I’m talking about the latest Google update that will change how us as marketers look at SEO. The “Kung Fu” reference is because it’s probably going to kick a lot of marketer’s asses. Ha!

With the evolution of search, we’ve had to change the way we emphasize organic search as part of a holistic digital marketing strategy. SEO is a long term strategy that can shift at any moment. It’s because of changes just like this that you must have or invest in a level of expertise that can effectively shift as search shifts . You have no control over Google and when they want to change the landscape for organic search. We’ve been preaching how businesses should focus on their end users and the experience they have on their websites.

The search engines may bring them there but they can’t keep them there. You can even ask students from this past maymester class I taught or even go back to last year’s fall session I taught. The whole time I preached about the user experience being more important than the search engines. And NO, I didn’t have some secret insight into this Panda update Google has made. It just makes sense to to put a strategy in place that focuses on the quality of traffic rather than the quantity of it.

In the below video you will hear Rand Fishkin of SEOMOZ explain the latest Panda update Google has put out. It focuses on the user experience and not on a bunch of irrelevant things like keywords in the code or who has the most links. It now comes down to the end users holistic satisfaction with a website overall. Which is the way it should be.

So enjoy the video and have a great 4th of July weekend!

About a month or so ago I did a speaking engagement to SMB’s where we talked holistically about digital marketing. We were discussing how nothing is really free and most of the time you need help to get things accomplished. After the engagement we received a number of comments from the attendees and someone brought up an interesting point. “Why are you saying things cost so much when all I see on the internet are free ways for us to get things done?” That’s a great question!!! This is something I had to address in my Maymester class because there is some truth to that question. Let me explain.

What’s a marketing plan? It’s just that, a plan. Plans are meant to change and most of the time often do. In my experience I can honestly say that most companies create their marketing plans without considering the tactical execution of the plan. They know they want SEO, Paid Search, Social Media and Strategic Banner Advertising. They know how much they want to invest in each area. What they aren’t thinking about are the costs to get this all going. Yes, you can go to Google and start an Adwords program by yourself with a few hundred bucks. However, what you are going to find is that paid search is a science. One that requires a lot of knowledge and experience if you want to see any kind of significant return. Yes, you can pick up a book and start learning on your own for free. It will cost you though. In the time you are learning, you will be losing money with your paid search program because of the time it’s going to take you to learn how to optimize it properly. You have to also consider, landing page development. Are you going to design and develop the landing pages yourself? If not, you will have to pay for that. How about SEO? You CAN pick up one of a thousand books on the subject and figure out how to do that yourself. But, will you write your own copy? Do you know how to go into the code and modify things there? Do you know how to go out and get links pointing back to your website? Again, another thing you COULD learn on your own. But most of the time business owners don’t have time to do all this on their own. They need help and that help costs money.

Free isn’t always Free. Yes, there are tons of free tools out there to make your life easier. Someone still has to implement those tools and make them work for your business. Great example. Google Analytics is free, but most people wouldn’t have the slightest clue on how to setup an account, grab the code and implement it on their website. There are even videos on how to do this. Still, most business owners won’t do this themselves. Which is why you HAVE to plan for the tactical execution. You have to think of all the things you aren’t thinking about. You have to figure those costs into your overall marketing plan. If not, costs will easily spin out of control.

But in this scenario I’m not talking about relationships. I’m talking about design.

Design is so subjective that it’s hard to come out of the gate with the perfect design. In fact, is there such a thing as a perfect design? No, there isn’t. That’s because everyone has a different opinion on what’s good and what’s not.

Which brings me to my point.

Business owners need to realize that they are designing marketing collateral (websites, banners, videos, etc…) intended to appeal to their target audience. Not themselves. A lot of business owners make the mistake of wanting something designed their way. And why shouldn’t they? They’re paying for it, right?

The problem is, what does an owner of a medical practice know about design? Or how about an accounting practice, or a restaurant or even a roofer. What do these guys know about design? Other than knowing how you want your business to be presented to your audience, most of the time business owners need to stay out of the design process. At least after the initial design meetings.
I only say this because for the past 15 or so years we’ve seen business owners get involved in this process and all it does is slow things down and sometimes really mess things up.“How about a red background? Or how about making this button blue? Or this, my corporate colors are purple and yellow so I want my entire site to be purple and yellow.” You laugh but these have been some real requests I’ve heard over the years. While some of these requests may not seem like a big deal, it’s the job of a designer to take what you want and what is in the best interest of the collateral and find a way to make the two mesh. Sometimes you can’t always make it work. But at the end of the day you have to be willing to concede. Even if you are the business owner you have to trust the people you’ve hired. They are the designers and hopefully you’ve hired good ones.

That’s why I’ve written other blogs about how important the relationship process is. You have to find designers you feel will best represent your company and the collateral they are pushing out for you.

Business owners need to understand that design is not about YOU, it’s about ME. Me and all the other consumers out there. Your designs need to appeal to the people buying your products and services. It does you no good to design something that only you like.

How does this affected digital marketing?

With the invention of Digital Video Recorders (DVR’s) people can now choose whether they want to watch a TV ad or not. This means that no matter how much you pay for a TV ad, doesn’t mean it’s going to be seen by your desired audience. That is unless it’s the Super Bowl. :-) Computer and mobile devices face the same challenges. You can almost always choose whether or not you want to see or click on an ad. The benefit to advertising online though is how quickly you can engage with someone. With a simple click or two, a user can engage with a business on multiple levels. They don’t have to watch an ad and then run to a store or a computer to buy. They are already in a position to buy. Which is why internet television is going to be come screen 1. Mobile devices will be screen 2. There will probably no longer be a 3rd screen to marketing. That is unless the hologram television comes out. :)

For most businesses, television advertising is not possible. They just don’t have the budgets for it. But with Internet Televisions, companies will have more opportunities to engage with their audience when they are watching their favorite TV programs. Costs will be lower and targeting will be more direct. It will also make tracking user behavior a whole lot easier. We can track online engagement-to-purchase behavior pretty well. It’s much harder to track television engagement-to-purchase behavior. However when these two screens are more widely integrated, it will make our lives as marketers much easier. It will also make it much easier and cost effective for the smaller businesses to engage in “TV” advertising.

So companies just need to have a little patience and know that eventually you’ll be able to play with the big boys and get in front of your audience just as effectively as they can. As technology evolves, the 3 screens of marketing will eventually become 2. At least in my opinion.

That’s not the times we live in anymore. At least not as it pertains to the digital marketing space. We live in a time where instead of taking clients out to golf or to dinner, you are going to be spending more time communicating and educating them.

Here’s why. Let’s take a look at the JCPenney’s and the more recent Overstock.com black hat SEO issues.

Both companies recently had the Google hammer dropped on them. Both for practicing what Google considers to be unethical linking practices. JCPenney’s for having a bunch of irrelevant links pointing to their website and Overstock for having too many .edu links pointing to their website (At least that’s what Overstock believes). Regardless of the reasonings behind their recent demotions in Google’s SERPs, these instances have raised the eyebrows for every business engaging in SEO tactics. Businesses have to be asking themselves, “Is my agency or in-house marketing department executing ethical SEO tactics?” “If huge brands like JCPenney’s and Overstock.com are getting penalized, what will happen to my business if we are practicing bad SEO techniques?” These are great questions. Questions you should be asking yourself everyday you engage in digital marketing. Not just with SEO but with every digital strategy you implement. You should take the time to sit down with your agencies or in-house personnel and learn about what they are doing.

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate!

Now the issue of poor communication resides on both sides of the fence. Agencies do a poor job of communicating and clients do a poor job of wanting to be communicated with. Isn’t knowledge power? The more you know the better you can call “Bullsh*t” when that time comes.

It’s obviously easier to communicate when you have in-house personnel. They are there everyday and they have, or at least should have, a vested interest into the success of the company. You can’t really say the same for most agencies. Most agencies don’t look at the success of the business, they look at the success of the project, and sometimes not even that. I’m not talking about all agencies. I’m talking about the agencies that small and medium sized business are typically dealing with. The agencies that try and talk over the heads of prospective clients just so they don’t have to say what they really do as a business. Which is crap! These agencies try and play off the ignorance of business owners just so they can get their business. The problem is that most of the time these owners have no idea what they just signed on for but are hesitant to ask out of fear or looking stupid. The end result is that companies end up feeling screwed. They feel they wasted time and more importantly money. This hurts the digital marketing space because now they are even more hesitant to engage in these services.

We make it a point to scare the hell out of potential clients. I really want to explain to them how all of this works. The who, what, when, why and where of it all. I want them to be a little scared but confident and committed in the decisions they are making. What’s not to be scared about in the digital marketing world? It moves extremely fast and changes every day. There is not just one way to do things, there are virtually hundreds if not thousands of ways to do things online. You have so many more options and unfortunately so many more opportunities for mistakes. That’s why the client/agency relationship has to be a strong one. You have to work together to overcome obstacles that you will be faced with everyday.

Business owners have to do a better job of evaluating the agencies they are hiring. Sometimes the only person you can blame for hiring a crappy agency is yourself.

Agencies, you have to do a better job of communicating. Stop trying to SELL and just LISTEN to what these businesses need. Doing so will be mutually beneficial for all.

“We have two ears and only one tongue in order that we may hear more and speak less.”  Diogenes Laertius

It’s a great read, especially if you are in the process of hiring a search agency.

The article basically talks about how JCPenney’s search agency used “black hat” techniques to gain rankings in the search engines.  In particular, paying for links on sites that were irrelevant to their destination pages.  That’s a big Google NO NO.

In case you missed it, an article came out a couple of days ago from the NY Times called “The Dirty Little Secrets of Search.”

Here’s part of what Matt Cutt’s (the head of the Webspam team at Google) had to say;

“Am I happy this happened?” he later asked. “Absolutely not. Is Google going to take strong corrective action? We absolutely will.”

And the company did. On Wednesday evening, Google began what it calls a “manual action” against Penney, essentially demotions specifically aimed at the company.

At 7 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, J. C. Penney was still the No. 1 result for “Samsonite carry on luggage.”

Two hours later, it was at No. 71.

At 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Penney was No. 1 in searches for “living room furniture.”

By 9 p.m., it had sunk to No. 68.

In other words, one moment Penney was the most visible online destination for living room furniture in the country.

The next it was essentially buried.

PENNEY reacted to this instant reversal of fortune by, among other things, firing its search engine consulting firm, SearchDex. Executives there did not return e-mail or phone calls.

To read the entire article,  click here.

This is why I believe you should always have a consultant between you and the agencies you hire.  (I’m not just saying this because I’m a consultant) You need someone who will look out for the best interest of your business.  Most agencies just look out for what’s in the best interest of their business.

It’s totally believable that the team at SearchDex said to themselves “if we can make this Penney’s account kick ass, we will be their agency of record for years to come. So do whatever it takes!”

Did they do it?  They sure did, but at a hefty price.  They got fired and now JCPenney’s rankings are suffering and so is their bottom line.  You can’t go from number 1 to almost non existent and not have that hurt your bottom line.  In the article it states that 34% of Google’s traffic went to the number 1 listing.  About twice the percentage that went to the number 2 listing.  Now that’s all gone for JCPenney’s

Another lesson learned here is that there are no short cuts.  Not even for a brand like JCPenney’s.  You have to follow the rules even if you don’t like them.

So do yourself a favor, pay attention to who you are hiring and what your agencies are doing for you.  Don’t just send them off to the races and think they are always going to do what’s in the best interest of your business.  If you do, you may be the next business wearing “virtual concrete boots” provided by Google.

Let’s look at things from this perspective.  You have a fairly new business.  Only a year or two old.  You’re launching your website and now need to figure out how to market your site.  You have a monthly marketing budget of $10K.  (That’s a very generous budget compared to what I normally see)  You know you need quick results, as most businesses do.

How will SEO play into your overall marketing plan?  Or should it?

First, what does SEO really mean to your business?  All it means is that your website is properly optimized so the search engines can effectively index and rank your content based on how relevant it is to a user’s search.  Over the years SEO experts have spent tons of time, energy and your money trying to figure out the algorithm’s of the search engines so they can get their clients ranked as high as possible.  After a lot of time, energy, money and moderate success, what happens?  The search engines change their algorithm sending every SEO expert scrambling back to the beginning to try and figure out what changed.  It’s a horrible game that we as marketers are never going to win.  Google, Yahoo and Bing will most likely never release their algorithm details.  If they do, every SEO expert will be out of a job.  :-)

Think about it this way.

Does the Coyote ever catch the Roadrunner?  NO!  But he keeps strapping himself to an Acme rocket.  He spends a lot of time and energy trying to figure out a way to catch that Roadrunner.  But the Roadrunner out runs him and out maneuvers him.  Every time!  The Coyote never learns.  He keeps trying and trying and trying.  But he fails over and over again.  It’s the same thing with SEO.  You modify your website code, write good content, implement a linking strategy, etc…  Then what happens, Google decides that something else is more important to their algorithm.  So now all that time is gone and now you have to try and figure out what changed.

That’s why no SEO expert can offer a Guarantee.  They have no control over what Google and the other search engines are going to do next.

So what do you do?

I honestly believe you have to have an SEO foundation.  You have to have GREAT content.  But you don’t have to invest a majority of your time, energy and budget trying to appease the search engines.  There are other faster more proactive ways to reach your audience and grow your business online.

Here’s what I would recommend to a client with a $10K monthly budget;

1. Invest a few thousand dollars every month to make sure your website is sitting on a solid SEO foundation.  Good use of keywords, good coding, a good sitemap feed, etc…  Just very foundational things.

2. Invest in great copy.  The copy on your website needs to appeal to the search engines.  But it needs to appeal more to your audience.  Google is not going to buy from you, your audience is.

3. User interaction on your website is becoming more important to the search engines.  So invest in a great social media strategy geared towards getting your users to connect and communicate with you on your website or social profiles.  Your social media strategy will have an effect on your SEO strategy.

4. PR, PR, PR!  If I was a new business staring out with a $10K monthly budget, I would invest $3-$4k per month in PR.  PR builds credibility.  Every new business has to establish their credibility.  PR is a long term investment just like SEO but PR has far more reaching capabilities.  It floods search engines with positive content related to your business.  Hopefully positive content.  If you have negative content out there, we’ll have to discuss that in an entirely different post all together.  PR content will get indexed and ranked in the search engines.  So PR does have an effect on your overall SEO strategy.

5. Invest in a “natural” linking program.  $500-$1000 per month.  Buying links can be costly.  You have to keep those links for a long period of time so the costs can be considerable.  Natural linking can take quite a bit of time but typically once you have those links you’ll never lose them and you don’t have to pay for them over and over again.

6. Brand your business through display advertising.  Find out where your audience is and advertise there.  Advertising can get expensive but you have to let people know you are out there.  Otherwise they won’t search you out.  They may search out your products or services but they aren’t searching for you.  For example;  If someone searches for “Yankee Candles”, the chances of them buying from the Yankee Candle website are huge.  However, if some just searches the word “candles”, they will be presented with a number of different websites to choose from.  That’s why you want people thinking about your brand.  It really does improve the likely hood of them buying from you.

Other than that I would recommend a strategic paid search campaign, a monthly email campaign and various other tactics to compliment your overall marketing strategy.

SEO is just a really hard game to play if you don’t have a huge budget.  It takes a lot of time and energy and that costs money.  A lot of money.

I know a lot of you are probably thinking, “can’t I just outsource this overseas and save a lot of money that way.”  Sure, go for it.  Let me know how it works out for you.  :)

I never recommend outsourcing overseas.  I just don’t!  I’m sorry and I don’t want to offend anyone but that’s just how I feel.

What’s even worse is that technology has taken the customer service experience to a whole new level with automated customer support.  I can’t tell you how many times I get an automated attendant and i’m screaming into the phone “REPRESENTATIVE.” Nothing can take the place of having a physical person on the line who can speak clearly. But everyone wants to move to this “easier for them more complex for us” model that clearly does nothing to improve customer service. All it does is create frustration and make us want to find other alternatives.

Don’t you hate it that AT&T runs these ridiculous specials to get new clients. But for us old, loyal, paying clients we have to wait 2 years and even then the deals are horrible. I pay a pretty hefty penny to AT&T for my cell and broadband services. Anytime I try calling for support it’s a hassle. Anytime I try and do anything, it’s a hassle. Don’t you think they could give preferential customer support based on how much you spend per month or how long you’ve been a customer.

It’s not just with AT&T either. It’s almost every business. I’ve walked into a Quizno’s before to find the manager with his head down on a table sleeping. My mail person got mad at me one time for parking in front of the mailbox. She said that they weren’t required to get out of their vehicles to deliver mail. OOOOOkay!

If companies would worry more about customer retention than acquisition we would all be better off. As for people and their jobs this is how I see it. If you don’t like your job, QUIT!!! I’m sure someone would be happy to have your job and would do it way better because they are just happy to be working. You’re not doing your employer, your customer or yourself any good by doing your job half way. Or by being mean and bitter about doing it.

Service with a smile is long gone!

Except of course with us here at YELLOW7.  :-)

A plurality of small businesses will keep their marketing budgets steady next year across the board, including spending on websites, direct mail, print, TV and social media, according to research by Zoomerang and GrowBiz Media, a provider of information and services to help organizations reach the small and midsize business audience.

This year, SMB allocation of online marketing budgets leaned toward websites, where 27% of SMBs with 1,000 or fewer employees spent at least 30% of their budget. Email took second place with 18% devoting 30% or more, followed by social media, where 10% of SMBs said they spent at least three in 10 marketing dollars.

The tilt toward investment in websites should continue, as 17% of respondents said they planned to increase budgets for their site in 2011—the highest percentage planning to up any budget line item. In comparison, 15% said they would spend more next year on email and 13% on social media.

According to the survey, the vast majority of SMB websites include general information about the company, but only a minority offer customer service, lead capturing or ecommerce features, leaving plenty of room for investment.

In the realm of word-of-mouth marketing, SMBs relied mostly on the traditional: 70% said they used in-person networking and 50% customer referral rewards, while a comparatively small 34% used social media. Facebook is the most popular social site (80%), but further investment should help small businesses take advantage of the low-cost marketing opportunities in the channel.