Alan is discussing social media measurement in his solo session, “Measuring a Social Media Fire” at 4:05pm eastern. Tune in to virtually attend a conference of some of North America’s smartest social media specialists.

#140MTL CONFERENCE – LIVE VIDEO STREAM

Some small businesses or start ups can’t afford to hire a content creator – and that’s not a problem. SEOs are happy if a client produces their own content, but people who don’t understand SEO are all asking the same questions: Why can’t I just reiterate what something I’ve cut and pasted from another source? Why does that 2,000 word essay I wrote have such a high bounce rate? If this article made my site popular three years ago, why is it getting buried now? Why isn’t this working?

There is a lot of content out there, and there’s more to be created. Professionals who understand how to write effective content don’t always appreciate how difficult it might be for the uninitiated. With the SEO world evolving as quickly as it is, it’s more important that we clarify how to best write the most effective content.

These are some of the questions I’ve come across.

This advice isn’t even close to what I was told a couple years ago when I first hired an SEO. What gives?
Simply put, stuff changes. Keyword tags used to matter; now they don’t. Content used to be important: now it’s king. It’s not a bad thing – if anything, it’s actually a blessing. The web is evolving to reward the best of something, not the most. But it requires a dedication to nurturing your site on a regular basis, and a huge part of that is content. Concise, well-written content will get you rankings. Consistently adding fresh content to your site will strengthen this. ‘FRESH’ is the important part.

Why Can’t I Cut and Paste Other People’s Content?
It’s a terrible Idea: Not only are you stealing, but in the eyes of ‘teh internets’ you’re duplicating content. Don’t think that Google won’t recognise this: even reiteration isn’t a guarantee that the algorithms aren’t going to notice. If you duplicate copy, Google will compare both sites to determine whose content has been on the web longest, and reward that site. The duplicated copy that you posted to improve your site’s content will actually cost you – either in rankings, or some other metric that is detrimental to the desired results.

So, in short, don’t create more problems that you’ll have to pay someone else to fix: The whole purpose of creating your own content was to save money.

What’s a related phrase and why is it better than using the same word over and over?
Google is capital ‘S’ Smart. It constantly evolves, analyzes and improves itself. It currently has its own little database on you, friendly reader: It knows what you like, where you surf and how often you’re online – and tailors itself to you based on these needs, whether it’s in the SERPs or adverts.

Part of this intelligence is its ability to discern related search terms based on original queries. Gone are the days where repetitive words are helpful to your search results. Incorporating some related terms into your copy will achieve better results; it essentially casts a wider net into the ocean that is the web.

So… How do I do this?
Remember, site content is only relevant to the user if they find what they are looking for, and quickly.

Boil it all down by using:

• bulleted lists (just don’t go overboard)
• small paragraphs
• appropriate headings
• a lot of white space
• add to it on a regular basis
• don’t forget a CALL TO ACTION

The best way to do this is to keep your copy CONCISE, CLEAN, and EASY. Does your client/consumer know what you want them to do when on your site? Tell them, don’t assume they know. You’d be surprised how much that can impact your site.

Smartphone users more oblivious to others: study
by, Derek Abma, POSTMEDIA NEWS – May 11, 2012

There is a debate running in the SEO [inbound marketing, online marketing, search engine optimization, search marketing, sem, smm, website promotion] sector these days about how we refer to our services. Search results are influenced by far more than what we see on-page and Internet users are getting information from a number of reference points independent of the SERPs. The old understanding of SEO (2003 – 2010ish) is dead. So what explains what we do today?

Marketing is a funny thing and thankfully, marketers tend to be funny people. Our product is ideas.  The tools we build them with are words and imagery. It doesn’t matter if the ideas are imprinted on paper using ink, broadcast through the air using radio waves, televised for your edification and entertainment or transmitted in packets using light. We make ideas and sell our abilities to place those ideas in front of interested eyeballs.

You can’t touch an idea. I can package an idea in words and pitch a pretty picture describing it, but none of us will ever touch it. Ideas, like knowledge, do not exist in the material world. That’s why words are so important. Words are the tools we use to build, brand, and ultimately to get consumers to buy.

If I spend 20% of my time working on-page, 20% of my time acquiring relevant links, 20% of my time writing page and article content, 20% of my time curating and maintaining social media profiles, and 20% of my time figuring out how to run my business properly, what do I call what I do in a day? I never actually get to do what my industry moniker says I do. The folks at Google and Bing don’t let me optimize their search engines.

In reality, I spend most of my time reading analytic reports and preparing documents outlining my ideas and detailing my thoughts on how to best attract web traffic inclined to conversions. I’m a traffic specialist, a guide and a writer. I come up with ideas on how to best express things and then lead teams in executing those ideas. A few years ago, people were most influenced by my work when they found my clients on Google, Bing and Yahoo!. Today, they might see results of my work on Pintrest, FourSq. or Yelp.

Perhaps the problem is the word “engine”. I don’t work with engines, at least not in my professional life. Engines are cool though. Engines are machines. Search algorithms are kinda like machines, but I don’t actually work on search algorithms. I work on or with websites while thinking about my understanding of the endless combinations of signals my work might be sending search engines. I’m trying to optimize conditions for success on search engines. I’m a search optimization engine but I’m not a machine. Coming to terms with my own professional terminology is confusing enough but I also spend a lot of time thinking about social media.

Facebook is not a search engine, not yet anyway. It is a social space in which people recommend interesting stuff to their networks of contacts. Posts there have an impact on search results in a number of indirect ways. Facebook is friendly and though it is not a search engine I spend a lot of time thinking about it. It drives traffic. If I do it right, Facebook drives relevant, highly convertible traffic to my clients’ webpages.

Google Plus is a search engine space but it too is not a search engine exactly. I am spending a lot more time thinking about Google Plus, even though virtually nobody outside of the IT world is. Google is making me think about it. I’m not a Google optimizer though Google is most certainly forcing me to perform tasks that optimize their understanding of web documents I work on. Google is currently acting like a bully about this, but that’s another dozen posts and maybe a few radio rants.

Twitter takes a lot of my partner, Alan K’necht, and his team’s time. He spends so much time there, conferences want him to tell other marketers how to spend their time there. Alan is all about figuring out who did what when and how much those actions are worth to our clients. He was originally known as Mr. Analytics Canada. He is becoming known as Mr. Social Media Measurement Canada.  Alan has traditionally identified as a Search Marketing Analytics specialist covering SEO and PPC. Social media is neither PPC or SEO but it’s taken so much of Alan’s time he has become one of the industry experts. Does that mean he’s no longer a SEO or does that mean his interest in all ways to measure the effectiveness of web traffic has expanded? A new title expressing all the stuff Alan does in our SEO consultancy would be a mouthful and might ironically exceed 140 characters on a business card. I still think of him as a SEO expert. Industry branding is funny that way.

Web traffic comes into a website from an ever increasing number of sources. Since we can exercise some degree of influence in most of those sources, we might call ourselves Inbound Marketers. I think that’s a rather broad-stroke name myself but the new digital marketing environment presents a rather broad canvass. Such a name is a detail that neglects the hours of under-painting that goes into placing art on a canvass.

Search and Social Media Marketers is a bit more precise but, again, who the hell wants to be called a SSMM? Regardless of what the general public thinks of the term SEO, SSMM is going to be thought to be dirtier. I can almost guarantee it. Words are my business.

I’d go with Internet Marketing, and have when saying SEO didn’t make sense but a recent viral video at online news source, The Verge has spiked the term “Internet Marketing” for the time being. (http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/10/2984893/scamworld-get-rich-quick-schemes-mutate-into-an-online-monster)

I work in a space that is defined by the moment. I’ve been in this space for nearly 15 years. That’s a lot of moments. I plan to be here for at least another decade, assuming it will continue to be as interesting as it’s been thus far. There is only on commonality I can think of that not only spans the previous 15 years but will still be applicable in the future and gives any of us a lot of room to grow into whatever the heck we want to grow into.

Digital Marketing. I’m a digital marketer. I don’t work in print. I don’t do billboards. I do digital. My work space is very big but consists of nothing but light. I send signals far and wide and those signals are understood to be virtually real simply because you’ve read this far in a digital medium.

I’m not an inbound marketer. That sounds too touristy to me. I’m a digital marketing specialist and it’s a warm and sunny Friday.

Dave discusses his appearance on Ecom Experts and how e-commerce is being affected by Google’s Penguin and Panda updates. They also look at the LinkedIn purchase of SlideShare (Powerpoint in the clouds) for 118.8 million dollars.

Throughout, Jim and Dave discuss SEO and Social media. We’re not sure if they actually get around to talking about the Facebook IPO Roadshow or not. It’s probably in there somewhere.

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Jim and Dave discuss the Google Penguin and Panda Updates with Michael David, the author of WordPress 3.0 Search Engine Optimization. Jim recaps the highlights from SMX Toronto 2012.

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Alan will be getting started any minute… stay tuned for live blog coverage from the event.

We learn about the YummyMummyClub.ca as we speak with journalist, TV personality, former MuchMusic VJ, writer and composer Erica Ehm.

Topics this week also include watching Your Inbound Link Counts; whether Google is going after Parked Domain Pages; and how Toronto’s Village Idiot Mayor got a mention on Boing Boing.

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