Pros:

• Can chart progress of an SEO program over time.
• Illustrates value of SEO to clients/boss.
• Can track important keywords against competitors.
• Tracks ranking of your brand name and its variations.
• Can highlight site issues due to design changes, links, keyword changes, etc.
• Can help identify pages that are not ranking for targeted keywords.
• Can be a great addition to an overall report package - along with traffic and conversion data.

Cons:

• Easily manipulatable by which keywords you decide to “track”.
• Weighs each keyword equally - which can be deceiving to clients/boss.
• Can over value the importance of rankings to clients/boss.
• Rankings change daily. Getting bogged down in the details of why a single keyword changes by one or two positions is usually a waste of time.
• Different data centers can produce widely different results.
• Will increasingly become irrelevant with localization and personalization of search results.

I’m sure I’ve missed a few… Anything you can add? How do these pros and cons stack up against each other?

*For a great comparison of ranking report software, visit Matt Diehl’s post here: 3 Rank Reporting Softwares Reviewed.

Tags: search rankings, pro con, ranking reports

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Tags: sex and the city, movies, transformers

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One key element that Grehan points out is that SEO is a really a function of marketing, which I don’t think many people outside the industry (and some inside) really understand. He says,

…even though industry leaders acknowledge that SEO is much more of a marketing process than a technical effort, there’s still a lot of fixation on crawler activity and indexing.

Most new clients and even developers I work with tend to think that I can put up some meta tags and do some voodoo to their code and, POOF, their site will be “optimized.” A lot of people (and, again, developers) call me a week before a new site is set to go live and say, “can you make sure this is optimized?”

Another thing Grehan mentions that stands out to me is:

Personalization and digital asset optimization will end 1999-style ranking reports, as search engine results will be based on blended results from end-user specifics, such as geographic location, time of day, previous searching history, and peer group preference.

Thank god! I’ve already started to ween myself, and clients, off of ranking reports. And with the availability of good analytics programs (like Google Analytics), there is really no need to base success on a handful of keywords. Ranking reports are easy to manipulate, inaccurate, can provide a false sense of SEO success (or failure) and, today, really have very little value.

It HAS to be about conversions! 1000 #1 placements aren’t any good if users aren’t going to and taking action on your site. Unfortunately, the search industry is still pushing rankings (Guaranteed #1 in Google!) as the be-all and end-all of SEO success. Let me make this my new motto:

Rankings are not an End, But a Means to an End…

Another key here is that great rankings and great traffic still aren’t any good on a broken site. This is why I’ve started to include a site analysis incorporating usability best practices as part of my standard SEO offering. My job is not rankings, it’s to help my clients succeed.

Another thing to point out from Grehan’s piece is that SEO is really turning into Reputation Management:

Reputation management will become more important as marketing continues its reversal from a broadcast medium to a listening medium.

It’s part of your overall marketing message. It’s about having a consistent marketing message acorss all channels and monitoring the voice of consumers. It’s social networks, it’s blogs, it’s public relations, it’s search results, and… just a little bit of voodoo. (-;

The Future of SEO - ClickZ

Tags: Mike Grehan, Future of SEO

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Tags: Dennis Cass, Head Case

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As a professional who works from home, I (and many colleagues) have come to rely on Third Places. Not only to get work done on the road, but as a place to get out of the home office and out among other living beings. Most of the time I can get more work done in a noisy coffee shop than in a silent office in the corner of my house sitting in a comfortable chair.

I’ve come to rely on coffee shops, for the most part, for a break from my home office. While there are several that are either walking distance or a short drive from my house, only a few make my cut as a viable Third Place option for getting work done. So what makes a great Third Place? Here is my list:

1. FREE internet access. This is where Starbucks has lost me. I will sit and drink overpriced coffee all day long, but I’m not diggin’ spending $6/hour for internet access. In my book you can’t be a true “Third Place” without free wireless access.
2. Familiar Faces. I like it when employees recognize me and I like to see my neighbors and friends occasionally walk through the door. And if I’m someplace out of town, treat me like I’m a regular - I’ll make sure to come back the next time I’m passing through.
3. Warm atmosphere. I like decoration that is warm and inviting. More cozy cafe, less diner. I also prefer some soft surfaces to soak in the sounds of a busy coffee shop.
4. Comfortable Seating. This one, along with number three, are the reasons I don’t visit my local Dunn Bros anymore. The place is an echo chamber and the seating is mostly hard, wooden, upright benches. It’s impossible to sit in place for more than 10-15 minutes. This place is just screaming, “Please don’t hang out here too long!”
5. Other People. One local coffee shop that I dig has almost all other elements except it’s usually dead in the middle of the work day. I don’t want a standing-room-only kind of place, but there has to be other people there in order to qualify as a Third Place… Otherwise it’s just an empty room.
6. It should be Clean. Send someone around to clean the tables every once and a while. Enough said.
7. Good Selection of Food and Beverage. I really haven’t said anything about the quality of the coffee, food, etc. This really is the least important in most cases. But, there should be ample selection. I’ve been known to show up at 9am for coffee, have a sandwich at noon, and grab a bottled water before I leave at 2pm. So having some options is a plus.
8. And Finally, They Must Welcome People Who Sit for a Long Time without Spending a lot of Money. No one likes to feel unwelcome. If you want to have a kind of place where people gather and socialize, study, work, etc., then don’t make me feel rushed or give me nasty looks when you see that I’ve been nursing a small latte for two and a half hours.

What did I miss? What makes a great Third Place for others?

Tags: Third Places, Third Place, Starbucks, Coffee, Coffee Shop, Home Office, Dunn Bros

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Tags: Apple, Mac, MacBook, iCal

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Over the last 6-8 weeks I’ve read: The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, Power and influence by Robert Dislenschneider, Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins, Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich (wanted to read it before the movie came out), and just finished up Winner Takes All: Steve Wynn, Kirk Kerkorian, Gary Loveman, and the Race to Own Las Vegas by Christina Binkley.

Winner Takes All was spectacular! I definitely recommend it if you’re at all into hotel/resort development or investing, Las Vegas history, Steve Wynn, people with money, business profiles or all of the above.

I’ve always been fascinated by Steve Wynn. I remember the first time I visited The Mirage and heard his voice over the speakers while waiting to take the tram over to Treasure Island. At that time I didn’t know much about him but remember thinking about how his voice was so smooth and welcoming and really added a personal touch to this mega-resort. He collected art, brought his dogs to work and was keen on details. But Steve Wynn wasn’t just a hired gun running a corporation, this was his baby and we were there to enjoy the fruits of his labor… Actually, I was there to lose money at the craps tables…

I’ve stayed at the Bellagio (before the merger with MGM) too and, although it was wonderful, by that time I think Vegas had begun to lose some of its intimacy and “bigger is better” took over. The Bellagio is grandiose, but less cozy… Vegas became a little more like walking around the rim of the Grand Canyon instead of hiking its interior.

I think Wynn saw this too as his new Wynn Las Vegas is much more cozy feeling inside and less of a sidewalk spectacle on the outside.

Binkley’s book takes us through the large scale development and evolution on the Vegas strip over the last 20 years and it’s three biggest moguls. We get an inside look at Wynn, Kirk Kerkorian (of MGM Mirage) and, to a lessor degree, Gary Loveman of Harrah’s - as well as a number of other executives that came and went along the way.

From the mob to Howard Hughes to Steve Wynn, Vegas has had its share of characters who live large and dream big. This is a great story of three modern day moguls and how they made it happen.

Tags: Christina Binkley, Winner Takes All, Steve Wynn, Kirk Kerkorian, Gary Loveman

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For most people, I believe, hotel rooms are booked primarily — in this order — for their location (city & state), price, proximity to desired landmarks, amenities, and then brand loyalty. No real scientific data there, just my gut instinct on how the average person goes about finding a hotel room for a family vacation, weekend getaway, business trip, etc.

I don’t doubt that brand does come into play if there are two hotels that match closely on the other factors. But average people don’t much care if it’s a Hilton or a Radisson in most cases. So, searching by destination, as this study suggests, seems perfectly matched to my theory. And, if you look at the search data you’ll find that a city name with a qualifier such as “discount” or “cheap” are the next most popular.

The danger for OTAs and Search Marketers or resellers depending on search marketing, though, is the risk of becoming nothing more than a price and amenities comparison engine that enable users to pick out a property, from a location search, and then go directly to the chain’s website to book the room. This study suggests that just that is happening:

“The BDRC said bookings are increasingly being carried out on hotel sites but third parties such as Expedia (40%), Lastminute.com (36%) and Ebookers (22%) continue to feature prominently during the research stage.”

If all you sell are hotel rooms, how do you differentiate from the rest of the pack? How do you use all of those great rankings to convert visitors to buyers?

Here may be a clue… The PhoCusWright Travel 2.0 Consumer Technology Survey, published in December of last year, says that,

“When it comes to making travel purchasing decisions, most American travelers would rather see the options for themselves than simply act on the recommendations of others. In fact, travelers want to view the options in detail via pictures, online maps and video.”

Frankly, I’m surprised at the fact that hotels aren’t trying harder to compete head-on in search engine marketing. Aren’t they leaning on their brand a little too much? Or are we just doing the hard work for them?

Search engines dominate how consumers look for hotels

Tags: travel search marketing, PhoCusWright, BDRC, Hilton, Radisson, Hotel Marketing, HotelMarketing

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• 42″ Phillips LCD HDTV (only 1080i though)
• Kenwood AV Receiver
• Comcast HD DVR
• Sony Progressive Scan DVD/CD
• Apple TV 2.0
• Wii
• 6 piece Boston Acoustics Speakers

Probably not going to impress a major audiophile, but it works out pretty well for me. So anyhow, HDNet and HD Movie (Mark Cuban’s networks) are great for HD, however when it comes to quality of programs, it’s getting hard to beat the MOJO Network! Do you get MOJO? If not, you gotta call someone and ask for it!

Three shows that you shouldn’t miss (watch them online if you don’t get MOJO):

• Bobby G: Adventure Capitalist - Follows around Bobby Genovese, founder and owner of BG Capital Group, Ltd. and BG Capital Management Corp. Bobby is an adventure loving and filthy rich, a bit eccentric and genuinely a good guy (it seems). It’s a great snapshot of the life of a person who has made it in business and still manages to have fun - and he isn’t full of himself or an a-hole. He’s Canadian, they’re all cute and cuddly, right?

• Wall Street Warriors - This show follows the life of several Wall Street folks ranging from hedge fund managers, stockbrokers, floor traders and day traders. The “characters” are very diverse and you can actually learn something about how deal makers function and a bit about their personalities.

• Three Sheets - It’s drinking show, it’s a travel show, it’s about people and cultures. All great things that are even better when combined, like gumbo.

I also dig Start-Up Junkies, but I’ve worked for an Internet start-up and it’s all just a little too familiar for me. Plus the internet marketing guy on the show makes me want to throw things at him, and that would hurt my HDTV.

Tags: hdtv, mojo, bobby g, three sheets, start-up junkies, wall street warriors, zane lamprey

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Airfare, however, still seems to offer limited choice - and therefore should be simpler to decide on.  And it is, for the most part.  Generally, from most cities, there are 1 or 2 choices that fit my schedule and my budget.  But if you’re a flexible traveler, how do you decide when to travel and when to buy your ticket to ensure that you get the best deal available?
Here is my method:

1. Search for my ideal travel dates in Orbitz, using flexible dates to see the fares for the days around my ideal travel date.
2. Pick the best rate that works for the day(s) I need to be in my destination.
3. Make sure that if I’m staying an extra night at the destination that the extra hotel night and/or expenses don’t exceed the extra cost of traveling on my ideal travel day.
4. Proceed to the airline’s own website to book the ticket directly and thereby avoiding the $5 service charge (and possibly getting some bonus miles in the process).

The thing my method doesn’t account for is knowing WHEN to buy the ticket…  2-3 months out is usually not possible for most business travel.  I just finished a book where the author recommends only booking 4-5 days out and using Orbitz pricing to determine where you should start bidding on a Priceline (Name you Own Price) ticket.

Farecast.com gives you a recommendation of when to “Buy Now” or “Wait”, but it doesn’t really give you a flexible dates option.  I recently ran across flyspy.com (beta) which let’s you look at rates on a graph for up to 30 days and lets you adjust for day and length while highlighting the lowest fare. But it doesn’t really give you an idea of what the fare may do if you wait to buy your ticket later (like farecast).

It seems to me like there is an opportunity for a main-stream air-only search engine that encompasses the best of these two models.  However, with little or no commissions given on air-only bookings, a revenue model might be difficult to come up with.

How do you find the best deals on airfare?  Let me know in the comments and maybe we can create an aggregated list of sites and/or suggestions…

Tags: airfare, farecast.com, flyspy.com, orbitz, priceline, travel search

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