What is Good SEO?

A web technology colleague of mine, who works at a "brand strategy and communications agency" on the east coast, asked me today how I was doing.

When I spoke, among other things, of my doing SEO for various companies, he expressed his misunderstanding of the field.

QUOTE

But we do not do SEO -- it's such a crazy thing. And, unlike the way it used to be, doing it wrong really messes everything up -- gets you banned and can ruin your company for good.

And people need help in their sophistication, too. People are using many blunt instruments, that's for sure.

END QUOTE

SEO is Search Engine Optimization, helping a website comply with search engine rules while also attracting more customers to the website.

My friend is speaking of the fake SEO that con artists try to sell to companies, the black hat tricks that Google catches onto and then penalizes. It's not true that all SEO work is of that type.

When he says "unlike the way it used to be", he is referring to how, in days gone by, any methods could be used to dishonestly boost a website's ranking in search results, pushing it higher than it deserved to be. There were little maneuvers that could trick search engines, but the resulting websites tended to be of very poor quality for human site visitors.

In the early days of internet search, Google did not have spam warnings and best practice guidelines in effect, nor the algorithms that could detect the various deceptive ploys that are now categorized as black hat SEO.

An example that many people are familiar with is "keyword stuffing": using a key words (like "coffee", "French press", "cafe", and "espresso" on a web page for a coffee shop, over and over again, unnaturally, relentlessly, in a silly attempt to convince a search engine that the page content is relevant to that keyword. Techniques like that are stupid and they backfire.

To say that all SEO is bad or "crazy" is to not understand the necessity of correctly optimizing a website. The goal of SEO is to attract qualified customer traffic and take advantage of relevant keywords for meta tags and content, to accurately and honestly convey to search engines the true value of the website for human users.

Good SEO can be compared to good grooming, making your website wear a suit and tie, to be more presentable and effective. Bad SEO is like making a website wear a costume disguise and pretend to be better than it really is.

He's right about SEO when he says "doing it wrong can really mess everything up", but that is also a danger of improperly installed electrical wiring. The point is to know how to do it right, not go the extreme of avoiding it all together, in a "we don't do SEO" attitude.

Whether you realize it or not, just designing a website means you are "doing SEO" to a large degree, as much of SEO resides in coding and content. All social media posts are also a part of SEO, especially when you post links to your website on blogs and social networks.

SEO basically means anything you do that results in driving qualified customer traffic to a website. That includes press releases, news updates, videos, podcasts, directory listings, customized landing pages, Facebook ads, Google AdWords campaigns, blog post promotions, status updates, Twitter tweets, even offline activities like seminars, interviews, community events, and lecture presentations.

I must step in and say that "branding" has as bad a reputation as "SEO" when it comes to the wiles of hucksters and charlatans, just as "sales" and "marketing" are also tarnished in many people's minds by bad practice and unethical techniques.

The SEO that I am engaged in is based strictly on Google Webmaster guidelines.

By not paying attention to Google guidelines, or defying them, that's how a website gets in trouble. Our goal to make sure there is never any Google trouble.

When I say SEO, I mean "compliance with Google web design suggestions and algorithm updates" -- which basically comes down to making a website of value to human users. Not chasing arcane gimmicks that try to take advantage of algorithm loopholes and blindspots. That's your black hat SEO.

Google-compliant SEO encompasses keyword-savvy web page title tags and descriptions, image alt attributes, keyword performance, conversion tracking, and landing page optimization -- to ensure maximum results from sales pages.

For a discussion of Google savvy web coding and content, I recommend the books "Marketing in the Age of Google" by Vanessa Fox, "Get to the Top on Google" by David Viney, "The Art of SEO by Eric Enge, et al, and "Landing Page Optimization" by Tim Ash.

Spammers Use Likes and Shares to Boost FB Edgerank

The more Likes and Shares you get, the more you boost your Facebook Edgerank, which means the more people Facebook will push your posts to.

The spammers have figured this out. That's why you see so many "If I get one million Likes, I'll stop texting while I drive" and other ridiculous messages.

A photo with a person holding a sign. The message tugs on your heartstrings. "If I get 50,000 Likes, my dad said he'll quit smoking." 

People are gullible. They are easily chumped out by emotional appeals. "Let's help him quit cigarettes" someone posts as a comment. "This is a good cause that I can support," chimes in another well-meaning person.

But all they're doing is helpin a spammer expand his reach on Facebook. The message is a lie. It's designed to compel you to click Like and Share, which sends a signal to Facebook Edgerank algorithm, which will be tricked into thinking this spammer is really popular, really posting valuable content.

It's an effective scam. You have to admire the sheer diabolical brilliance of the scheme. But if you ignore this warning, and persist in trusting these spammers and their clever messages, all you're doing is helping the spammers.

Don't be so stupid.

Read more here:

http://pluperfecter.blogspot.com/2013/02/facebook-edgerank-like-and-share-spam.html

VentureBeat "What Your Business Needs to Know About Facebook Edgerank"

Shel Holtz "Engage Your Fans, Don't Worry About FB Edgerank Algorithm"

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Become an Expert and Get a Job in Marketing

How do you get good at marketing, social media, SEO, web usability analysis, and ecommerce?

Personally, I am not real big on formal education for advertising and marketing, but that's because I've forged my own path. I studied English literature and sociology in college.

By the time new business, advertising, and marketing methods and concepts reach a university, they've accumulated accretions of bad practice, hyperbole, and misconception. It's easy for academics to theorize and speculate, without much real world experience.

All my training and expertise in marketing comes from applying principles of poetics, semiotics, ethnomethodogly, deconstruction, and psychoanalysis to the realm of business communications. I got my first job in marketing based solely on my writing ability and enthusiasm for advertising.

At the time, I was working at Hiram Walker and Pabst on the weekends. But I had been subscribing to Advertising Age magazine and reading every book I could find in libraries and book stores on the topic of sales, advertising, and marketing.

I created some speculative print ads, put them in a portfolio, along with samples of my short stories and other writings, and managed to get an interview at a local marketing company. The first place I went to hired me.

I have also attended industry seminars sponsored by reputable corporations or trade associations. My real foundation is both personal study and practical experience working for companies like Ruppman Marketing Serivces, Troy Bilt, Scholastic, Wall Street Transcript, American Banker, and Grey Advertising.

Master marketing by practicing it for companies. Get as much insight and information as you can, then do some speculative work for a business or product that you love.

Design a print ad for a perfume or musical instrument or restaurant that you like and use. 

Develop a marketing campaign for a favorite rock band. Create a promotional video for a brand you're crazy about. Do something that shows you have some genius and passion.

Also be relentlessly paying attention to the blogs, videos, podcasts, and forums and websites devoted to the field, along with books like:

"Positioning" by Al Ries and Jack Trout
"Gonzo Marketing" by Christopher Locke
"Net Words: Creating High-Impact Online Copy" by Nick Usborne
"Designing Web Usability" by Jakob Nielsen
"Free Prize Inside" by Seth Godin
"Kellogg on Marketing" edited by Dawn Iacobucci
"The Origin of Brands" by Al and Laura Ries
"The Cluetrain Manifesto" by Doc Searls, et al
"Naked Conversatons" by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel
"Talent" by Tom Peters
"Small Town Rules" by Barry J. Moltz and Becky McCray
"Customer Centered Selling" by Robert L. Joles
"Credibility" by James Kouzes and Barry Pozner
"Mobile Marketing" by Cindy Krum
"New Rules of Marketing and PR" by David Meerman Scott
"F'd Companies" by Philip J. Kaplan
"505 Unbelievably Stupid Web Pages" by Dan Crowley
"Social Intelligence" by Daniel Goleman
"Guerilla Social Media Marketing" by Jay Conrad Levinson

Plus any classic books on advertising and by Tom Peters, Seth Godin, Peter Drucker, W. Edwards Deming.

Be cautious when it comes to buying books. There are tons of books out now on "social media marketing" and many of them are garbage, just rehashing the same ideas over and over again, or blabbering about a bunch of nonsense. Examine books on "social marketing ROI" if you want a good laugh. On and on they go, never really saying much in most cases.

Learn as much as you can about sales, psychology, web usability, SEO, online writing, direct mail, quality assurance methods, semiotics, sociology, deconstruction, art, design, web design, and other things of this nature, for they all intersect with what you're doing in marketing.

Just when I was feeling like I had learned it all, and was getting rather bored with marketing, along came the internet and websites. Suddenly a whole new world opened up to me, and so far, I have not approached anything like the end of it.

While I have shifted from social media marketing to SEO, I see no end to the intricacies and opportunities of the online realm.

So we must keep studying, thinking, implementing, and learning. You can never think you know it all, or know enough. You must be obsessed and keep on growing and knowing, more and more, and that's how you stay valuable in your field and worthy of ever-increasing pay.

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Facebook Edgerank Like and Share Spam Tricks

Apparently Eminem World community on Facebook doesn't mind using classic spam techniques. This page  recently posted a photo of a darling little baby in cool clothes, with the caption "Click LIKE if you think this baby is cute"...and many other images with a similar tactic.

There are many variations of this black hat SEO method. 

A photo of a sick child, a battered woman, a cancer victim (Click Like if you want to see a cure for cancer in your lifetime).

A photo of Satan (Click Like if you'd like to see the devil be cast into hell. If you love the devil, just keep on scrolling.).

A photo of a baby, with the message "Like if you agree babies are a gift from God."

A photo of an alleged homeless military veteran with the message  "Let's Find 1 Million People Who Really Support Our Severely Injured Veterans's photo. ♥ "Thank you for seeing me as a Veteran and not a homeless Man". ♥

"Click LIKE if your remember this movie" accompanied by a still from the film.

"Do You LOVE Your Dad? -- Click Like for YES. If no, just ignore."

You've seen ton of these, I'm sure.

It's similar to all the fake veterans charities who raise tons of money from people who support the troops -- but none of the money is used to help veterans, it all goes to make the charity executives rich.

They pull on your heartstrings. They appeal to normal emotions. They seem to be so innocent and noble. But they're filth. They're garbage. They're cynical gimmicks, preying on your conscience and morality, deceiving you subtly, so they can gain more reach in Facebook for their spam messages and malicious exploits.

Spammers use this technique to boost their Facebook Edgerank, which is like Google juice. The higher your Edgerank, the more Facebook pushes your posts out, the more views your posts will get.

When you click Like, Share, or post a comment, you increase the spammer's FB Edgerank. When you click Share, you distribute the spammy photo and message to your FB friends, who may also click Like on it. So by clicking Share, you become an unwitting participant in spreading this spam exploit to other innocent, well-intentioned victims.

BEWARE of unethical people using social engineering to trick you into clicking Like and Share or posting a Comment. You are being tricked into thinking you are agreeing with a statement or supporting a cause. But that's NOT the point.

The only goal is to generate thousands of Likes and Shares, on THEIR post, to boost their profile's Facebook Edgerank.

It's a blackhat SEO gimmick, which enables them to spam more people, because FB will consider their content to be more important and valued, based on all the Likes and Shares that a sentimental post produces.

They will do things like post a photo of a Down's Syndrome child and attack text like:

QUOTE

This is my sister Mallory. She has down syndrome and doesn't think she's beautiful. Please "like" this photo, so I can show her later that she truly is beautiful.

END QUOTE

Some people are just plain stubborn. They will argue against me, like I'm attacking veterans, or moms, or whatever. They just can't see the scam involved. I try to explain what's going on, but some people are suckers, chumps, naive, easy prey for con artists.

If they sympathize with the noble cause, all they can see is the image and the message. They act like they're blind to the reality behind the ploy.

They refuse to consider how this is a ploy by spammers. They will debate you forever, without listening to what you tell them about social engineering, con artists, like-baiting, rogue apps, and other black hat gimmicks that seduce the person who cannot exercise critical analysis or independent thinking.

Another recent variation the One Million Likes scams ("Daddy said he'd buy us a puppy, if we get one million Likes on this post.") -- and Likejacking, where you're encouraged to click Like on a Facebook page, and are then taken to a phishing page or your own FB account is hijacked, so all your FB friends are spammed in your name.

Remember, the message is a fake. They are lying to you. All they want is to get you to click Like on their post, for their own selfish reasons. If you don't understand Facebook Edgerank algorithms, then you don't understand how malicious this really is.

Don't fall for this skanky ploy. Ignore the request to click Like and Share on such images and messages.

Brian Solis "What Your Business Needs to Know About Facebook's Edgerank"

Daily Dot: Business "Facebook Dresses Content Farm Spam Network"

Yahoo News UK "Facebook Spam Scam Secret Revealed"