Denver SEO / Colorado SEMPO communities flourishing

Denver SEO Meetup and the Colorado working group of SEMPO have seen tremendous growth in the last year. In the ever developing world of search marketing, the meetups have become excellent resources for search marketing professionals looking to network – as well as the professional development opportunities provided by SEMPO’s excellent speakers.

Last week, our president Jim Kreinbrink spoke about “Driving traffic to your blog with SEO techniques”. It was a technical presentation that gave away many great tidbits. The audience was full of experienced search marketers, and we hoped to show the value of collaboration and community.

The previous month, two excellent PPC case studies were presented by Alex Porter from Location 3 Media. Seeing the approaches Location 3 took for two PPC campaigns, and the results attained, were very exciting.

Search marketing is growing in a recession, so expect a packed house. The focus on measurable, trackable results makes it particularly appealing to agencies and advertisers alike. All this means that the Denver search marketing coomunity will continue to grow and flourish.

13 Reasons Why Google Loves Blogs

Google loves blogs. What is it about blogs that Google loves so very much? We’ve pinpointed 13 reasons why Google may give – or appear to give – sites with blogs a little extra boost in rankings. Of course, the list is broken down into our framework of looking at good quality sites as being accessible, relevant, and popular.

Accessibility: Search Engine robots must be able to find your content. These reasons help the bots find your postings without a lot of muss or fuss.

1. Pinging
Most blog software sends out a “ping” when there is a new post. Instead of waiting for a search engine crawler to come across your site’s new content – either via a routine crawling or via a link – a notification is sent out to sites like pingomatic, technorati, and even google blog search. This notification tells the search engine robots to come and fetch some fresh (crunchy) content.

2. RSS feeds provide deep links to content
RSS Feeds are useful for so many, many things. They contain links to your latest postings, but also consider that they contain links right to the postings themselves. Even crawlers that aren’t that smart (you know who you are, little bots!) can figure out how to find a link in a list. That’s essentially all an RSS Feed is: A list of links in a predictable format. Hint: You subscribed to your feed in iGoogle, didn’t you?

3. Standard sitemap.xml provide deep links to content
If an RSS feed isn’t enough, use a sitemap.xml file to notify search engines about your site, including any new posts. A great thing about sitemap.xml files is that they can communicate additional information about a link, like how often a search engine robot should visit and what priority the page has in relation to your site.

4. Based on modern HTML design standards
Most blogging software was created or updated very recently, and doesn’t use outdated HTML methods like nested tables, frames, or other HTML methods that can cause a bot to pause.

Relevance: Once found, search engines must be able to see the importance of your content to your desired audience.

5. Fresh content, updated often
Nothing quite gets the attention of a search engine robot like fresh content. It encourages frequent repeat visits from both humans and robots alike!

6. Fresh comments, updated often
Of course, the blogosphere is a very social place. Googlebot is likely to come back often to posts that are evolving over time, with fresh new comments being added constantly.

7. Keyword Rich Categories, Tags, URLs
Invariably, some of your best keywords are likely to be used in the tags and categories on your blog. If you aren’t using keyword rich categories and tags, you really should be.

Popular: Google looks at what other sites link to your site, how important they are, and what anchortext is used.

8. RSS Feeds provide syndication
RSS Feeds can help your content and links get spread all around the internet. Provide an easy path to syndication for the possibility of links and, of course, human traffic.

9. Extra links from blog & RSS Feed directories
The first blog I ever started was for the possibility of a link from a blog directory. But RSS Feed directories exist too! Be sure to maximize the link possibilities by submitting to both.

10. Linking between bloggers / related sites
Blog rolls are links that blogger recommend to their audience. sometimes they have nice, descriptive text and even use XFN to explain relationships between bloggers. Some of your best human traffic can be attained through blogrolls.

11. Social bookmarking technologies built in
Blog posts are usually created with links directly to social bookmarking services like delicious.com, stumbleupon, and other social bookmarking sites. You’ve never made it easier for your audience to share your posting and give you a link!

12. Tagging / Categories with relevant words
Tags can create links to your blog by relevant pages on technorati and other blog search engines. These tag pages sometimes even have pagerank! They deliver keyword rich links and quality traffic.

13. Trackbacks (Conversations)
Trackbacks are conversations spanning several blogs. They are an excellent way to gain links (although often nofollowed these days), and traffic. Other blogs can be part of the conversation, thanks to the trackback system!

Denver SEMPO Meetup / Denver SEO Meetup

Why travel outside of Denver for great SEO and Search Engine Marketing events? Last week saw great attendance at the new Denver SEMPO Meetup (Created by the members of SEMPO’s Colorado Working Group).

This week’s Denver SEMPO meetup was an excellent educational program provided by Jim Brown, Online Marketing guru for Quark (of QuarkXPress fame). The presentation focused on opportunities in Social Media. Jim provided great information regarding Twitter, Facebook, and Facebook ads. While his presentation was friendly to all audiences, even seasoned Denver SEO professionals left with a new trick or two. And most valuable were the brand ambassador experiences Jim relayed to the group.

The Denver SEO Meetup followed, just a few blocks away. Many members attended both meetup groups. The Denver SEO Meetup is not an educational program, but a social function – founded our our President Jim Kreinbrink. Many notable SEO professionals regularly attend, but Search Marketing, Advertising, and Affiliate marketing professionals are also frequenting the meetup. Several SEOs noticed glitches in running Google ranking reports for clients that week, and it was nice to exchange what was working and not working in small informal conversations. Of course, don’t come to the Denver SEO Meetup hoping to learn all about SEO: It’s a more relaxing networking function, not an educational opportunity.

With SEO / SEM knowledge and professional networking available in here in Colorado, why travel to search marketing and ad industry conferences every weekend?

Social Media Optimization: Important Real Estate

If you haven’t setup profiles for your organization on the larger social media websites, you might be missing out on an important opportunity for branding and online reputation management.

1. Branding URLs exist on many social media websites
Major companies are increasingly spreading URLs like http://myspace.com/microsoft in their marketing campaigns, and these destinations have become important virtual real estate. Losing control of such a visible page location could damage a company’s online reputation and negatively influence branding campaigns.

2. Social Media destinations may be difficult to reclaim
Myspace urges users to choose their profile destination wisely, saying it can NEVER be changed. That’s right – NEVER. I think it’s more of a function of customer service than technology, but expect it to be a lengthy process possibly involving lawyers. It’s much better now to spend an hour creating profiles on social media websites. And while you’re there, take a look around. Did your competitors think to create their profiles?

3. Think carefully about your brand before adding content
As important as it is to claim your profiles, be careful of the message your profile may send. A local telecommunications company had “Does not want children” in their myspace profile. Not only is this harmful to the brand, but also detracts from the main message. And remember: archive.org makes anything posted on the internet live FOREVER.

With new social media websites popping up everyday, where should you focus? Make a list of social media websites where your branding is most important. What sites would your potential customers and partners visit? What sites have the most visibility? Now that you have your list, spend that Friday afternoon staking your claims – your online reputation will thank you!