Mom + SEO Junkie = Burnt Toast

I’m really excited to hit Vegas for the week. I’ve been only once and we had a quick overnight due to flight delays and back out again - so i SAW the strip, but that’s about it.

I’m going with two co-workers and I think we’re going to have a blast. My hubby is going to join me Thursday night and we’re staying until Sunday. We’re staying at the Hilton all week and Hubby and I will be at the Excalibur - which looks cheezy but fun.

Hopefully I’ll have lots to report back on and will learn some new stuff to share with everyone. I also want to network my fanny off - sometimes that’s the best part of these huge conferences.

We are trying to see a show and will attend the SEOMoz Werewolves party on Wed Night. I have no idea what it is but it looks like fun. Other than that I’m not sure what our plans are. If anyone wants to do the Star Trek experience, drop me a comment - I’m a big geek and that looks just cheezy enough to be something I’ll like.

Hope to talk to you all from pubcon - If I dont - have a great week!

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I saw this over at MarketingPilgrim - Club Penguin is one of the fastest growing social networks…..that blows me away. My daughter wastes HOURS a day on the weekends on Club Penguin. I’ve messed about a bit just to see what’s up and if it’s appropriate and it’s kinda fun - and network-y for kids. I bet if you advertised the right products in the right way - you’d make a bundle. Right now they have a shop where you can buy stuffed paraphernalia.

Here’s a snap of the rankings from Nielsen.com via Marketing Pilgrim.

Now - I personally am a bit addicted to LinkedIn - I love that site…but it does rank far below my addiction to email.

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I love schtick comedy - I posted before about History of the World Part 1 and recently had a little daydream about Monty Python’s “Search for the Holy Grail” and paid links….just go with me, people.

Analogy time (aka. What I learned in photoshop class…….)

A group of people is moving down the road and they pass a few signs that say “dont go this way” and “road closed ahead” (aka - google’s warnings about paid links) but they keep walking in the same direction….eventually they get to the “roadblock” which in our analogy is a “harmless little bunny rabbit.”

They think about it - and then move forward - it’s just a harmless little bunny rabbit, right?

WRONG - IT’S GOT FANGS!!!!

We’ve been hearing and reading a lot about the FUD that Google has been breeding - Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt.  I sort of have a hard time “buying in” to that concept - Google isnt the government, they’re not by the people - for the people - so really they can do whatever they want - they’re not Google.ORG - they’re google.com and they’re definitely “for profit.” 

If they say don’t do it….there must be a reason.

For a long time Google (and Matt Cutts) have been saying, “dont buy paid links.”  We were warned, many, many times - and recently Google brought the hammer down. 

Now I dont necessarily think it’s “nice” and in some cases it’s not done judiciously - but really - it’s theirs so they can do what they want - and if we want Google traffic we play by the rules or we have to figure out a way to get around it (ie no follow all the links on your site.)  I think there are sites out there that can survive a major drop in Google traffic - our travel & tourism clients dont fit into that category.

 Moral of the story?  If you want to stay in the Google index, dont piss off the bunny.

THE CAVEAT and a ”glitch?” 

That being said they are still being a bit hypocritical w/ the dont buy paid links but TLA can buy adwords ads - even though Matt Cutts indicated that was a bit fishy during the “Are Paid Links Evil” session at SES San Jose.

Here’s a snap from tonight:

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Okay - not dumb, but I am certainly noticing a lack of “effort” put forth to remember anything, especially facts and dates.  We were talking about something she’d learned just a few weeks ago in social studies and she said, “I cant remember when that happened, let me go Google it.” 

Of course, I chimed in with how it was BEFORE the big Goog and how we had to remember everything off the top of our heads for tests and quizzes (and walk to school in a blizzard barefoot…..)

She said, “Well we can Google stuff if we’re taking a test near a computer, it’s not considered cheating because we used a resource to find the answer.”

A “resource?”  How about using your BRAIN to REMEMBER the answer.  Does this mean that we dont have to encourage our kids to be smart, just “resourceful?”  I think this is doing the kids a disservice, can they look stuff up on the ACT or SAT (do they even still DO those tests?) - How about the MCAT?  “I’m sorry Mrs. Hill - I dont know how to save your life - let me go Google your symptoms and I’ll be right back - dont bleed to death while I’m gone.”

Back in the day we had to rely on good old brain-power to get us through our days - is search making that obsolete?  If Google has all of the world’s information organized, are the next generation of geniuses just going to be really really good searchers?

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Got this from my boss - I dont know where it originated and I’m probably copying something but I couldnt help but save it here for posterity - this is good stuff

QUOTING:

 Last weekend I put an exhaust fan in the ceiling for my wife’s grandfather.  While my wife’s brother and I were fitting the fan in between the joists, we found something under the insulation. What we found was A JC Penney catalog from 1977. It’s not often blog fodder just falls in my lap, but holy hell this was two solid inches of it, right there for the taking. I thumbed through it quickly and found my next dining room set, which is apparently made by adding upholstery to old barrels:

  (Read the article)

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So i was inspired by Rand Fishkin’s post (and more recently Rebecca Kelly’s) over at SEOMoz.org to put together a day in the life of a SEM addict w/ 2 small kids - 2 dogs a cat and a husband - - - I know I’m insane - who has time to write this stuff down?

• 3am - wake up thinking about SEO crap and get up to look something up online
• 3:30am - go back to sleep
• 5:30 am - alarm rings so I can take dogs for a walk - yeah right
• 6am - pound alarm with fist and yell at dog #1 to get off bed
• 6:15am - pound alarm again and yell at dog#2 to get off bed
• 6:20am - get up - stumble around upstairs and roust Kid #1 (10 yo girl who insists on an hr to get ready every morning) and Kid #2 (6yo boy and it takes me a full hour to get him out of bed.)
• 6:30am - shower, hair and makeup
• 6:45am - throw dogs out to do their thing - yell up stairs so kids are moving and getting dressed
• 6:50am - make lunches for 3 kids and feed dogs
• 7am, 7:05am, 7:10am - yell upstairs again and threaten death or baked beans for dinner if they dont get moving
• 7:15am - check email and answer quick ones - delete junk mail and glance at calendar for the day
• 7:20 - kid 1 makes an appearance whining cuz there is nothing to wear - i point to pile of unfolded clean laundry on the couch and chug coffee
• 7:30 - run upstairs and drag kid #2 out of bed and dress him - push them out the door to run to the bus stop - as usual nice bus driver guy waits for them
• 7:35am - load up dog #2 and head for work
• 8:05 am arrive at work - boot up puter and find more coffee
• 8:15-9am - answer more email and call a few east coast clients
• 9am: prepare for daily meetings - arrange portfolios and make sure I’m ready to go
• 9:30 - R&D meeting
• 10:30 back at desk for more email and some tasks - call a few more clients - crank out some optimization and do some PPC maintenance
• 11:30 - wander around office looking for food
• 11:45 - drag some unsuspecting co-worker to lunch w/ me
• 12:30 back at desk for more tasks - meet w/ various people to discuss upcoming trainings and do some one on one training
• 2:30 - find more food and coffee - maybe even a diet coke
• 2:45 - answer even more emails - read my feeds and blog some -
• 3:45 - call west coast clients and check in or work on some projects that never seem to get done
• 4:30pm head home
• 5:00 pm walk in house and get accosted by 2 kids, husband, 2 dogs and a cat
• 5:30 pm find some food to feed this damn army of people
• 6:30 pm laundry, dishes, baths & such
• 8pm - bed time - this takes at least 45 minutes because of “oh i forgots” and “can i have a glass of water”
• 9pm - back online - work on personal projects, read feeds and blog - answer some late emails from clients and/or friends
• 11pm - bed time
• 11:30 - kick the damn dogs off the bed again

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The key to marketing travel online is to sell an “experience.” The old saying “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words” is never more true than when someone is shopping on your hotel or vacation rental website. Now that new media is emerging and is easier to use and embed in websites, there really is no excuse for not taking advantage of videos to help you sell the experience you want every guest to have.

Today in HotelMarketing.com there is a great article about Internet Video and the Travel Industry that goes over the reasons WHY you should be marketing your hotel or travel website with videos. Some of the highlights include:

The Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International reported on Sept 4, 2007 that a recent Travel Industry Association/Ypartnership TravelHorizons study found that two-thirds of online adult leisure travelers consume online video and audio clips.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Aug. 14, 2007 that Cisco says consumer video will be responsible for a significant portion of the Internet-based traffic increases from 2006 to 2011, with video streaming and downloads increasing from 9% of all consumer Internet traffic last year to 30% in 2011.

If you need some practical real world convincing, check out the results I got when I made a slideshow of not very good photos for a vacation rental client we have in Gulf Shores, AL -

This was really not a very professional attempt, I was messing around with Windows Movie Maker and just took some pics off the client’s website and made a slideshow. I uploaded it to Youtube and 2 months later it was ranking #2 in Yahoo for a really competitive term. Yahoo is really proud of themselves for being able to include video in SERPS a la Google - so I’m not sure this will last - but the key seems to be to tag the video correctly. I put tags in the upload that were simple and not multi worded - condo, rentals, gulf, shores, alabama, al - that’s it - and we’re #2.

That same video is ranking #5 in Google Video search - which is above the fold and actually not bad for a video that is not that great in quality. I’m going to redo the video with better photos and see if I can get it replaced or remove the old one and get the new one ranking.

All in all - the time investment was small, didn’t take a lot of hard work or expensive software, and the ranking ability of the video is stellar. Embedding a good video on your website and optimizing the text around it can give your own website the same exposure. Google and Yahoo do not index videos on individual sites, only through Metacrawler and Youtube type sites - but the optimized text can help you rank in the web results for searches and bring visitors into your video page, where you have the opportunity to sell them on the experience.

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