (problem/need) will be taken care of quickly, at an affordable price, with _________ (product).” Customers don't want to read corporate fluff that talks on and on about how great the company is. Customers want to read copy that talks about their problem and how to solve it by using the product.

Good Content Attracts Links To It. One of the benefits of complete, compelling content on a topic is that it will be valued by others, so that they will want to link to it. This is a great way to get backlinks to a specific webpages, which are better than backlinks to the home page. A deep link indicates that a specific piece of content is treating a specific subject in a superior and meaningful manner.

Use Synonyms Instead of the Same Terms Repeatedly. The purpose of keywords is not to make content appeal to search engines. Google Hummingbird semantic search engine actually places far less emphasis on matching user queries with content keywords, since many black hat websites have used keyword stuffing in a misguided attempt to game the system. Keywords that are synonyms act as alternate expressions, so your content doesn't get tiresome or seem repetitive.

Good Content is Fascinating. There really is a way to make any product or topic extremely interesting, no matter how dry and dull it might appear at first. The copywriter's challenge is to know so much about the customer needs and the product benefits, that a compelling story or a remarkable description can be communicated to the customer.

You can spice up the content with historical background facts, interesting anecdotes, customer testimonials, insights from blog posts and forums, powerful presentations of how important or urgent it is to solve the customer's problem (rather than letting it languish), and putting yourself in the customer's shoes, imagining their need, and feeling the relief of having that need met by a superior product.

Images Grab Attention and Clarify. Be sure to specify photos to be included in content. People prefer to see images of other people doing things, using a product to solve a problem, being serviced by smiling employees, etc. Notice how magazines successfully use images to draw your attention. Images are important for adding credibility and clarifying what is described with words. Add keyword captions under the photos.

Think of The Webpage as a Movie Script. The H1 (headline) tag should be like the title of a movie, but responding to a question, and implying a benefit. Instead of “Cardiac Care” your header might be “How State of the Art Cardiac Care is Delivered to Our Patients”. The H2 tags should describe the main scenes in the movie/webpage. The content under each H2 subhead should summarize the action and move the plot forward. The climactic final scene is the strong Call To Action that prompts the customer to buy now, set up an appointment, contact the company, or some other conversion act.

Test Your Content. Get a friend, family member, or colleague to read your webpage copy. Ask them if it makes sense, if everything is clear, and if you might have missed an important detail. Tell them to be hyper-critical and totally honest. You care more about getting the copy right, than having your feelings hurt. You might be amazed at how effectively other people can evaluate content. Get several opinions, for one person may not catch everything that needs improvement.

Become an Expert at Talking About the Product. You can't necessarily become an expert at manufacturing, inventing, or using a product. But you can, and you must, quickly become an expert at talking about a product or topic – at least to the extent of being able to write intelligent, accurate, engaging content for the website. This might mean spending more time reading blogs, forums, magazines, books, and competitive websites related to the product or the problems the customers are having.

The Goal is Not Communication But Transaction. Web content needs to tell a story and convey information. But the goal is not education or enlightenment. The primary aim of web content is to persuade a customer to buy something, schedule an appointment, sign up for a newsletter, watch a video, download a file, or whatever conversion goals are desired by the client. Every webpage, even About, should have a strong Call To Action, moving the customer closer to a purchasing decision or other mission-critical business objective.

Command the Customer to Act. Don't just assume that the information itself will provoke a buying transaction. People like to be told what to do when an action is in their best interests. They don't respond to vague instructions. If there are 3 steps to a transaction, number those steps so a customer's progress is logical and orderly. Tell the customer exactly what they need to do next, at every step along the way.

Use commanding phrases like “Now that you've seen how great this solution is, go to our Product Guide to select the right model for your specific needs.” with “Product Guide” as the linked text that when they click on it, will take them to the Product Guide webpage. Remember to help the customer understand how to respond to the offer – and never assume that the customer will enjoy the information so much, responding to the offer will just happen without prompting.

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SEO Without Keyword Data From Google

Google is no longer going to be providing keyword data on visitors to your website. 

You won't be able to know what keywords your customers are typing into Google to find your website. Conversely, you will not be able to build a new webpage around a set of keyword synonyms, and know if it's attracting web visitors who are typing those keywords into Google.

This can be seen as a big change in SEO, although it may be that Google has been moving away from keywords for a while now, to focus more on mobile and local searches. 

Some speculate that this is Google's way of destroying organic search and keyword manipulation so that only Google Adwords will be available to target keywords to drive traffic to a website.

SEO will be flying blind, in some respects, perhaps but consider these points:

Instead of playing SEO games with keywords, you're now forced to do serious work with key themes and key customer research. You arise from the micro-content realm of isolated terms, to ascend into the loftier regions of categorical topics and wide-spectrum issues.

Instead of fishing for customers in the internet ocean, using keywords as bait, you must now use throw the net of need fulfillment out there to catch the zealous seekers. 

Instead of thinking: "Customers are using these keywords in high volume, so let's use these keywords in our web content."

You now think: "Intelligent discussion of this topic includes the use of these keywords, so let's use these keywords in a webpage on this topic." 

Or you think: "Here is what real customers are actually saying, in forums, social media, and blog comments, about this topic, so let's be sure to use the same language in our website."

Intelligent discussion. How do you find it? You must discover the most authoritative, reputable experts in a field.

Real customers. Where do you find them? In your own corporate or product blog. In the blogs of your competitors. In your testimonials section of your website. In your dealer locations, branches, and stores. In Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, GooglePlus. 

Your website must be more authoritative, have richer, deeper content -- and you must get closer to your customers and how they think, rather than depending on Google-generated data on internet search behavior.

Combining the expertise of authorities with the folksiness of real customer expressions, you accomplish two goals: 

(1) demonstrating to Google that your webpage knows the right things to say about a topic (product, issue, etc.) 

and 

(2) gaining insight into what customers are probably typing into Google when searching for what your company offers, thus enabling your website content to match the query string of the customer. 

You can have customers fill out a questionnaire that asks them what they type into Google when they are looking for ___________________. And keep asking that question about all your products.

You can invite some local customers to a usability study and watch what they type into Google when they attempt to find information on a list of products, services, issues, or ideas related to your business. Tell them they are helping you test the website, rather than testing them on their web surfing skills or computer knowledge.

Keyword data, including how well a website ranks for a given search query or set of keywords, was always in flux anyway. Chasing keywords was a never-ending drama that had no final achievement. Since the way customers talk about their needs and possible solutions is always changing, keyword usage in search is also changing.

With keyword data now unavailable, SEO will need to be based even more heavily on a true expertise related to the product and the solutions it provides to customer needs. SEO will need to put a more intense emphasis on customer research, customer relations, and customer psychology.

SEO must concentrate on:

(1) Content that completely but concisely answers customer questions.

(2) Content that proves to Google that it's a smart and ungimmicky treatment of a topic.

(3) Knowing intimately how a product fulfills the needs of customers.

(4) Talking in the language of both customers and experts.

(5) Watching how the most successful websites in your field are talking to customers, and how those companies interact in social media.

(6) Page level SEO data: instead of what keywords did a customer use to find our website, you ask "what are our website's most popular pages -- themes, issues, topics, products."

(7) Building webpages that contain content to please human customers, not search engines.

(8) Creating web content that answers the questions your customers are currently asking, in the language they're using.

The bottom line in SEO was never improving ranking for keywords, even if many clients thought in those terms and demanded reports on this metric.

The bottom line in SEO is increased sales.

SEO is all about conversions first. Everything else is just preliminary work. When your website is bringing you more paying customers, that is the main result that you should care about.  

If your SEO program is driving more traffic to your website, and a lot of that those web visitors are converting into sales, then your SEO program is successful. 

If that's not happening, but you're ranking really well for a bunch of keywords, what's so great about that? Keyword ranking success is not necessarily the same as sales or marketing success. Even ranking well for high volume keywords is meaningless unless it leads directly to more conversions and increased revenue. 

READ MORE:

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2296351/Goodbye-Keyword-Data-Google-Moves-Entirely-to-Secure-Search

http://moz.com/blog/100-percent-keyword-not-provided-whiteboard-tuesday

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SEO and Googling the phrase "search engine"

What do you get when you Google the key phrase "search engine"?

Do you think that if any website has great SEO, it would be Google?

Do you think the Google search engine, Google.com is going to be #1 on the results page?

Here's what you get:

(1) Wikipedia article on Web Search Engine.

(2) Bing.com -- Google's main competitor.

(3) Search Engine Colossus -- international directory of search engines.

(4) Dogpile search engine.

(5) Yahoo search engine.

(6) Ixquick search engine.

(7) The Search Engine List.

(8) DuckDuckGo search engine.

(9) Search Engine Watch

News for search engine:

"Jonathon Fletcher: forgotten father of the search engine"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23945326

In Depth Articles:

(10) "Google's Impressive New Conversational Search"

http://searchengineland.com/googles-impressive-conversational-search-goes-live-on-chrome-160445

(11) "Human Flesh Search Engines in China"

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/magazine/07Human-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

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Ansel Adams midwestern exposure photography award

Receiving my prize, an Ansel Adams print signed by his son Michael Adams.

I walked 2 hours in 95 degree heat to pick it up, then another 2 hours back home. I enjoy extreme weather.

In the midst of everything else going on,

did I mention that I won

the Ansel Adams "Midwestern Exposure"

photography award

sponsored by the Peoria Riverfront Museum?

My photo "Cicada Emerged from Shell"

was the winning photograph.

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Zoom In On Your Customers

Be customer-centric.

Not we-oriented.

Zoom in on those who buy your products.

The closer you can get to them,
the better your product will be,
with smarter advertising
and more effective SEO.

Make your website and social media
be channels for expressing
and proving your expertise.

Share insights and tips.

Provide answers to common questions.

Demonstrate your superiority.

Become the Top of Mind Choice.

Establish credibility
by giving out good information
that helps others succeed
and think of you as the expert.

That's how you leverage social branding.

Talk about customer problems,
needs, dreams, demands....

and how your product is the star of that show.

Your product is the answer.
And you know the question.

Because you zoom in on your customer.

You spend time listening to them,
in real life and on social media.

You enjoy having conversations
about the problems your products
can solve, because your customers
need you to be that committed and zealous.

Look at your product
through the eyes of
those who have a need
the product can fill.

Then make all your marketing
and PR communications
be unified in these sales psychologies.


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Web Content That's Creative and Communicative

Your website needs to be the most compelling
marketing tool in your arsenal.

Speak to the customers on their level,
with their language,
understanding their needs.

Originality arises from customer psychology,
tuned into their problems and wishes.

Convey the message:
your product fulfills a desire,
meets a needs,
satisfies a longing,
exemplifies a lifestyle,
exudes prestige,
solves, helps, improves,
fixes, repairs, prevents,
enhances, wards off, takes care of,
does something
your customer needs to get done.

See things from a different point of view.

Through the eyes of those who buy.

Experience the difference
that difference can make.

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Website Content and Usability are Prior to SEO

You want your website to perform better. You want to drive a lot more traffic to it. Qualified customer  traffic, ready to buy or ready to learn more, shoppers armed with credit cards, hot prospect traffic. 

So you decide to find an SEO specialist to help you optimize your website for high search engine rankings based on proper coding and effective keyword strategies.

Whoa. Slow down. Stop.

First, you must carefully examine and critique the content of your website -- and consider if the design, layout, images, colors, tools, and navigation are all working together for a good user experience. 

Your website must first be tweaked (or majorly overhauled) to ensure that once this flood of shoppers arrives at your SEO enhanced website, they find the information or tools they need, quickly and easily. 

That information and those tools must be exactly what your customers want. The content must be easy to consume. Your website should help people ignore most of the content -- so they can zoom in on the precise piece of information, analysis, news, video, audio, photography, or widget they need at that exact moment.

This means your website must announce clearly and with visual impact WHAT your company is and what it does. Don't assume that "St. Jerome's" will be understood to be a hospital with many satellite clinics. Some people may think it's a church or a rescue shelter. 

Essentials elements in a website home page:

(1) A strong corporate logo or brand image...

(2) ...with a strong promotional slogan or tagline near the logo. (If for some bizarre reason, your company doesn't have a powerful slogan, make one up now and start using it everywhere.)

(3) A reinforcing of the slogan with a concise definition of what customers derive from your company, an explanation of what you do, or some other powerful statement that will orient the customer who arrives at your website, convincing him or her that they have found the ideal source of information for the topic they were searching online.

(4) A photo of the CEO, founder, or manager -- to humanize the company and bring a warm feeling to the user experience.

(5) A picture of happy customers using your product to solve a problem -- or a photo of the end result and chief benefit of the product -- some image that conveys an immediate sense of why the person should be at this website.

(6) Quick links to the products, services, information, media, etc. that customers typically are most interested in, to help them get the job done swiftly.

(7) Differentiation of the website sections: "If you're a parent, go here", "If you're a member, go here" clarifications that identify the type of user and takes them to a set of webpages devoted to their needs.

(8) Contact information. Yes, you have that on your Contact Us page, but often a customer will go to your website just to find your street address or phone number. Especially if you are a retail store or restaurant catering to local clientele. They're in a hurry and don't want to hunt around on your website, clicking and scrolling. Consider putting your street address, phone number, and email address in a visible spot near the top right of your home page.

Before any SEO work can be done on your website, it's vital to nail down the ingredients for an effective home page, as well as top navigation and product pages. You have to tell your story in an interesting manner and have strong calls to action.

Your web content should provide answers to questions your customers typically have regarding various topics related to your field. Give your customers the information they need to pick the product best suited to their needs.

Weak webpages will not be conducive to a successful SEO campaign. 

It would be like trying to beef up a jalopy and then hoping it will race like a fine-tuned muscle car.

Make your website a highly usable platform that communicates your  business message with unique, original content, and then tweak it for SEO strategies that will drive traffic to it.

If SEO tactics and special promotions send more customers to your website, that might be a bad idea.

It's not good to drive more traffic to a poorly designed website with slim content -- it could result in turning more people off to your brand and driving them to your competition. People who were not aware of your company now look at an inferior website -- which only causes them to form negative opinions about you.

Consumers are judging companies by their websites. Ugly layout, unreadable text, spase content, broken links, typos, grammatical errors, no human warmth -- these are big reasons why people reject a website and the company behind it.

When the new web traffic arrives, your website must make a good impression. People have to find it easy and quick for accomplishing their goals. Get the right content and usability on your website, then the powers of Google-compliant SEO can work wonders in a nice ROI environment.

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Backlinks and Directories SEO Challenge

Clients not only pay you money, but can also provoke you to expand your expertise and become more adept and more valuable as a professional person.

You should never be troubled when a client challenges you to improve yourself or to learn about an area that you consider outside your area of focus.

You should never be troubled when a client challenges you to improve yourself or to learn about an area that you consider outside your area of focus.

Accept the challenge in a happy frame of mind. Your client is doing you a great service.

If you don't keep growing in skills and knowledge, your competitors will destroy you. Some day somebody will come along with a few more skills, a deeper knowledge, a friendlier demeanor, a more youthful energy, a stronger focus, a wider expertise -- and you'll be out of a job.

Your business will suddenly be irrelevant, old fashioned, not needed anymore.

Don't think: "That aspect is the concern of a specialty that I'm not interested in."

If it relates to your field of work, start right now becoming an expert in it. Learn more about it and you'll increase your enthusiasm for it.

Expand what you're good at, don't just relax, thinking you've "arrived" at some pinnacle of permanent expertise.

Things are changing all the time. You must change with the times. Even if that means drastically increasing what you do for clients or moving into a whole new area of services.

Instead of saying, "I don't handle that area" ... 

... say "Okay. I'll do my best. Even though this is outside my core expertise, it is related to it, so I'll do some research and discover the best practices and smartest ideas out there, and thereby expand my own expertise and capabilities. Please bear with me as I get up to speed in this area, and thanks for trusting me to quickly become adept at this new aspect of what I do."

I recently had a client ask me to create a comprehensive guide, a step-by-step procedural document, in a realm that is related to my core expertise, but is typically not included in my line of work, as it is often considered to be a separate and highly specialized field of discipline.

Backlink acquisition and directories. Or "off site SEO".

My specialty lies in "on site SEO" -- SEO audits of websites, tweaking HTML documents for SEO enhancement, improving web usability factors, and implementing SEO keyword strategies for web content (including writing new keyword-savvy content for websites).

"Off site SEO" means things you do to drive traffic to a website, but are not done to the website itself, but are done in relations with other websites, trying to get them to link to your website.

This related field of backlink acquisition and directories is considered the most difficult and time-consuming aspect of SEO and is generally handled by experts who do nothing but this. Getting other websites to link back to your website -- and selecting relevant, high quality directories on which to list your website.

Backlink building and directories have a lot of dubious practitioners. It's a completely different set of disciplines and is actually more in the realm of PR (public relations) than in SEO or marketing. But there is some overlap when it comes to developing web content that is link-worthy.

What makes this area more problematic is Google's Penguin search algorithm updates have greatly disrupted most of the old ways of getting backlinks and using web directories. 

If you don't know what has changed, how to comply with Google's new requirements, you could cause a lot of trouble and have a mess on your hands that will be hard and time-consuming to remedy. You could even be punished by Google, so that your website no longer appears in search results.

Many directories have been ruined by spammers and bad practices. Many of the techniques for getting links to your website no longer work, or can even get you into trouble with Google. 

For example, many blogs and forums now use rel=nofollow on links to your website that you embed in your signature or in your comments, so you can't link back to your website in a blog comment or forum post.

That's just one example of how the whole landscape of link building and directories has changed.

My client needed me to create a comprehensive tutorial style document on this area of SEO and I plunged into it. After doing a lot of research and pondering, I was able to create the document to satisfy the need of my client.

I got an email today thanking me for a job well done. It was even stated that the document was ready for immediate implementation, which would require several months to do. That's how much material I pulled together for them, as I dodged the bad practices, explained the difference between acceptable and non-acceptable procedures, and even gave links and screenshots of examples.

It was nice that I made my client happy, they gave me immediate feedback on their opinion about what I submitted to them, and stated that they now have a powerful tool for their success as a company.

Lesson learned: let clients push you into new areas of expertise.

Listen to the star of Hardcore Pawn....

"You've got to be willing to change what you're doing. You can't be bound by the way things have always been. If the economy changes, if trends change, if your customer starts requesting something different, you've got to change your business response, even if it means launching a completely new product or service.

....I never want to hear an employee say, 'That's not my job description' or 'I've never done that before'. You can't let yourself be limited by what you've always done. You have to be willing to experiment and try new things. Forget the past and focus on what you need to be doing today to make tomorrow successful.

Especially when you start out, you need to do what's going to make your business different from the competition."

-- Les Gold

For What It's Worth: Business Wisdom from a Pawnbroker

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Marketing Lessons from Bar Rescue

I like to watch Bar Rescue on television, not that I go to bars a lot (almost never, unless they have good food), but I like to see how the consultant operates with his clients, who are mostly antagonistic at first.

On one episode, a lady owned a "pirate bar" that was a total failure for the past 6 years. She looked to be about 40 years old -- and was living in her mom's basement with her husband and 17 year old daughter. Yet she stubbornly refused to see that her "pirate bar" concept was not working. She desperately was clinging to a delusion that she called "being faithful to my dream."

I guess a lot of people cling nonsensically to a delusion and call it a "dream" or "vision" or "goal."

One thing Bar Rescue consultant Jon Taffer recommends to a lot of bars is to simplify and reduce the number of food items on the menu. Have you ever gone to a bar or a restaurant, only to find the menu so many pages, you finally got overwhelmed by all the choices, and ended up ordering something cheap?

This is what people tend to do. Give them too many choices, and they will get frustrated, confused, and will order the least expensive, safest choice.

If you try to position yourself as "doing everything", people will assume you're truly excellent at nothing.

Do a few things in an amazing way. Don't try to be a jack of all trades. Specialize in something, then be astonishing. Nobody can be fantastic at everything.

A menu that features every dish known to man screams one thing: We Suck, So We Try to Cook Everything, in Hopes That Somebody Will Like Something.

Focus. Define yourself, your company, your talents to meet a specific area of need. Then become a bona fide specialist, a genius, an extraordinary artist in that one area. You can have other interests, but have one talent, or a few related skills, that you do exceptionally well and are known for that expertise.

When you fill out an online profile, use the word "The" at the beginning. It makes you seem more famous and successful.

For example, on my profiles, I say "The web content developer, SEO specialist, social media photographer, and techno music composer."


http://www.spike.com/shows/bar-rescue

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Your Website Needs Photos of Your Business Facility

One of the biggest mistakes I see on websites of local restaurants, shops, and businesses is -- not showing a photo of the facility.

People like to see what your store looks like. It helps them when they travel toward it to visit. As they walk, bicycle, bus, or drive their vehicle, they appreciate a mental image of what to expect.

Directions and maps are commonly provided on websites, and that's good.

But you're missing a marketing advantage when you fail to also show a photo of your place. I like it when that image is big on the home page. At bare minimum, it should be on the Contact Us or Map/Directions page.

Displaying a photo of the front of your business, and the sign by the entrance, will help differentiate you from your competitors, increase credibility, and enhance the memorability of your brand.

Yet it seems the vast majority of websites, if they show any photos of the business at all, show just the inside of the facility.

Often these photos are boring, generic-looking, with no happy, smiling customers enjoying the food or looking at the products. But it's very important to show not only the inside, but also the outside of your business.

Use photography strategically and you will gain a distinct and powerful competitive edge.

If you need some good, new photos, contact me. I'd be happy to help.

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Becoming Less Transparent On Facebook

Facebook Cleanup Phase 2. 

A few days ago, on my Facebook profile (About page), I deleted about 100 Likes that I didn't recall clicking Like on. I was not opposed to the topics, activities, products, or organizations. I just don't support them, or they post content that I'm no longer interested in, or they don't post anything and may be abandoned FB pages.

Tonight, I deleted 100 more, almost all the rest of my Likes. I've dwindled down my Likes list to just a few entities that I really care about and want to get updates on.

Some people want to reveal who they are by clicking on things they like, abstract ideas like Organic Gardening or Philosophy or Astrophysics.

They also display on their About pages all their family members, past employers, places where they've lived, schools they attended, and the music, movies, TV shows, sports, games, books, and events they like. They apparently want to "be known" and be transparent about their interests.

I see no point to this. The entities that preach to you "be transparent" are themselves not transparent, especially about why they want you to be transparent. Those who most vehemently want you to submit to the "privacy is dead" mantra are stalkers, predators, identity thieves, "Big Data" mongers, advertisers, and surveillance agencies.

I reveal my basic data about myself and share my insights, photos of places around town, links to interesting information, and food I'm eating. That's about it. The rest of my life and interests are basically boring or of no relevance to what I want to accomplish on Facebook -- which is to help, amuse, inspire, and educate people.

I am also blocking people who follow my status updates, but I don't know them personally. I suggest you consider doing the same.

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Facebook Hashtags and How To Use Them

TechCrunch has announced that Facebook confirms it will implement functional #hashtag capabilities. 

Hashtags are used to facilitate discoverability of content related to topics, issues, people, places, TV shows, celebrities, politics, locations, conferences, beliefs, companies, events, products, etc. -- whatever users mark with a hashtag. 

Facebook claims the hashtag content will be governed by your privacy settings, so a hashtag post will be viewable only by who you enable to view it according to your account's privacy settings. 

I hope this means we can finally search our own FB content, if we hashtag it, like #stevenstreightSEO or #str8sounds or #stevenstreightlocalnews.

Max Woolf is not impressed. He claims that the implementation of hashtags on Facebook is stupid. Hashtags on comments won't be searchable, nor will they be included in conversation feeds. Privacy settings will greatly limit the hashtagged content available for public view. Marketers will exploit hashtags. Porn spammers and other ne'er-do-wells will abuse hashtags.

Read his article "Facebook Hashtags are Fundamentally Broken."

You must learn how to use hashtags correctly and effectively. They must be phrases with no spaces between the words, for example.

The purpose of hashtags is to identify, organize, and find specific conversations. The key to effective use is to determine what the essential keywords are, which is a classic SEO tactic. 

You don't want to pick an unpopular hashtag, nor do you want to use a nebulous or inexact keyword for your hashtag. For example, a #marketing hashtag is so vague, you probably won't find it as valuable as #mobilemarketing or #eventmarketing conversations. 

Instead of hashtagging an event as #conference you should hashtag it with the name and year of the event. For example #smx or #sxsw2013 or #pubcon2013 

Sometimes people are using multiple hashtags to refer to an event, topic, or whatever. So you may have to click on #summercamp2013 and #chillicothemusicfest and #threesisterspark and so forth. 

You can use more than one hashtag in a post, but it pays to discover what exact hashtag others are using predominately for a given topic. For example, ABC Television prefers that people use #DWTS as the hashtag for Dancing With the Stars, rather than, or in addition to, hashtagging the individual dancers. Search a hashtag BEFORE you use it. 

You may find out that what you wanted to use as the hash tag for a topic is already being used, but for a very different topic. 

Using stupid hashtags just muddies the waters. The classic example is Entenmann's using "notguilty" in a hashtag about their cookies, when everybody was using the same tag for the Casey Anthony murder trial verdict. Hashtags are often used by spammers and cyberbullies. 

You should become familiar with the black hat SEO and trolling ways of using hashtags for negative purposes. There are #hashtagdirectories that give you standard hashtags in common use for specific topics, events, people, and issues. 

READ MORE

http://blog.microsecommerce.com/index.php/uncategorized/5-tips-for-using-hashtags-effectively/ 


http://minimaxir.com/2013/06/hashtag-hashtag/

https://support.twitter.com/articles/49309-using-hashtags-on-twitter 

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/hashtags/ http://twubs.com/p/hashtag-directory 

http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/12/facebook-hashtag/

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Amateurish Link Anchors is Smart SEO

SEO specialists are recommending, to avoid "over-optimization", you be a bit amateurish in your link anchor text (the wording of a link).

In most fields, the more professional you are, the better. But in SEO, the spammers and black hat practitioners are spotted by Google due to their slick and sophisticated methodologies.

(NOTE: Black hat SEO means taking advantage of loopholes and gimmicks to trick Google into thinking a thin content, poor quality, or deceptive/malicious website is relevant to keyword queries and should be ranked high in search engine results pages (SERPs). 

Don't let anybody use black hat tricks on your website, because eventually Google catches on, changes their search algorithm, and penalizes or de-indexes websites employing black hat techniques.

Once your website is removed from Google search results, it can take you 6 months to a year to plead with Google to put you back on.)

Now it is recommended that in your wording for links, you should use naked URLs (e.g., www.pluperfecter.blogspot.com), brand anchors (Pluperfecter), brand-keyword hybrid anchors (Pluperfecter web content development and SEO blog), and junk anchors (click here, read more, next page).

The former rules were (1) never use naked URLs as they look clueless and slow down reading, (2) use brand and company anchors for domains only (home pages), (3) use either brands or keywords but not both, and (4) never use junk anchors because they don't convey to human users or search engines the keywords indicative of the information you're going to navigate to and see when you click the link.

It's funny that, in the current SEO landscape, to appear less malicious, you need to appear less competent and consciously violate usability principles.

Another odd thing I came across in my SEO research is that when Google comes out with a new algorithm update, don't respond to it immediately.

Why? Because spammers and black hats typically change what they're doing the minute there's a new update, while legitimate webmasters are more sluggish and less attuned to Google's changes.

READ MORE

Search Engine Journal "Post-Penguin SEO Link Building"

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/post-penguin-seo-link-building-the-naked-url-truth/46936/

Google's Matt Cutts video on internal links and anchor text

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The Internship: Google PR Movie fact check

The Internship -- a comedy loosely based on a false notion of Google internships?

How many movies have you seen that claim to be "based on a true story," or "a dramatization of real events," only to find out that there were so many factual aberrations, that the film's rendition of the story is mostly fantasy, or falsified in important points, and thus  gives a warped viewpoint of the reality?

The Internship is one of those movies, apparently. A film about two older guys who want a job in technology "with Google as the backdrop." That means, with a fictionalized, unreal portrayal of Google. 

Many reviewers are calling The Internship "a love letter to Google" and "a 2 hour  commercial for Google," but there are some odd misrepresentations.

FACT: There is no public Google "help line" you can call.

FACT: Google internships are not given out as prizes for team competition events.

FACT: New AdWords accounts for small businesses do not get processed through written purchase orders.

FACT: Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson do NOT have GooglePlus accounts.

FACT: Google, in fact no corporation or organization, is as wacky, fun, altruistic, and innocent, as this film makes Google out to be. It's easy to chant "Do No Harm" -- but that doesn't mean that you are in fact never doing any harm. Of course, no group of humans will ever be perfect.

The film makers confessed that they weren't trying to portray Google accurately. They admit to not caring about the facts. Then why not call the firm Zillions, give it a fake name and fake characteristics?

The movie revolves around Google internships, but presents a very inaccurate perspective on Google internships, offering a make believe substitute instead. It strongly pushes the good intentions of Google and its Do No Harm mantra, while avoiding any of the negative publicity related to Google's policies.

What is the point of doing such a thing? Didn't the producer have enough imagination to build a story on the truth about Google internships? Was the truth "too mundane," not exciting enough?

Why can't a film maker take the reality and build a story around the actual facts, instead of twisting things around, for the sake of "what I want to imagine it to be"?

My reason for disliking this common ploy is that the movies create a powerfully embedded false sense of a real thing. The fantasy of the film dictates what the masses perceive about the object of the film. 

Movie-goers walk away with a fake that they consider the real deal. This can cause trivial or serious problems when people discuss the true story, or the actual entity, and base their opinions on what they remember seeing in the movie.

I'm not saying that every film based on a true story or a real entity has to be a documentary. What I'm saying is be faithful to the facts of the real entity, because your portrayal will be taken by most movie-goers to be the truth. Most of them probably won't fact check the film.

I believe that films based on true stories or real entities swerve from the facts due to the arrogance of the producer. Ego gets in the way. A power trip ensues. The producer gets some kind of weird thrill imposing his vision and disregarding the truth.

The motivation of the film's producer often is declared: "I told the story in my own special way because I wanted to put my personal stamp on it." They apparently want to tell their own story, and just use the true story or the real entity as a convenient springboard to go off in all kinds of wild, fanciful directions. To me, that's not cool.

Will The Internship be a funny movie? Probably. Will it be enjoyable to watch. Undoubtedly. Will it get people interested in pursuing a career in technology? Hopefully. Will it implant some errors about what Google is really like in the minds of viewers? Unfortunately.

Bottom line: A good PR tool for Google, that pointlessly deviates from the truth about Google internships. A better idea for a movie might have been the zany antics of brogrammers that occur at Google's Summer of Code (SOC) program.

https://developers.google.com/open-source/soc/

http://readwrite.com/2013/06/01/why-i-wish-the-new-google-internship-movie-was-actually-true

http://marketingland.com/the-internship-movie-google-45618

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SEO Resources

Here's a list of information on search engine optimization (SEO). 

Online Resources

Google Webmaster Tools

http://support.google.com/webmasters/?hl=en

Google SEO Starter Guide [PDF]

http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en/us/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf

Google Webmaster Central blog

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/

Google's Inside Search blog

http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/

Matt Cutts (Distinguished Engineer at Google, in charge of web spam) blog

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/

Search Engine Land

http://searchengineland.com/

Search Engine Journal

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/

Search Engine Roundtable

http://www.seroundtable.com/

SEOMoz blog

http://www.seomoz.org/blog

Brad Geddes / Certified Knowledge blog

http://certifiedknowledge.org/blog/

Traffick: the Business of Search blog

http://blog.traffick.com/

Webmaster Radio FM [podcasts]

http://www2.webmasterradio.fm/

SEO Book blog

http://www.seobook.com/blog

Google Blogoscoped

http://blogoscoped.com/

Search Engine Watch

http://searchenginewatch.com/

State of Search

http://www.stateofsearch.com/

SEO Chat [forums]

http://www.seochat.com/

Local SEO Guide

http://www.localseoguide.com/

Stone Temple blog

http://www.stonetemple.com/blog/

Recommended SEO Books

The Art of SEO – by Stephen Spencer, et al

Search Engine Optimization Secrets – by Danny Dover

Marketing in the Age of Google – by Vanessa Fox

Get to the Top on Google – by David Viney

Landing Page Optimization – by Tim Ash

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