| From the Editor: |
Dear Readers
It I don't know about you, but I was glad to see the back of 2008. It was a very trying year, both personally and professionally and I realized that if I wanted to have a happy 2009, some serious changes had to take place.
On top of all the drama, towards the end of the year I lost my Virtual Assistant Sarah, who was offered an exciting full-time gig she simply couldn't refuse. Sarah pretty much ran my life and was my administrative angel. She was also our newsletter editor and that's why we didn't have a newsletter last month. At least that's my excuse!
Anyway, this year one of my New Year's resolutions was to work smarter not harder. It was a scary decision because it meant sacking a couple of legacy SEO clients that were bringing in good income but were holding us back from doing what we should be doing: growing and improving Search Engine College. Now that we've cleared the path, I feel really good about it but it will mean a lot of hard work.
Speaking of Search Engine College, after three years of static course pricing, we've decided to increase our fees. More information is at the end of this newsletter, but the short story is that you have two weeks to enroll at the current pricing.
So what's in our first newsletter for 2009? We've got some great Q and A's for you, including advice on how to target different geographic markets via search engines, the lowdown on funnel domains and how to remove old pages from search engines. Also, I hope you enjoy my feature article How Social Media is Killing CNN.
Enjoy this issue and remember to visit the Ask Kalena blog to check out my daily answers to frequently asked search engine questions. Got a question of your own? Gobsmacked by Google? Yikes about Yahoo? Press the big green button on the bottom right to send me your question and you might see it featured here next month.
Until then - wishing you clicks and conversions...
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| Feature Article: |
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How Social Media is Killing CNN
By Kalena Jordan
Anyone who spent time online on November 26 could not have avoided being exposed to the horrific events of the Mumbai terrorist attack on Thursday.
Those plugged into social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook were privvy to a fascinating but terrible phenomenon. Online viewers the world over were inundated with live, up to the second footage and news items channeling the Mumbai carnage to their computer screens, literally as it unfolded.
I was logged into Twitter and glued to my laptop screen all day. Several bloggers residing in India's financial capital were live-blogging events as they happened and many others who couldn't get online were on the phone feeding updates to news agencies and social media sites.
To keep up to date, I relied on Twitter user @BreakingNewz, who was apparently in touch with several witnesses, hostages and even military personnel that were live at the scene. The updates I was seeing were minutes, and in some cases, hours ahead of news agencies such as CNN and Reuters.
In fact, the news was so instantaneous that Mumbai police had to step in and ask several live bloggers and Twitterers (including BreakingNewz) to stop the updates as they were undermining military operations underway to thwart the terrorists and rescue hostages. Apparently the terrorists were using the live Internet feeds to pinpoint the location of police determined to stop them.
Which brings up an interesting point: does the immediacy of social media have the ability to kill off traditional news agencies such as CNN and BBC?
According to Wikipedia, CNN airs to more than 1.5 billion people in over 212 countries and territories. Impressive, but the Internet has a wider reach and faster growth. So what about on-the-ground reporters? CNN is apparently second only to Britain's BBC News in terms of the number of employed news journalists and worldwide news bureaus. To that I say big deal. There are undoubtedly more people blogging the news in better and faster ways than CNN journalists.
More and more people are ditching their newspaper subscription, switching off the TV and turning to the Internet for their daily news fix. And why wouldn't they? It's faster, cheaper and interactive. They can subscribe to the feeds of digital journalists and bloggers they like, they can search news by region, category or timeline and thanks to social networking, can be informed the very instant news happens in the world.
So could the advent of social media signal the end of traditional news journalism? Yes, I think it could. We've already seen how the Internet has impacted newspaper publishing.
Perhaps topical specialization is one answer to the digital vs paper journalism dilemma. Maki explains it well in his blog post The Future of Content in an Age of Information Overload:
"If newspapers can't compete with blogs and online news sites in terms of speed and variety, perhaps they can trump them in terms of depth or trust. After all, feature-length content with solid, investigative reporting is not something you'll often find on most blogs or personal sites on the web."
Then there's the recent wave of spats between journalists and bloggers. Many of the articles I've read lately feature defensive posturing by some traditional journalists whining that bloggers are "ruining" the art of writing by flooding the Internet with poorly written micro content.
Perhaps some journalists are feeling threatened by the ability of bloggers to reach the masses before they do? Or is it because they can't handle the fact that the art of writing is now in the grasp of anyone with a PC and an Internet connection?
To those journalists I say - get over yourself. Blogging is the ultimate equalizer. Just like brick and mortar businesses had to come to terms with e-commerce, writers need to adapt to the digital medium and morph their skills to suit, not throw tantrums and claim that the sky is falling.
Having spent much of my secondary and most of my tertiary education training as a journalist, I can understand the resistance they feel to the digital wave and their loyalty to the traditional craft. But the Internet is actually giving journalism a larger audience and providing ordinary people with a voice they never had before.
As Andrew Sullivan writes in his thesis-like post Why I Blog:
"...as blogging evolves as a literary form, it is generating a new and quintessentially postmodern idiom that's enabling writers to express themselves in ways that have never been seen or understood before. Its truths are provisional, and its ethos collective and messy. Yet the interaction it enables between writer and reader is unprecedented, visceral, and sometimes brutal. And make no mistake: it heralds a golden era for journalism."
The naked truth is that the cachet of being a journalist is no longer restricted to the tertiary-educated, long-suffering newspaper cadet. Global Internet uptake and the advent of Web 2.0 has ensured that news can be reported instantly anytime, anywhere, by anyone.
Social media sites provide the channels to reach a mass audience and blogs provide the content. Blogging - even on a micro scale like Twitter - unlocks the journalist inside everyone and that's not a bad thing.
About the Author:
Article by Kalena Jordan, one of
the first search engine optimization experts in Australia,
who is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S.
As well as running a daily Search Engine
Advice Column, Kalena manages Search
Engine College - an online training institution offering instructor-led
short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization
and other Search Engine Marketing subjects.
Search Industry Job of the Month
Got positions vacant or short term projects you'd like advertised? Sign up for a free account with the Search Engine College Jobs Board and find great candidates.
PPC Manager
Job Title: PPC Manager
Job Reference #: NR10687
Position Type: full time
Name of employer: Unknown (via RedCat Solutions)
Location: London, UK
Date Posted: 8 January 2009
Position description:
A PPC Manager is required for a Global E-commerce site. The purpose of the role is to plan and execute £multi-million paid-search marketing programmes against agreed targets.
This is a key hire and is a highly visible role within the organization.
Key Responsibilities:
The PPC manager will be in charge of the PPC Management and Adword reporting. The PPC manager will also be responsible for managing the relationships with the PPC Agencies, this will involve guiding the agencies to perform to their optimum and guide them in the right direction when needed. It will also be the PPC Managers role to build relationships with other key stakeholders within the organization. Other key areas the PPC manager will focus on include: Assisting local search teams to develop their accounts, improve internal and external communications and to ensure best general practice is met; Working with the Search Analyst to ensure uniform reporting across all markets and facilitate the creation of bespoke reports; to network with SEO and affiliate teams to ensure alignment to common goals.
Skills and Knowledge:
The ideal candidate will come from another leading .com / E-commerce site, ideally one of the top 15 spenders on Google. Preferably in your previous roles you will have had experience of managing PPC agencies. Ideally you will have a strong education background from a good university with either a quantitative or scientific background. (Min A' level in Math, or covered Economics/ Social Science as part of a degree etc)
To Apply:
To apply for this PPC Manager role please either call RedCat Solutions on 020 8342 1644 or email your CV to n.rogers@rcs-corp.co.uk quoting PPC manager in the subject line.
Salary range: £50k
Closing date: Unknown
More info about company from: http://redcatsolutions.com
Contact: Send CVs to n.rogers[at]rcs-corp.co.uk
"By the time you can make ends meet, they move the ends"
Unknown
Last Chance to Enroll at SEC for 2008 Pricing
Been thinking about taking one of our Search Engine College courses but needed an extra incentive? Well here's your chance. We've been holding back increasing our course fees and haven't changed them for three years. But due to pressure from our distributors and maturation of the online education market, we've decided to increase our fees in two week's time by an average of $100 per course.
So if you want to enroll at our current pricing, you've got two weeks to do it. That's right, our new course pricing will take effect on 26 January 2009. So don't leave it too long. Enroll today at 2008 pricing and save yourself some cash.
Happy studying!
This Month's Sponsor: Proposal Kit
I never read banner ads. That's why I was surprised to find myself clicking on a banner the other day. The ad intrigued me because it offered to fulfill a pressing need I had.
Over the years, I had developed what I thought was a fairly slick proposal template for my search engine optimization business. But still the document lacked an edge. I knew I had lost a couple of recent pitches to my competitors and I wondered if there was something about their proposals that I was missing in mine.
The banner ad from Proposal Kit offered a solution to my problem. It advertised "Turn-key contract, estimating and proposal kits for today's Internet professional". That's exactly what I was looking for, so I clicked on the banner ad, fully expecting to find some ultra-hyped, over-rated, disappointing backyard software. Boy was I wrong!
Proposal Kit takes the chore out of creating and tailoring client estimates and proposal contracts. With over 200 pre-designed self-guiding templates ready to fill in the blanks with your company, project/product/service and client information, ProposalKit has already half completed your proposal for you.
Let Proposal Kit improve your professional image and help you close that sale.
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All of these methods require you to verify your subscription. If you have been subscribed in error or don't wish to receive any more of our newsletters, simply press the "Unsubscribe" link at the bottom of this page.
Have a great day!
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FAQ 1: Do you need site hosting in each search market you target?
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Hi Kalena... 
I have a client who is going into different International markets. Here are my questions:
1. Does he need hosting based in each country for each project? (please refer to a Google backed up answer)
2. If yes- can you recomend an Aussie based company that can assist with his .com.au site?
Best regards
Paul
Hi Paul
1. As far as Google is concerned, no. In October 2007, Google released a new feature in Google Webmaster Tools that allows you to associate each of your sites with a specific regional location. Apparently, this works on a per-domain, per-subdomain, or per-directory level, but I haven't tried that yet.
When used correctly, the tool ensures your site is displayed in country-specific search results and relevant search results for specific geographic / regional queries. From what I understand, this takes a lot of the guesswork out for Google in determining your site's market, whereas before Google would use the location of your site host and other factors to determine this. So my recommendation would be for your client to set up sub-domains for each country/region they are targeting.
As for a Google backed-up answer, please see Matt Cutt's post Subdomains and Subdirectories, particularly the comments section where I asked Matt:
"What about sites that target different regional markets? Does it still make sense for them to use sub-domains e.g. australia.site.com, uk.site.com and use the new Regional Association tool in Webmaster Tools to indicate which searcher region each sub-domain should be associated with?"
"Kalena, using subdomains for stuff like fr.example.com or de.example.com is still a great approach, because those sites may be similar in idea, but the language is usually completely different."
2. Yes, I can recommend lots of lovely SEO helpers located in Australia. If you still need these, please email me again via the big red button.
Kalena
FAQ 2: Do funnel domains work for search engines?
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Dear Kalena...
I have a question about "Funnel Domains" - getting a domain that is comprised of a search term and forwarding that domain to a web site. Does this method work and how do search engines view them?
Thanks,
Robert
Dear Robert
Nope, that method doesn't work. Reasons are here.
Kalena
FAQ 3: How do I remove my old pages from search engines?
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Hi Kalena...
I have been updating content and meta tags etc on my website, which was created in dreamweaver and have been checking my listings / ratings through, google, yahoo etc, but am noticing that there are links still to my old website, (of the same domain name) which I removed and replaced earlier this year. How do I completely remove this content and update my listings?
Any help you can offer will be gratefully received!
many thanks,
Heather
Dear Heather
You don't mention it, but I am assuming that your old website pages were completely removed from your server and that your current pages have different filenames to your old pages?
If the search engines had indexed your old page URls, they will still show up in search results. So how do you get around this? By redirecting all your old page URLs to your new ones. This can be achieved using 301 redirects. Using 301s also happens to be the method recommended by Google if you're moving domains or page filenames.
While you're at it, you should also do two other things:
1) Create an updated XML Sitemap and upload it via your Google Webmaster Tools account.
2) Create a custom 404 Error page (you can even make it funny!) to ensure that any searchers clicking on links to your old pages get taken to your new site and are not shown an ugly 404 Not Found Error Page generated from your server.
Hope this helps
Kalena
FAQ 4: Should I park my 40 URLs and point them to my main site?
Hi Kalena
I'm a regular reader, but have not 'asked Kalena' anything in probably over a year now. I own around 40 URLs, all related to real estate in the Atlanta area. Currently they are sitting in my Hostmonster account, doing nothing. Q: Should I 'park' all of them which will point them all to my main URL?
Thanks!
Rob
Dear Rob
Thanks for your question. It really doesn't make any sense to point 40 domains to a single domain.
In my opinion, the only logical reasons to park one domain to another domain include:
* Moving an entire site from one domain to another.
* Pointing identical domains with different regional suffixes to a central domain for targeting purposes (e.g. redirecting site.com.au and site.co.uk to site.com).
* Pointing several brand-related domains with different suffixes to a central domain for marketing and trademark purposes (e.g. redirecting brand.net and brand.org to brand.com).
* Pointing misspelled or similar sounding brand-related domains to a central domain for marketing and branding purposes (e.g. redirecting misite.com and maisite.com to mysite.com).
* Pointing hyphenated domains to a un-hyphenated domain, or vice versa, for marketing and branding purposes (e.g. redirecting my-site.com to mysite.com).
You should think carefully about your motivation for buying the domains in the first place. If some of them meet the criteria above it might be worth parking them to your main domain. But there really is little search engine value in redirecting so many domains, even if the keywords are of a similar theme.
I think you would be better off monetizing the domains using Google AdSense for Domains and making some affiliate income from them. You could still include a text link or image ad promoting your main domain on each of the parked domains, but just be aware that 40 instant incoming links to your main domain may trigger a red flag in Google's ranking algorithm.
Kalena
FAQ 5: What is the estimated hourly rate for SEO/SEM services?
Hi Kalena
I'm a student of yours. What would be an estimated hourly rate for SEO/SEM services?
I have read an article that reckons anything from $50 - $800 (American) per hour. According to your knowledge, what would you recommend the lowest to the highest rate is currently?
Thanks
Armand
Dear Armand
Thanks for your question and I hope you're enjoying your course at Search Engine College.
The hourly rates of Search Engine Optimizers and Search Engine Marketers range considerably, depending on whether they are self-employed, freelance or work for an agency, what city/country they are located in, what client they are billing and what type of project they are working on.
My own rates range between USD 150 and 350 per hour, depending on the complexity of the project and whether my client has purchased a block of hours from me, whether they are on monthly retainer or are paying on an ad-hoc basis.
There really is no set hourly rate and the range from highest to lowest seems to change as often as Jeremy Schoemaker changes his t-shirt.
In terms of SEO/SEM salaries, the following posts should give you an idea of range:
* Recent Ask Kalena posts regarding SEO Salaries
Kalena
Got a question? Ask Me:
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