When I coach clients at OrangeSoda one of the things I tell them is to be specific. A part of that advice is to use a descriptive title for your blog post. Many times people use either clever or generic titles. General titles are boring. Clever titles often lose people. Read the title of your blog post to yourself. If it could apply to almost any topic or any business, then you need to re-write it.

Search engines don’t take people to the home page of your blog every time. They deliver information out of context. This is good because if someone is searching for a hotel in Connecticut to spend Valentine’s Day then your blog post might pop up. They type in “city, Connecticut hotel” and hopefully your blog post shows up high on the list, they find you and give you a call. I’ve seen blog posts about a business come up higher than the official web site for the business.

Each blog post is its own entry into search engines — its own web page. Some people write as if we know who they are and what they do. Chances are we don’t. And that we don’t care enough to find out (unless we have or you give us a reason to).

Why is it important to use descriptive blog post titles?

• A descriptive blog post title is good for SEO.
  Search engines try to categorize information for searchers who are looking for information. If your title is too vague then a search engine may not know what it’s about. They might index it incorrectly (or not at all). The title of your blog post is one of THE MOST IMPORTANT aspects of blogging when it comes to SEO. Don’t ruin the chance to get more targeted information into search engines by writing a descriptive title to your blog posts.
• A descriptive blog post title tells the reader what they are going to learn about.
  Readers want to know what they’re getting and make split second decisions on what to read. If you make them think too hard then you’ve probably lost them. Don’t just tell us what it’s about – sell it a little. Your goal is to make people want to keep reading. The more they read the higher the chances are that they will care or trust you enough to call you, comment, or participate in some way. And if they do that, chances are higher that they’ll become a customer, regular reader, etc.
• A descriptive blog post title helps people.
  When you write descriptive blog post titles it helps people get what they are looking for. They appreciate that. Most likely they are not reading your blog post, they are skimming over it to see if there’s any reason for them to read more. If you tell them what they’re going to get up front, they can judge if they found what they were looking for. Don’t make us hunt for it. Cut down on frustration and time people must spend to figure out what your blog post is about by saying it up front in the title.

Example of a Vague Blog Post Title:

This blog post is titled: It’s Not Too Late!

If you read that you’re first question is – not too late for what? To learn to play the violin? To tell that special someone we love them? To lose 20 lbs. before the next class reunion?

After reading further I found out that the blog is a local business – a hotel. It’s based in Connecticut and it’s called Interlaken – at least that’s what I think. Nothing on the blog really tells me who they are – I’m unsure if the blog is about things you can do in a certain city or the name of the hotel. But I’ll assume it’s the name of the hotel.

The first paragraph is vague too: Valentine’s weekend is here, and we do have a few rooms still available, so no worries – just give us a call and we can still take care of you!  (1-800-222-2909).

New Version of the Blog Post

Here’s the new title: It’s Not Too Late to Plan a Romantic Valentine’s Day Getaway in __ Connecticut

Valentine’s weekend is almost here. If you live near by or are visiting (city name) Connecticut we invite you to stop by the Interlaken hotel. Not only do we still have some rooms available, we have many Valentine’s Day packages for a last minute getaway. Surprise the person you love, celebrate and spend time together. Just give us a call — and we will take care of you!  (1-800-222-2909).

P.S. My next tip would be – use paragraphs in your blog posts! and Links! But that’s another blogging tip. This one is just about the title.

Have any examples of great blog post titles? Please put them in the comments (along with a link).

Lee Odden did a poll on the best SEO books and there were almost 200 votes. Here’s the top 14 in order of the votes as of 1/09/10.

Lee also has a helpful list of 100 Search Marketing Resources

1. Art of SEO – Eric Enge, Stephan Spencer, Rand Fishkin, Jessie C. Stricchiola
2. Search Engine Optimization: Your Visual Blueprint for Effective Internet Marketing – Kristopher B. Jones
3. Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day – Jennifer Grappone & Gradiva Couzin
4. Landing Page Optimization – Tim Ash
5. Search Engine Marketing Inc, 2nd Edition – Mike Moran & Bill Hunt
6. The Truth about Search Engine Optimization – Rebecca Lieb
7. Inbound Marketing - Brian Halligan & Dharmesh Shah
8. Search Engine Visibility, 2nd Edition – Shari Thurow
9. Building Findable Websites: Web Standards SEO and Beyond – Aarron Walter
10. The Findability Formula: Easy, Non-Technical Approach to SEM – Heather F. Lutze
11. Website Optimization: Speed, Search Engine & Conversion Rate Secrets – Andrew King
12. SEO Warrior – John I. Jerkovic
13. SEO: Search Engine Optimization Bible – Jerri L. Ledford
14. SEO Made Simple - Michael H. Fleischner

Want to cast your vote for the best SEO Book? Or, if you’d like, leave a comment about your favorite SEO book.

2010 is here and it’s the year of the TIGER. According to Chinese astrology: The Tiger is said to be lucky vivid, lively and engaging. Another attribute of the Tiger is his incredible bravery, evidenced in his willingness to engage in battle or his undying courage.

So I will keep these 2 things in mind: courage and good luck. I will be courageous and lucky this year!

For my online business this year I want to accomplish the following (maybe you can help with some of them!):

• Sell out of my first run of online PR training DVDs and start streaming them online.
• Get an article about online PR in Entrepreneur Magazine (I noticed two people I know were in the last issue, so I should be able to swing this).
• Set up my affiliate program. Then find at least 10 joint venture/affiliates  to sell my DVD and make a commission of $75 a sale on each.
• Finish my SEO press releases ebook and start producing one per quarter.
• Start an online store for my online PR products at www.OnlinePRBook.com. Challenge: what platform to use? Cost? I want it to be like an ecommerce store rather than spread in random places throughout my site.
• Get my email list up & going!!! This sounds so easy but it’s been stopping me for a while now. It’s almost embarrassing that I’ve never done it.
• Find newsletters to put content in in exchange for a mention of my DVD (this is the biggest investment I’ve ever made in my business, besides my book and of course I want it to be very successful. It’s 3 hours of content.
• Become a better speaker – join Toastmasters and look for new opportunities to do both in-person and webinars. (Is there a list of webinar hosts??)
• Write press releases about the DVD, important webinars, etc.
• Update my blog with a real photo of me, widen the main section, underlined links (I’ve tried), remove ads except for my own (since they mysteriously stopped making money when I redesigned my blog), font color = black, fix background colors on sidebar to white, add Facebook & Twitter Connect, remove dates & make comments link larger, any other suggestions for me?
• Get banner ads made for the DVD.

What about you? What are you looking for in 2010?

Yesterday I spoke to a group of Utah event and meeting professionals. I used this graph to show that meeting pros were using social media to promote their events.

I also learned that if you’re an event pro, this is the Twitter hashtag to use to share information on Twitter: #eventprofs

Meetings & Conventions Magazine did a survey to find out how meeting pros use social media. They are using what I call the big 3: Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Ways meeting pros are using social media include:

post event information
post postevent photographs & materials
researching suppliers
researching speakers
reseraching potential employees
seeking jobs

I propose that more meeting professionals seek to have bloggers attend and participate in their events. Why? Because of the links, traffic to your web site and buzz it can create for your events.

Make your events “blogger friendly” – meaning

1. Invite bloggers and treat them like VIPs.
2. Have a special section for bloggers (we like hanging out with each other).
3. Make sure there are enough plugs (for their computers, etc).
4. Make wifi easy and accessible.
5. If you have a blog be sure to link to their posts about the event.
6. Create a hashtag about the event so people can label their tweets and everyone can see them by using the same label.

Case in point (a rather dramatic one):

I recently attended an event at a local bookstore with famous blogger The Pioneer Woman. She’s a publishing sensation because her first cookbook made the NY Times bestseller list (here’s the NY Times article about Ree Drummond)Thank to her blog she had thousands of people willing to stand in line to meet her at bookstores all over the country. Some people waited over 5 hours to see her.

I blogged about the event. So did a lot of other bloggers (Like Carina and Allison. She linked to our posts). We linked to each other’s posts. I continue to get thousands of readers to my blog as a result of those new links.

Why did we get all of this traffic and attention (and is it deserved)? Because we blogged about an event that had a lot of uzz. I think the fact that we did it quickly (right after the event) and our posts got linked to. We’d all be linking to their book store too.

I’m not trying to beat up this store – I actually want independent bookstores to survive. Blogging is part of that because getting written up on a respected blog will introduce readers to new authors, get more people to your store, bring new people to your events, etc.

What if the event planner of this event (the bookstore) had done what we did? Every time they bring in a big name they could let bloggers know and invite them to a reception with the author. You get a famous librarian, you invite the librarian bloggers to attend. They write about the event and probably buy books and their audience buys books. You could even grease the wheels and have a copy for them and a few signed copies for them to give away on their blog.

Even if you’re not drawing social media extroverts like this group is, a blog is often well-respected by search engines and even one link can introduce you to new networks and higher rankings.

Think of how you might engage with bloggers with your events. Don’t leave it up to chance. Invite them. Think of it as media coverage that’s much easier to get than the traditional outlets.

No, I’m not becoming a review blogger! I blogged about how I wanted to try out Lotus Jump and the company let me try it out. Lotus Jum a content management system to help you manage a Do-It-Yourself SEO campaign. It’s a great way to break down all of the SEO tasks you need to do.

If you’re like most people who has ideas, starts web sites or blog, and then doesn’t promote them online, Lotus Jump can help. It will help you stay on task and organized. When you measure something and get reports it helps you stick to it when there’s no boss or deadline.

Here are my thoughts

PRO

• They identify ways to get links for you and link directly to the place to go to submit a directory listing, a blog comment, a Yahoo Answer, etc.
• Very intuitive and easy to use. You select a task, delete it or complete it. It gives a short explanation of the site and what to do.
• Reports show you where your competitors have links, links you have, and tasks completed.
• They give you the code to link to your site with a specific keyword phrase.
• Saves you time identifying opportunities for you to get links.
• Gives a short list of how to use the site and where to put links.

CONS

• Not enough variety of links. For example, mine was a blog and it only had a few blog directories but I now there are many more. It would rock if it identified related Wikipedia entries you could post on.
• It assumes some SEO basics such as where and how often to use your keyword phrase as a link.
• The link is not to a specific related page but to the home page. However it does insert the link text for you: Example: press release writer when it should link directly to my press release services page of my blog (or web site if I had one).

I didn’t see the social profile parts, which I’m also interested in.

Lotus Jump is pretty reasonably priced and you can add another domain to your account for an additional $19 a month or go for the pro account for $50. I think the pro account should let you have more domains.

You must already know what keyword phrases you want to target, which is part of the battle for some. It would be nice if they helped with that part – even linking to tools to help you gauge the competition and/or demand for phrases relating to your business. That could be a value-add service. They could also add press release distribution tasks on the top free or paid sites (they could ask me for help on that!).

Questions: Can I add my own tasks? I saw the article suggestions but not the submission process.

Nice endorsement from Anita Campbell (who I have immense respect for) on the front page of the site:

Bottom line: It’s easy to get distracted on what you need to do to market your web site. On a basic level Lotus Jump will help you by giving you tasks and keeping track of them for you. I don’t know of anything else like it and the price is pretty fair.

Can SEO software be a viable solution for small business owners who understand SEO enough to know they need it but lack the “how to” knowlege?

There are many times in consulting where I have what I’ll call an “in-between” client. I usually refer them to people I know who can do the tasks they need to help them rank well in search engines. I do keyword research and online PR but I don’t usually do the more mundane parts of SEO. These important but sometimes tedious tasks include: article writing and submission, directories, online review sites, profiles on social sites, etc.

My coworkers and I have been talking about Lotus Jump – which is SEO software that automates a lot of SEO processes. It walks you through step-by-step for about $50 a month (I’ve heard). It’s geared for the novice – so it tells you what you need to do.

Even though I’m an SEO in my job I lack the focus at home to do the parts of SEO that aren’t my favorite. So I’m thinking of trying this software. I’m curious if anyone has tried it. If you have please leave comments.

Here are my questions (which I’ll answer when I sign up and test the service):

• How is the useability

• Rate the difficulty level (SEO beginner, intermediate, advanced) and what you can get out of the software from each level

• Have you outsourced someone to do the tasks using this system and how has it gone?

• What results have you seen from using the software in your traffic, sales, or other measurements

• What are the analytics/reporting features?

If you try it before I do, let me know what you think:

Forgive the title – I want to address businesses who want to do SEO but have a tough time finding keywords that have much demand. Most businesses rank naturally in the top 10 for their branded terms. For example, I should rank highest for the term Newspapergrl. However, that doesn’t describe what I do and only reaches people who have already heard of me.

I’ve noticed some clients who have a name that doesn’t describe what they do and they provide a service that isn’t searched for online. This is the time to get creative.

Go to SpyFu and type in your URL to get an idea of what keywords you rank for. Here’s my list (this isn’t always accurate). This used to be better but as you can see it’s all over the map. As you can see I’m ranking for terms that aren’t very helpful – I’d rather rank for terms such as “Online PR” “online press releases” etc. It also shows my top competitors online. If they have nothing to do with what you do, you need to focus on relevant keywords in your writing.

I have focused on my blog design, getting my professional services page updated, and many things. Just writing regularly has been a challenge. Now that I’ve gotten past a lot of the most difficult parts I need to focus in on SEO more again. I also need to finish my online PR book and get a web site up about online PR.

According to SpyFu this is what I rank for (if you pay they’ll give more results). It’s far different than what I used to rank for.

14 jeremy palmer affiliate high performa…
27 innuity
32 email marketing guide
41 affiliate marketing article
42 www optimizemysite com
44 calling libya
45 replacesearch
49 corporation attorney

Back to the point about SEO for businesses where people aren’t actively searching out what you do online. One creative way to approach finding keywords is to think about problems you solve or the audience you want to reach. If your audience is small businesses you might search “for small businesses” and see what comes up. Use a keyword tool such as freekeywords.wordtracker.com or Google’s Keyword tool.

You also want to look at what your competition ranks for, or who you want my competition to be. Or even who you work with or want to work with. For example, I put PRWeb into Spyfu. Since I write optimized press releases that I distribute with PRWeb, they are a complementary business.

I notice PRWeb ranks on terms that have nothing to do with press releases. Obviously they are ranking for their actual press release content, not for what they do. They’re not ranking on “optimized press releases” or “online press releases.”  A blog is an excellent way to build your rankings for keywords and create your own content. Even though PRWeb is one of the most known online press release services, smaller online press release businesses are ranking for terms relating to their business.

Sometimes there just isn’t demand or it’s so small that you need to focus on other tactics after ranking for the obvious terms like your brand name. For most businesses that is easy. You may then turn to getting mentions in blog posts, leaving comments, being active in forums or social networks and other ways to build your visibility online. This is where relationship building is key. It’s vital to find out where your audience is spending time online and getting creative about how to reach them.

Rather than focus on SEO you will need to identify publications, associations, bloggers, groups and complimentary businesses and work on those relationships. See if you can offer content in exchange for a link and some publicity. Try advertising in newsletters, running contests, and finding other ways to engage with your audience. Most of all produce content that your audience will relate to. See who is ranking well for your audience and see if you can partner with or engage them.

These are ways that I found effective, but it’s something I’m always thinking about. Each business challenges me to think of new ways to market online. What creative ways have you found to market your business online when SEO and keywords aren’t a good fit?

I hear the chorus – when it comes to pitching the media – traditional media like newspapers or tv shows – they want the story. They are sick of pitches that either don’t apply to them, or that aren’t interesting.

Most of the time, it’s not interesting that you named a new CEO or made a new partnership. Your software or product isn’t that interesting (unless you’re Klimit). What makes things interesting is the human element or the story.

Reporters are burned out, stressed out, and many are losing their jobs right now. They don’t have energy and time to read about your news. So what is a PR firm or a company trying to get attention to do? Tell and distribute your own story. When and if you have a story that’s interesting or bigger, then go ahead and pitch.

In the meantime, your audience is a search engine. Or, it’s a social media site like Facebook where you interact with potential customers (or just people) directly. It’s really about being human, responding, and building trust with communities. It’s where someone who specifically cares about your industry, your product, or your company will find you.

You pay a lot for distribution (hiring someone to get the word out to new audiences). You have something to say but no one is listening. You can say it on your web site, but how many people will find it? Some. But if you distribute your news online hundreds of others outlets will see it, you’ll get more exposure. Your news will be interesting to someone and be reprinted, blogged about, or linked to on other web sites that otherwise wouldn’t know you exist.

Or, your news will just sit there until someone looks for it in a search engine. That’s good too. Because search engines don’t get headaches. They’re not overwhelmed or losing their jobs. They have space. Sure it helps to be interesting. But it’s not the same as pitching to media.

When it comes to news, search engines are the holders of information about your company. Traditional PR needs to weed through the news and choose the right outlet. Many stories will go to search engines. Some will get on the news. Clients must change from wanting to see stories about them in the press, to thinking about impressions, traffic to their web site, and direct sales from their news releases.

I just wrote about how Google is selling off Performics search engine marketing services and keeping the affiliate division. I wish Google would sell the entire division of Performics but they kept the affiliate marketing part. Both seem like a conflict of interest. (Sidenote: Has anyone signed up or tested the Google Affiliate Network?)
What’s interesting to me in the industry is the whole issue of print vs. online advertising or marketing. Clients want PR and advertising to be more seemless – to have both in one place and to measure results across both. But the PR side and the online side are so different that each struggle to figure out how to combine them.
I see it on both sides. We (OrangeSoda or myself) offer press releases to clients for online visibility. To get search engine rankings and a permanent link and online distribution. Clients also want to get press coverage, which we don’t measure. We don’t find and distribute press releases to traditional media or even to individual blogs – but maybe we should. However, it’s not our expertise.

On the other side, PR firms are trying to expand their online offerings to include search engine optimization and social media services. Often it’s tough to define and charge for – as I eluded to in my last post (what terrible anchor text!). Obviously, the biggest players are trying to sort this out, as is the rest of the industry.

I read a twit today (entry on the web site Twitter) that stood out to me. Working with local businesses, it touches on a common issue. It’s about your business name and how it affects your search engine rankings. Almost every business will rank highest for their business name.

That’s because the name of your business is usually all over your web site. It’s in your title tags, the first thing on every page, you have links to it within your site, and from other sites, etc. That’s not bad because you do want to be the first result when someone types in the name of your business.

The problem is when you’re a new business no one has heard of you. Unless you do a lot of marketing and advertising and spend the time to familiarize people with your business, there probably aren’t many people typing your business name into a search engine. Being number one isn’t that helpful and it’s likely pretty easy and quick to achieve. What you really want is to be number one when someone types in what you sell or do.

Example: I just wrote a press release for a locally owned business called HugaMonkey. They sell baby slings. If you type in HugaMonkey their business is #3 in Google. That’s pretty good, but they’d get even more value if they came up #1 for the words: baby sling.

According to WordTracker there are 256 searches a day on the term “baby sling.” It’s actually a lot more that, but that’s a number you can use to approximate how many people are searching the internet for baby slings.

Here’s the twit that spurned this post – it’s from Wendy Piersall. She is inspiring to me. It took courage for her to transform her blog into a business and expand it. She pulled it off beautifully and her community is as vibrant as ever because of her work. Not long ago, she changed her business name from eMoms to Sparkplugging. There are over 400 searches a day on the term “spark plugs,” it’s probably a reasonably competitive term.

It’s great that Wendy ranks high (#2) for that term, but the problem is, she doesn’t sell spark plugs! This may not be a big deal because Wendy has a community not an ecommerce site, but if I were selling sparkplugs I’d be mad. And then I’d start blogging. If that’s all I sell or a big part of my businses, I’d wish my business name had the words “spark plug” in it.

Takeaway SEO lesson: Think about how your business name will affect your search engine rankings, especially if you’re a small business. It’s not an end-all, but consider tacking on other words (like a tagline) that explains what you do – and uses a keyword that people are searching for.