As the latest round of Google’s algorithm changes take the Internet by storm, SEO marketers around the world are wondering what effect these changes will have on search results. Google’s primary metric, PageRank, named after its inventor, Larry Page, is extremely complex. The Wikipedia entry for PageRank demonstrates the lengths to which many great minds have gone to try and reverse-engineer the algorithm to figure it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank.  But, each new algorithm tweak Google reveals new hints about how it all works.

The latest update is called Caffeine and includes several new layers of complexity for the algorithm. It is rumored that caffeine will be taking into account website age and loading time. This will benefit those sites that are more established and faster, and will hurt newer and slower sites. Evidently, Google aims to reinforce good quality, reliable content, optimized for speed and built over time. This is consistent with Google’s mission of improving the overall search experience.

According to Wikipedia and Mashable, there are two key changes to consider:

1) Caffeine includes a massive speed increase. Search results will now be returned twice as fast as before.

2) Search results will be “blended,” including information culled from a wide variety of sources—press releases, images, video, news—along with traditional results.

While, as a marketer Google’s constant changes might drive me crazy, as a searcher, I appreciate the egalitarian nature of much of what they do. If marketers had the inside scoop, there would, undoubtedly, be millions of dollars invested by those who could afford it to manipulate search results to their own ends. This would be great for those businesses but, in the long run, it would ruin the user experience. When I run a search, I’m not looking for results paid for by wealthy companies, I’m looking results that best match my search terms. As our collective information bank, our massive online reference library, Google has a responsibility to the information above all else. As much as the business people among us might wish for it, as soon as money starts getting in the way of our free access to information, we no longer live in a free society.

I don’t know about you but I’m getting kind of sick of SEO. Obviously it’s an incredibly important thing to know about when it comes to marketing. Getting your website to come up on searches is probably the single most important element for fiscal success. But how possible is it for one person to make that happen? Are SEO techniques really that helpful and, if so, why do they seem like such a mystery? And then, of course, there is the topic every discussion of SEO must inevitably broach: what of that slippery Google algorithm that seems to change every other week?

If I got paid for every clown who claims to have THAT figured out, I’d be a very rich woman.

Steeped in mystery, Google’s algorithms determine, based on nobody really knows what, which sites rise to the top of searches and which sites disappear into obscurity. And of course, just as they claim to understand the algorithm, thousands upon thousands of professionals claim to be able to help you “optimize your SEO” within it—to crack the enigma code anew, just for you, for $39.95. Surely there are plenty of legitimate professionals who really do have some idea of how to use this system. They are the real experts. You can find them wherever the big bucks are sold.

For the rest of us trying to make it, what do we do? Who do we trust? How can the individual marketer sift through the malarkey and find the real SEO tips and tricks that will improve page rank? Well, for a one-time payment of $39.95…

Just kidding.

In my experience, if you’re willing to put in the time, to experiment with all of the various techniques on all of the various blogs, it *is* possible to improve your rank. It won’t happen immediately. You won’t be number one on the Internet, but you WILL improve and that improvement can be significant. Here are the four tricks, courtesy of real live SEO expert Cal Hesson over on hostingdiscussion.com, that have helped me get TurnKey Internet higher up in the charts:

(1) Keyword Phrase Research and Analysis

Identify the keyword phrases that people are using to find your products and services. This can be done in several ways, many of which cost money. There are, however, lots of tools that are free or relatively inexpensive, that can fill you in on your analytics. Google Analytics is one that many swear by. Here at TurnKey we already had an analytics tool installed on our servers. I used that.

(2) Study the Competition

Pay close attention to who holds the top 10 positions for the keyword phrases you want to target. You need to look at your competitions On-Page SEO (the text and content of their pages) and their Off-page SEO (the inbound links, etc., that contribute to site ranking). Part of the Off-page SEO analysis is counting the back links to your competitor’s web sites. You’ll have to either get more or better back links than they have.

(3) Good On-Page SEO

You need to pay very close attention to the titles, keywords, descriptions, body content, etc., of your site. The search engines have to really understand what your web site is all about, and good, editorially sound content provides that. The good news is: you have complete control over this content.

(4) Back Links

As the title implies, for a good SEO profile, good back links are essential. There are myriad ways of getting back links, although understanding what good back links are has become more difficult as Google continually changes how they are valued.

There you have it: a quick and dirty set of simple tips for improving your site ranking. Sure, there are trade secrets to SEO and, if you really want them, I’m sure you can find someone who will take your money. Barring that, why not do what I do? Dedicate yourself to the process, take the time, follow these rules, read all you can and figure out those secrets for yourself. To your success!

As the Marketing Director here at TurnKey, it’s my job to keep up with all the social networking stuff the kids are doing these days. In all seriousness, social networking has had a real impact on how we do business. Since the very beginning of the company, TurnKey has been focused on the customer first. Adam Wills, our president, firmly believes that customer satisfaction is the single most important part of a successful business. I couldn’t agree more! So, when I came on last summer, my job was to facilitate our customer communication and to present TurnKey to the world as a company that cares about nothing more than keeping our customers happy.

Of course, these times being what they are, the logical first step was to set up accounts on all the social networks. I built our profiles and started posting company news and coupons, but quickly realized I wasn’t getting the kind of customer interaction I had hoped for. There are so many commercial enterprises out there vying for eyeballs nowadays and people are wary of befriending companies that might just end up spamming them.

I realized social networking works best for our business as an extension of our ticketing/contact system. By using Twitter and Facebook to respond to questions about our services, I engage our customers, help them out and encourage them to stay connected. When I do post the occasional coupon or special, the customers who have connected with us through the network in the past appreciate the notification because it comes on the heels of actual real human interaction. Nowhere does it say that being part of a company means you can’t make small talk or be friendly but so often in this virtual space, companies are all business. Of course it goes without saying that professionalism is important, but we are selling services to people, not machines. They are called social networks, after all. If you’re going to use them (and doesn’t everyone?) I think you should make an effort to really connect.

Anyhow, I’d like to give a shout to Facebook, Twitter and Myspace for facilitating our communication with our clients. You’ve given us great tools for understanding how we can be a better company!

If you would like to connect with TurnKey on the social networks, you can!

TurnKey on Facebook
TurnKey onTwitter
TurnKey on Myspace

Come tell us what you think, what you need and how we can better serve you! We’re all ears.

It’s a curious thing about people but, despite tough times, when it comes to gift giving we always feel generous. In hardcore, ramped-up holiday America, that makes us delicious morsels for anyone who is selling something. Don’t get me wrong, I’m the Marketing Director for a web hosting and web conferencing company: I’m selling something too. So, maybe don’t trust anything I say. But right now I’m putting on my hypocritical hat to balk at the maelstrom of advertisers all around me. I’m in an advertising soup. These noodles want my money! And, strangely enough, while one part of me is bothered by the assault, another part of me actually does want to buy stuff.

So, the question is: What advertising actually works? What cuts through the creamy broth? Where’s the beef? (And by that I mean sales.)

Personally, I appreciate an up-front, old-fashioned discount. What can I say? I enjoy a sale. But I don’t just want to feel like I’m getting something for less than I should be. As a consumer, I actually want it to be true. Needless to say, at the same time that I want an honest-to-goodness bargain, all those business-ladies out there still have to make a buck. So, you might ask, “Where, Anneke, do the twain meet?” Well, reader, I might answer: in the lovingly-crafted compromise.

Before you call me a Socialist (and I wouldn’t be mad if you did) remember: in tough economic times more than any other, it’s the returning customers that sustain your business. Loyalty leads to word-of-mouth and word-of-mouth leads to more customers (which leads to more word-of mouth, which leads to more customers… see where I’m going with this?) With big corporations leaning heavily on the tax-payer, honest, sustainable businesses have become an invaluable commodity in America. And in an age of social networks, reputation is more important and spreads faster than ever.

The focus-on-the-customer idea isn’t new. But the give-the-customer-a-real-discount-such-that-you-don’t-make-a-big-profit idea, is. I contend that the potential value of that customer’s positive experience outweighs your immediate monetary profit. Obviously you can’t run your business that way all year round or you’d never make a dime, but at the holidays in a tough economy, when customers are inundated with options and strapped for cash, your deep discounts will really matter. Allowing a customer to be able to afford your product or service at the holidays can make it possible for that customer to give a meaningful gift to a loved one. If that doesn’t engender loyalty, I don’t know what will. This is an honest, legitimate, practically and emotionally significant way to build your business.

In summary: providing unprecedented discounts can really set retailers apart in the mad scramble this season, and can set them up for unprecedented success in the new year.

Anneke Rudegeair
Marketing Director