Giving your older content an SEO audit
May 22, 2009 Search Engine Optimization, Writing Content
When most people sit down to do SEO on an established site, chances are pretty good that a lot of the content was created simply to add content. And while some might have been designed with SEO in mind, chances are good - especially on larger sites - that there is a lot of content that is just “there”. If you have a lot of content that was created before a good SEO strategy was implemented across the site, it is time to go and perform an SEO audit on that content. Here are some of the things you should be looking at.
Titles
When I look at older content sites, some of the titles are seriously atrocious. Often times they are either so keyword rich they reek of spam, or they are written with nary a keyword in site, or if you are lucky, one keyword right at the end. So have a look at each title and see if you can rewrite it to include keywords without being spammy, as well as creating strong titles and will get the clicks. And yes, I am especially talking to those people who still have content where all their articles have the same “Sitename.com Site Name” title tag 
Linking within the content
are there opportunities for you to link to other articles on your site from within each article? If you can, great. But be careful not to go overboard, if you have something linked on every sentence, it will look a little odd.
Linking externally
Going back through old content can present opportunities to link to outside authoritative sites within your market area. Don’t be afraid to link out when those links can provide value to your readers, as well as the possibility of a potential link back from those sites too.
Checking current links
It wouldn’t be the first time someone has discovered that great link you added to an article 3-4 years ago now leads to a porn spam portal. So be sure to give your current links a health check to make sure none of them are leading to “bad neighborhoods” or other sites you really do not want your readers to think you are endorsing!
Giving new keywords a boost
There are probably new keywords and keyword phrases you have discovered are valuable since you originally wrote some of your content. See if there are new keywords and phrases that can be worked into content about the topic, so you can give an extra boost to those keywords on your site. Especially if you aren’t a big writer, this can be a great way to get some of those new keywords without having to write entirely new content.
Related posts
If your older content is on a Wordpress blog, there are many different “related posts” plugins you can use. Otherwise, start with your most viewed articles and eventually work your way so that every article on your site has related posts or articles listen at the end. It will not only help with deep linking but it will also be great for user experience and increase page views on your site as well.
Fix typos
I am quite certain I have pages out there with typos, and every once in a while I will spend some time going through old articles and checking for spelling errors and typos. While once upon a time typos and misspellings could be considered a viable SEO strategy, nowadays - particularly with Google’s new “did you mean” correction in the search results - it won’t pay off as well now as it once did. And it doesn’t hurt to check grammar while you are at it too.
Outdated content
If you have content that is outdated, take the time to update it, especially if new information arises… you want people who are looking for that new information to be able to find it, especially if you aren’t planning to write a new article about it for your site. That way when people search for it, you will have it, whether they search through a search engine or your internal site search.
So next time you have a couple hours to spare, sit down and start looking at your older content and see how you can give them an SEO audit and fix what needs fixing. Just be sure to keep track of which pages you have done, so that next time you sit down, you won’t have to try and remember what you have done and what still is awaiting the SEO audit.
Could your employees sabotage your social media campaigns?
May 6, 2009 Social Media Marketing
Now that social media is the big thing that many companies are trying to roll out, those (often inexperienced) companies often just tell their employees to sign up for Twitter, or make a group at Facebook, and then go to town on it. But what if that employee defects from the company and takes those Twitter, Stumble, Digg, etc accounts with them when they go? You have suddenly lost all that work your employees did on company time.
So if you have employees building up their profiles during company time, have you considered what happens to those profiles when that employee leaves? What if that employee goes to work for a competitor? Or starts a competing business? The last thing you want is to not only have them taking an immense user base with them, but then having to start all over again from scratch at your own company, even though you effectively paid those former employees to create and promote all those accounts while on the clock.
And worse, those former employers could completely sabotage your social media efforts by talking a trash about you and your company, or telling all your social media success tactics to the audience made up of those who follow him or her because they were employed by you… and yes, that audience will not just include your clients and customers, but also your competitors too.
Employee contract
First, you want to make sure your employee hiring contract clearly states that any social media related accounts that any employee uses for company business remains with the company even if the employee leaves employment. This is the first safeguard, and prevents any issues coming up later where an employee might try and claim they didn’t know their accounts were owned by the company and not themselves personally. If it is included and signed by the employee, this position just became a lot harder for an employee to claim.
Create with company info
Make sure all accounts are initially created with the company’s email address and include the URL where applicable. If things go south, it is much easier to go back and try and regain control of accounts if they were originally set up using name@companyname.com rather than employeename@gmail.com, even if said employee switches it later to a personal email address.
Include the company name in the accounts
This might seem like a no brainer for some, but it time and again I see companies getting their employees to Twitter without using any kind of name branding. While obviously this won’t work in all cases, such as Stumble accounts you want to use to also Stumble your own company’s pages too. But on Twitter, for example, it makes much more sense for your employee Scott to use CompanyNameScott as a Twitter handle than ScottJones. This will also make it much easier to prove ownership.
Rules governing personal name use for business
Yes, some employees will legitimately use their personal social media accounts for the good of the company and many will never run into any problems with it. But you want to consider the potential impact of those employees gaining too large of a following based on their employment by your company. What if they get poached by the competition and start tweeting for their followers to start using the competition instead of you. Or what if you are forced to fire that employee and he or she starts to talk smack about your company with their personal accounts that many of your clients/customers follow?
Pseudonyms
So when you need a “human name” like Scott Jones rather than CompanyNameScott, definitely consider using pseudonyms that your company registers and then hands over to employees. You can even get individual employee’s input into their names, since you don’t want to inadvertently chose a name that is close to the same name as a childhood rival or an ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend’s name. Of course, also check the name in Google from a reputation standpoint. But most importantly, using pseudonyms can be invaluable because if the employee who originated the various profiles and accounts leaves the company, you can have someone else slide into the persona and continue on with the marketing efforts without having to rebuild. And using pseudonyms doesn’t have that potential grey area if employees use their real names.
As social media becomes more and more popular as a marketing tactic, I am sure there will be many cases where things like ownership of Twitter accounts and Facebook groups will end up in courts, and they are already being fought out in the support of various sites. So when you start creating your company’s next excursion into social media marketing, consider these points before you make a mistake that could result in you having to rebuild all those profiles from scratch when an employee walks away with all your hard work.
What have you done to protect yourself and your company? And yes, I have definitely heard horror stories of when employees go bad!
Choosing a Killer Avatar for Your Online Profiles
May 4, 2009 Branding, Social Media Marketing
When you first thought to choose an avatar, you probably didn’t put much more thought into it than hitting the browse button until you saw one that looked half ways decent and you hit upload. But nowadays, your entire online identity can be tied into your avatar, and it can become an iconic representation of who you are, not to mention extremely useful for branding purposes. So when you decide it is time to choose a new avatar to use across the various social media sites, here are some things to think of before you start.
Look at me!
Choose a pic that is just a good pic of yourself. If you don’t have one, go trolling through Facebook or Flickr tagged photos of yourself to see if you can find one to use. All of the pics I have ever used were taken by other people at parties, events or just hanging our. Some people use professional headshots, but do be aware it can give you a kind of “corporate look” which may or may not be the kind of image you want to portray.
Look at me with a twist
Instead of standard headshots, why not change it up a bit. Make your expression funky, add a background, change the way the perspective of the photo is or add something to make your photo just not the usual photo you see of people online. Here are some great examples of avatars with a definite twist to them which makes them that much more memorable.
Go logo!
A touch more boring, but can help for accounts with corporate businesses, is to go the logo route. While this might not be as effective if you are not as well known, it can be effective for larger companies. But if you are a one person show, definitely consider going with something more personalized than your logo. Logos as avatars, especially on sites where your personality really needs to shine throughout to get the maximum value, can really hinder you. You really want to be identified with you and not simply your company name.
Go logo with a twist
You can chose something different than just your standard logo… why not show your company logo in a different way from how normally someone would see it, or closer to how someone might see the logo in real life. Here are some great examples of how to still use your company logo, but from a unique perspective.
Something representative to your company
Think about something that could be used but that people familiar with the company would clearly recognize as being significant. Of course, you do need to remember that you will be left with some people going “Um, what?”. And for those of you not AdSense publishers, that is the new AdSense icon… it’s actually an ad unit if you look at it ;) The second example is probably a bit more self explanatory. Actually, many of the Google twitter accounts have avatars that are a spin on whichever program or app it is. And honorable mention goes to @majornelson who used to have an avatar showing himself holding a Gears of War Lancer.
Best of Both Worlds
If you are caught between wanting a photo of yourself plus a company logo, you can successfully do both. Here are some examples where it is done well.
Crazy gesturing
Some people are quite known for their wild and weird gesturing in their avatars, and will actually spawn copycats and clones when they pull it off successfully. Here is one example, and no I am not going to get into the debate of which one was the originator and which was the copycat, although I am sure the originator will pipe up 
Other unusual photos of yourself
Some people use images of themselves in situations that, well, are either just kind of too crazy to describe or so unique you wonder why you didn’t think of it yourself. And yes, that is DK in a headlock by Randy Couture…
Themes
Sometimes you notice that all of a sudden everyone on your Twitter feed has a theme going on, so feel free to do that. Examples include when many people used Santa hats or changed their avatars to have a pink tint for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Just do be aware that still wearing a Santa hat in your avatar in May looks kind of odd :) I was tempted to post some examples, but I will protect the guilty parties
Cartoony You
Then you can go the way of a personalized cartoon of yourself, although these aren’t nearly as hot as they were a year or so ago when it seemed everyone was jumping on board to get themselves cartooned up for blogs and avatars. Now you will see South Park versions of people, as well as Wii and XBox custom avatars used for people’s online avatars too.
Sex Appeal
Just how companies use “booth babes” in the expo halls to drive traffic to their booths, sex also sells when it comes to online avatars, and many companies will use the same approach for their Twitter & Facebook avatars too. And sorry to all the people who really thought that @rishil was a Jack Daniels loving chick!
Last Advice
If this is your current Twitter avatar, or you are using the default avatar on any social site, it should be noted that it is better to have a dancing pig in a tutu rather than the default avatar, because nothing quite screams newbie like the default avatar.
So when you are thinking about updating your avatar, think about all the different ways you can build your online identity through your avatar across a wide variety of social media platforms. While I was using Twitter for the example profiles (mainly because it shows both the avatar and the username together), you will find nearly all will use the same avatar across multiple social media sites, including Sphinn, StumbleUpon, Facebook, etc.
Try not to change your avatar too frequently or else people won’t immediately recognize it as being you, and try and make it unique so that people who see it at a glance know exactly who it is. The point is to build your profile with the same recognizable avatar everywhere, not change it once a week to keep people on their toes ;) Think of it as an extension of your personal brand.
Feel free to post your own favorite examples of social media avatars.
What’s your social media personality?
May 1, 2009 Social Media Marketing
Think about the last 10 things you Twittered? Was anything personal? Did you mention what you were having for dinner or what you are watching on TV? Or do you only twitter things that are strictly business? Now think about your blog. While all your blog posts can be about business, do they have personality injected into it that helps people get to know the person behind the blog? What about Facebook? Do you upload photos and tag yourself in others? Do you write back and forth on people’s walls about things unrelated to work?
What many people don’t realize is that social media isn’t just about the promotional aspect of it… a large part of social media is the engagement, and part of that is revealing information about yourself so that you become more than just a handle and an avatar on the various social media sites.
For example, people who read both JenSense.com and JenniferSlegg.com will know that I have an obsession with Starbucks, I love all things Disney (and even got to speak at Disneyland once), and I’m a hockey fan (specifically Vancouver Canucks – Go Canucks Go!) And those that follow my twitter feed will know even more about me, such as the fact I love to BBQ now that the weather is turning warmer, I love Lost (okay, it’s probably an obsession too, especially when we are all twittering with #LOST as we watch each episode) and have a dog that quite often looks guilty about something when she isn’t snoozing next to my desk while I work.
Now, think about yourself. What have you revealed about yourself in your blog posts and your twitter feeds that helps your readers and followers “know” you? Anything? Too many marketers leaping into the social media world tend to talk the talk, but don’t walk the walk when it comes to getting the personal engagement that goes beyond the business engagement.
Why is this? Because they are just so focused on the business aspect of it they forget that the personality end of it is just as important, especially when they are trying to build long-term relationships. Industry news twitter accounts are a dime a dozen, so if that’s all you do, why should someone follow you when they can get the identical thing from many other sources, some which are bound to be considered more authoritative than you? But if you are also throwing in personality, whether it is your personal DOH moments as it relates to your work that day, or chatting #LOST with fellow web marketers, it is that interaction that turns your handle and avatar into a real person.
And ask you get better known in the industry, you cross that line where the mundane actually is interesting to others. Think about how people buy People magazine and US Weekly to get their fix on the “real lives” of celebrities. Well, the same thing starts to happen as you get better known in the industry, and people want to learn more about the person behind the blog so they can get a better feel for the person. So unless everything you post is of the pretty mundane “I am eating a ham sandwich for lunch”, you don’t need to worry about interspersing some of the mundane with some of the business since that is about marketing you and your personality.
Don’t forget to show your emotional side. Every person has a wide range of emotions because we aren’t robots, although I know sometimes some of wish we were! But revealing your love and hates, how you are feeling about things, what is upsetting you or making you happy can reveal more about you. Just make sure that the majority of your tweets or blog posts reflect a negative attitude otherwise people will tire of it pretty fast. Don’t be a Debbie Downer
Don’t forget that just as you want people to know you in social media, you have to know others too. This means interacting with others about their interests too. It can be something as simple a tweeting to some “@whoever I thought of you this morning when I saw ___” or asking someone about a non-work related interest. When you show that you know others, people are more likely to want to know you too. Think about people in your life that only talk about themselves and how old that gets. The same thing applies here too
Nearly all of my “absolutely must follow” people that I follow are all ones that don’t just talk shop, they talk about things far beyond work, whether it is random musings about life, about their trip to Disneyland/Disneyworld, latest Lost theories or how well their chosen hockey/basketball/football/soccer team is doing at the moment. Think about your own “absolutely must follow” list – most of them probably have a well balanced mesh of personal and work related tweets.
But how much information is Too Much Information (TMI)? Well, an occasional drunken tweet can be amusing, but keep in mind what you might find really amusing 8 martinis in might be anything but to the very sober followers reading it. Likewise, a well written rant on your blog can be pulled off well, but one shot off in the heat of the moment can actually damage your social media personality. So always keep in mind perceptions, unless you really don’t care how it could potentially impact your business. It wouldn’t be the first time someone has been fired or lost clients over tweets or blog entries. True, some might not regret it, but others definitely do.
So next time you tweet or blog, or are setting out to do it for a client, think about the personality aspect of it and how you can get some of it across to your followers and readers. Because someone with a personality and a story is a whole lot more interesting than a robot
