The Wax Blog

Although we don’t usually get too “techy” here on the Wax blog, there are some changes from Google that may affect search results. Here Thomas Doane explains those changes and how they might affect your blog or site.  

In order for businesses to be competitive today, they need to have an online presence that spans everything from social media to marketing to search engine optimization (SEO). Knowing what strategies to use and how to use them effectively can mean the difference between a business thriving or failing.

Email marketing has proven to be a reliable, measurable strategy if used effectively and sites that connect users and businesses through the online coupon market have proven to be effective at driving sales for small companies. All forms of marketing, particularly on the Internet, rely on producing measurable results. If an advertiser can’t see exactly how their marketing initiatives are impacting their business, they won’t know how effective their campaigns are or whether they should drop a campaign or extend it. That’s why Google’s recent announcement that it will be encrypting search queries for users signed into their Google accounts is troubling to some observers. The search giant has cited user security as their main motivation for the change, but it will have serious impacts on SEO while Google’s own AdWords pay-per-click (PPC) service won’t be affected at all.

Users Will Have More Secure Results

The whole reason Google is doing any of this is for the security of its users. It’s possible that Google fears that someone will discover a way to trace potentially sensitive search information back to specific users or use the search engine’s lack of encryption to infect users’ machines or access features of their Google account. Also of note is that some countries censor Internet traffic, particularly on Google. If Google were to encrypt the search data for those countries, it may allow people in those countries to perform searches freely and protect them from possible punitive measures by their governments. For now only users signed into the Google accounts or those deliberately visiting https://www.google.com are affected, but it’s likely that Google will roll out the encryption to more users as time goes on.

SEO Data Collection Will Be Hampered

Though only 1% of searches will allegedly be affected, the loss of data for SEO efforts could have a large impact. The overall methods of on-page SEO won’t be affected. Sites will still need to produce quality content, have a clear user interface and generally construct their site to appeal to users and their interests. Targeting specific keywords, however, will be hampered, especially as more and more people sign up for Google accounts and remain signed in. Because companies will no longer be able to see exactly what search phrases are bringing users to their site, their ability to determine which keywords to target and which SEO campaigns have the greatest return will be hampered. They will still be able to see the overall pictures and Google will still provide a list of the top 1000 search terms that bring users to their site, but further SEO efforts will be less accurate.

PPC Campaigns Won’t be Affected

Google won’t be providing specific keyword data to websites that show up in organic search listings, but it will continue providing the same data to users of Google’s own ad network, AdSense. Because Google provides this service for a fee, the company feels that its customers need to be able to access this data. If advertisers could no longer see specific results for their campaigns many of them would likely scale back their PPC efforts and focus elsewhere. Further, the ability to see exactly what keywords will produce their ads can help them refine their campaigns, enabling them to better target longtail keywords.

Some have lambasted Google’s decision to deny keyword data on organic results but provide that data for PPC saying that the search engine is encouraging companies to switch from paying for SEO campaigns to paying for AdSense ads. In the end, though, the use of PPC and SEO are necessary for any well-balanced Internet marketing initiative.

 Ayushman Jain is a 20-something IBM engineer and writer from Bangalore.  No idea why he agreed to write for the Wax blog but we appreciate his insider info on SEO and other propeller-head stuff

So you’ve laid the foundations of a social business successfully by creating a neat, slick website? What next? You’ll probably want to make sure your website looks like a  rush hour street in downtown Manhattan (read traffic). Most people know that search engine optimization (SEO) techniques help in achieving just that. But not many know that their techniques are quite dumb and actually pulling their website down on the rankings.

Read on to find out just how you could be killing your website’s chances of being a search engine’s chum: (more…)

By Beth Graddon-Hodgson (follow her on Twitter @writesourcing )

Sometimes the best inspiration to write comes from real life situations, and over the past week, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the different perspectives of SEO. Everyone who works to build an SEO strategy whether it’s through a blog, web copy, social networking, link building and the like has the same goal in mind; get people to visit a business’ site, get the visitors to increase the SEO rankings, and turn those visits into sales. But it doesn’t mean that we all use the same method to get there. Yes, WriteSourcing’s work uses SEO techniques, but I would never classify us as traditional SEOs because we’re not technical-minded, we’re creative and customer- oriented. (more…)

This is the second post on Building an Actionable Social Media plan. Refer to the first one if you need a refresher on why we’re doing this.

When people or businesses start engaging in social media they often focus on goals or ROI. But in order to direct your content, you must first identify the business drivers behind your social media activities. If you think of your plan in terms of the 5W’s (who, what, where, when, why) then business drivers are the WHY. I like InvestorWords definition of a business driver which is “A factor that contributes to the growth of a particular business.”

Maybe you haven’t thought of this perspective…I know for me it’s an abstract concept. After all, in small business we’re much more real time and it’s usually more about cash flow than strategy, at least for me. I like to put drivers in three categories when I do plans: Primary, Relevant and Secondary.  You’ll find that unexpected benefits of social media may arise as the campaign continues. Also, there may be lack of impact in defined business drivers. The business drivers should be reviewed and revised based on ongoing activity and results and you may be surprised where social media makes the most impact. It’s different for every business I work with!

So to give you some ideas, first here’s a list of some business drivers for specific industries. Then I’ve got a list of some possible business drivers that are common for social media. Please add yours in the comment section, so we can get a good list going! (more…)

After such strong comments on my post about corporate digital footprints, I got a REAL expert to weigh in on monitoring your online reputation. Here are Kevin Kaiser’s thoughts – Kevin is the founder of Startup Biz Blog an up and coming small business blog with some really smart advice. Stay tuned as I kick off my new series on writing an actionable social media plan next Monday.

After all of the energy you’ve put into creating your company, don’t let it get lost in the giant tangle of the world wide web. Managing your online reputation so that people get the correct picture of your company right off the bat is more important now than ever. (more…)

Bart the Dumpster Dog

I realized right away that @bartthedog was gaining followers at a much faster rate than @waxgirl333 , my twitter handle. Not to mention the fact that he has more than ten times the number of Facebook fans for his Bart the Dumpster Dog fan page. Neither of us are megastars in the social media stratosphere (yet!) but I thought taking a look at how @bartthedog pays attention to his social media might give you an idea of how he’s added more than 3000 followers in such a short time – with very little effort.

1. Bart has a GREAT back story. Not everyone can say they were rescued starving and frozen from a dumpster on an Indian reservation.

2. Bart has a unique and consistent voice. This is probably because I have anthropomorphized Bart and his brother for the past three years to such an extent that I’m fairly fluent in Dog.  His followers call him “cutey” and “sweetie” and “lovey” so I guess it doesn’t matter that he’s over 90 pounds – his voice is crystal clear to them.

3. The dog lover niche, particularly for rescued dogs, is really strong, if not zealous. I told a car dealer once that if he supported his local humane society in a big way he’d have more customers than he could handle and I was right. One woman drove from South Dakota to Minnesota to buy a car from the guy – for helping rescued animals.

4. Bart’s not selling anything. He’s just a friendly guy that sends out tweets about interesting dogs for adoption on petfinder, cool doggy news and stuff he’s been doing lately.  He’s also very good at RT’ing information for animal rescue groups, so there’s a certain altruistic side to the boy.

5. Finally, Bart is always positive and never controversial. He doesn’t take sides and has no politics.

I started Bart’s accounts as a way to test some of the programs and apps for Twitter and Facebook, not to grow his profile.  Before long he’ll be writing a book and signing pawtographs.