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Search engine optimization is killer app for mobile
Posted on 18 March 2010

This article, Search engine optimization is killer app for mobi, featured in Mobile Marketer on March 18, 2010, doubles as a great blog entry. Enjoy!

To view the original article, click here.

The emergence of the smartphone – a Web-enabled phone that acts like a mini-computer – as the hottest new consumer device in decades is creating powerful new synergies for savvy marketers.

Here is the little secret that Google and Bing want to keep quiet: organic search engine presence is platform-agnostic.

As long as companies continue to invest in search engine optimization (SEO) to maintain a healthy presence in search engine results pages (SERPS), they will not be disenfranchised by the shift to the mobile Web.

Companies that optimize their Web sites for search engines and their crawlers will enjoy the same rankings in the mobile world as in the PC world.

SEO bridges screens
Indeed, SEO bridges the gap between the second and third screens.

Already considered the most effective online marketing strategy for generating conversions, SEO will become even more critical with the proliferation of smartphones and as the mobile Web surpasses the World Wide Web in usage.

SEO currently accounts for an estimated $1.4 billion-plus in total annual U.S. ad spend.

SEO is even more critical for companies that depend on local sales and traffic, such as retail, hospitality, dining and entertainment.

For instance, the percentage of mobile searches which have local intent will increase from 28 percent in 2008 to 35 percent in 2013.

In addition to the SEO implications, marketers should consider delivering their paid search ads to mobile devices.

In the past, most marketers have not selected this option and instead have chosen to deliver their paid search ads only to computers. This outdated strategy must be reconsidered as it will leave out a huge market segment.

Smartphones are set to surpass laptops this year in unit sales and by 2012 in revenues.

Surf wars
Not only are the giant mobile phone device makers awakening to this trend, but so are some other unusual suspects – Google, Dell, Microsoft, and HTC, among others.

This turf war for market share is pushing down price points and increasing consumer demand and adoption.

Each one of these players has a stake in mobile.

For Google, it is search. Mobile search advertising revenues are expected to increase from $20 million in 2008 to $1.3 billion in 2013, a compounded annual growth rate of 130.5 percent.

With the launch of its Nexus One mobile phone, Google plans to capitalize on the “superphone” to expand its reach from the PC to the mobile phone and ensure its online products and ads get prominent placement on a new breed of mobile Internet devices.

In addition, Google’s Android mobile operating system is currently being leased to more than 20 new smartphone devices.

In doing so, Google’s search engine platform will be repurposed for mobile phones and the “third screen.”

Google uses the same PageRank algorithm to determine organic rankings in search engine results pages (SERPS) for computers (the World Wide Web) as it does for phones (the mobile Web).

Consumers are media-agnostic
Google’s mantra is simple: mobile is just another platform in the communications ecosystem in which consumers are media-agnostic. Let us break this down:

1. Mobile is just another touch-point for reaching target markets.

2. People are consumers of information in a complex ecosystem in which information is interconnected from print to Web and Web to mobile.

3. Consumers are in the driver’s seat and consume information how and when they want it, irrespective of the medium.

Currently, more than 35 percent of all new mobile phone sales are smartphones, and it is no surprise they are selling like hotcakes.

After all, these mobile mini-computers enable consumers to do, from almost anywhere, many of the same tasks they do via their computers.

One could argue that thanks to all the made-for-mobile applications, user experiences with the third screen are actually richer than with the second screen.

In 2008, the total users who accessed the Web via mobile surpassed the total users who access it via a PC at least part of the time.

Already, more than 400 million Internet users access the Internet exclusively via their mobile phones. We have reached a tipping point.

With tight budgets and time constraints, savvy marketers should embrace the Google mantra: do not reinvent yourself – simply leverage your strengths and adapt them to new platforms.

In other words, keep building content, continue optimizing your site, and your story will be found in the mobile world.

Jacques Hart is CEO of Roar Media, a Miami, FL-based integrated public relations and digital communications firm. Reach him at jacques@roarmedia.com.

Search engine optimization is killer app for mobile

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Tags: Backtracks, Key words, Links, SEO

The Rise Of The Machines
Posted on 20 January 2010

By José Balido

SEO! Key words! Links! Backtracks! As we wind up the first decade of the 21st century, public relations copywriting plunges ever deeper into a jargon-strewn digital thicket that has become a crucial part of doing the job for our clients and ourselves. I have always taken pride on crafting crisp and effective copy no matter who the audience, but as search engine optimization increasingly thrust its technical demands upon me, I started to worry: would writing for machines lead to a stunting of imagination and expression, reducing all copy to a clunky, mechanical pastiche?

After all, I’ve been a professional writer for nearly a quarter of a century, and for most of that time my work on the journalistic side of the equation always had one overarching element in common, something so obvious at the time that it wasn’t even worth mentioning: my words were meant for the eyes, intellects and esthetic sensibilities of those whimsical, fickle creatures called human beings.

How the world has changed! These days, when writing PR or marketing copy, I also need to catch the figurative “eye” of the search engine bots and algorithms that relentlessly prowl the vastness of the Internet. The smooth integration of key words and phrases into copy that will also please the human eye is, of course, no mean feat, but to my relief, I have found that, especially in the proverbial right hands, one doesn’t have to squeeze the juice out of the other.

I was reminded of this recently while reading, of all things, Shakespeare’s love sonnets. Like any other art form with rigorous technical rules – the complex contrapuntal interplays of Baroque music, for example – the constraints of iambic pentameter, or in our case the need to work certain key words in, challenge us to produce an even better poem or marketing copy.

Bottom line: good content and good digital technique can complement each other, rather than work at cross purposes. Ultimately, we still need to write to interest and please human beings (and as time goes on, not only will those algorithms grow to reflect that need better and better, but alternate models will arise, such as Wikipedia’s promising new Wikia search engine, now in beta). Thus, while penning my prose, I refer regularly to a keyword generator such as Google AdWords Keyword Tool, tweaking the copy as needed while always keeping grace and readability front and center. Sometimes it does take a little more work than others, but the rewards – both in terms of positive reader response and the writer’s own satisfaction – are the very model of optimization.

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Tags: Digital PR, Internet Marketing, New York City Public Relations, New York Public Relations, NYC Public Relations, Paid Search, PR Agency, PR Firm, SEM, SEO

New York Public Relations
firm & Marketing Agency
Posted on 04 September 2009

These days, it’s more difficult than ever to be the lion. With economic turbulence and massive shifts in media consumption, the traditional marketing programs of the past are no longer enough. Companies must deploy innovative, practical programs to ensure their messages are heard above the din of the business jungle.

Truth is, the overwhelming volume of paid advertising is making the public numb to advertisers’ claims. Consumers are making buying decisions based on a combination of editorial news coverage, keyword search results, online consumer reviews and word-of-mouth. Therefore, a solid marketing strategy centered on earned media publicity rather than paid advertising isn’t a luxury – it’s an absolute must.

Roar Media is a New York City public relations firm and digital-communications agency that combines traditional public relations and advanced Internet marketing, including social media and search marketing. The NYC-based firm develops customized programs designed to support clients’ business goals and put them at the top of the food chain.

Whether a company is a challenger brand looking to become a category killer, or a market leader seeking to fend off competition and increase market share, Roar Media offers innovative, forward-thinking PR programs that:

Launch companies, products and services
Raise top-of-mind awareness and visibility
Build brand equity
Stimulate and capture demand and sales
Protect reputations and manage corporate crises
Attract investors and top employee talent
Solidify leadership positioning and ensure continued success

Roar Media’s hand-picked team — award-winning journalists, digital-marketing pioneers, professional writers, event specialists, social media practitioners and business-development executives — is comprised of recognized leaders in their respective fields, restless innovators who work together to implement individually tailored, ROI-driven marketing programs that produce meaningful results for their New York City clients. They are passionate about their work and dedicated to their clients’ success.

Rule the jungle with Roar Media.

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Tags: high rank, high ranking, index, Organic Search, search-engine optimization, SEO, top rank

Search-Engine Optimization (Organic Search)
Posted on 13 August 2009

Over 400 million searches are conducted per day from qualified U.S. consumers that have raised their hand and said, “ I am interested in your product or service”. Search engine optimization is a critical component to any company’s marketing program; however, achieving top ranking is a tricky endeavor as the field is very fluid, tactics are suspect and many firms promise the world without establishing realistic expectations. Achieving high-organic ranking requires many things: expertise, technology, man-power and persistence. Roar Media brings these elements together with a proven methodology that delivers measurable results to meet client’s goals.

Search-engine algorithms take into account many factors when determining where to place your site in the search-engine results pages. Our methodology is modeled after these factors.

View our SEO Playbook

Here’s what the top search engines look for and what we do to ensure that your site is indexed and highly ranked:

URL: Domains can improve organic ranking if it contains specific keywords in it that a company is trying to rank for. Roar Media often identifies and negotiates the purchase of domains on its client’s behalf for this purpose.
Meta-data: Choosing the right keywords and sequence is an art. Word-smithing meta data is a strong suit of Roar Media.
Link popularity: Roar Media has developed an extensive network of relationships and sites (both earned and paid) that position your site as an authority through the placement of high-quality, static, one-way inbound links.
Page content: Roar Media develops and customizes site content to ensure that it meets the length and substance requirement of search engine crawlers.
Keyword frequency and density: Roar Media optimizes client’s keyword weight and frequency.
Directory submittals: Roar Media submits sites to directories when appropriate to drive additional traffic.
Time: Roar Media uses white hat strategies to expedite the ranking of client sites.

Aside from our methodology, Roar Media’s SEO services are differentiated by several unique practices:

We leverage our proprietary social media news release platform to incite the blogosphere to link to client’s sites.
We are accomplished writers who are savvy at balancing the need to write for both humans and search engine bots alike.
We leverage the social web to improve our client’s link popularity.
We only use white hat SEO strategies

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Tags: execution, Internet Marketing, internet stratgegy, management, Miami, Organic Search, Paid Search, planning, SEM, SEO

Internet Strategy
Posted on 16 July 2009

Don’t compete with your competitors, make your them irrelevant. Roar Media leverages the Internet and technology in new ways that enables clients to differentiate themselves from their competitive set and highlight their unique value proposition. When the Internet stops being viewed as a value-added channel, but rather an integral growth driver, it fuels a company’s overall goals. By deploying innovative Internet strategies, clients stop scrambling over the same limited customer pool and instead dramatically expand the breadth and depth of their customer base. Roar Media understands how to craft winning strategies that combine Web-site design, social media, paid and organic search, affiliate marketing and lead-generation to unlock significant value for clients.

Technological goal posts are moving and audience is shifting. Roar Media’s strategic planning provides the roadmap to generate value and create opportunities. These plans are not created in a vacuum, but rather based on clients tangible goals and objectives. To develop a winning strategy, Roar Media takes a share-shooter’s approach to answer and develop programs around:

Identifying online marketing goals (sales, leads, traffic, branding, etc…)
Identifying which companies in a competitive set demonstrate success
Assessing current Web-site effectiveness and areas for improvement
Understanding behavioral patterns for key customer segments and ambassadors/influencers
Determining mechanisms to activate brand and customer engagement
Understanding customer acquisition costs and the lifetime value of a customer
Measuring and tracking conversion and transaction variables

Based on these factors, Roar Media develops strategic Internet marketing plans that pave the way for a company’s long term success. Roar’s Internet marketing services include:

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Tags: seaerch engine optimization, SEM, SEO

SEO or S.O.S? Shop Smart
for the Right SEO Firm
Posted on 28 May 2009

Search engine optimization is a critical component to any company’s marketing program; however, achieving top ranking is a tricky endeavor as the field is very fluid, tactics are nebulous and many firms promise the world without establishing realistic expectations. The key is to deploy a sound strategy that has demonstrated positive outcomes. At Roar Media, we have created a proven methodology that delivers tangible results. Please view our SEO Plabook below:

Roar Media’s SEO Playbook:

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Tags: organic, search, search engiine optimization, SEO

Top 10 SEO Tips
Posted on 08 May 2009

Keyword strategy
It all starts with the keywords you choose. You can have the best SEO strategy in place for your website but if you dont put enough time and effort into the keywords you target everything else is useless. You need to choose the keywords that your company and website truly focuses on so that a natural relevancy is created. You also need to make sure you understand the ranking opportunities for the keywords you choose – everyone wants to rank for high-volume / generic keywords but the odds of that happening are slim. Target keywords that not only drive traffic but are reachable.
On-site content development
The old saying still remains true today – content is king. Combine a solid keyword strategy with deep related content and you are on the path to SEO success. Just make sure you write content for the website visitor that incorporates, in a sensible way, related keywords. SEO is all about relevancy.
Inbound links
We all know that a big piece of SEO is about getting external links coming to your website with related keywords used in the anchor text. However, when it comes to linking I go with the quality over quantity theory. The old SEO way was to get as many inbound links as possible regardless of where they was coming from. Honestly, the old way is a waste of time – even though there are plenty of people that would disagree. The most successful link building campaigns I have ever run focuses on targeting the leaders in a given topic and building direct relationships with them. I would take 10 links from targeted, contextually relevant, solid traffic websites over 1,000 random sites any day.
Internal links
Take your inbound linking strategy and focus it internally. Create a contextually relevant internal linking structure that focuses on content flow and the semantic relationship between pages.
Title Tags
Title Tags are another key part of a SEO strategy many websites overlook. Writing Title Tags isnt rocket science – keep it relevant to what the page is about, work off your keyword strategy and make sure every page is unique.
URL structure
I am a big fan of using keywords within the domain whenever it makes sense from a branding perspective. However, since most companies have little primary domain flexibility a good area to focus on is the URL structure. First keep it simple & straight forward (use a URL re-write tool if needed) and name files / directories with related keywords.
Image / Video optimization
With the growing focus of universal search there is a huge opportunity for companies, especially those selling products, to focus on Image and Video SEO. Image SEO is fairly simple – name image files with keywords, use ALT tags, etc. Video SEO can be a bit more complicated – check out my Video SEO Guide for more detailed information.
Optimize code elements
By code elements I mean everything other than Title Tags, which include Header Tags (H1, H2, etc), Meta keywords & descriptions and ALT tags.
Avoid Technological limitations
Use 301 redirects whenever possible, avoid dynamic URL structure, run a broken link analysis, Validate HTML & CSS, avoid Flash and JavaScript. Technology can either be SEOs best friend of worst enemy.
Robots.txt / Site Map
Site Map: As with Meta Data, there is a lot of discussions about the true SEO value of a Site Map. Like with Meta Data we might question the actual impact but considering it is a fairly easy task to build a SiteMap.xml file and it will help search engines crawl / index your websitewhy wouldnt you build one? Robots.txt: There is a long list of ways you can use your Robots.txt file, however my #1 reason is for what you DO NOT want a search engine to find. By using a disallow command you can prevent files and folders from being crawled.