I recently went to a Silicon Valley WebGuild event at Google on what I thought would be a discussion on SEO for Web 2.0. I thought I would hear discussions on optimizing Flex and AJAX and learning how we could make these Web 2.0 Technologies more search engine friendly. Instead, the discussion was more focused on how Web 2.0 companies were using SEO. Which is completely different, especially when you consider that the two Web 2.0 companies featured -LinkedIn and Engage - acknowledge their success to viral marketing as opposed to SEO.

However the panelist were great: Adam Lasnik, Google Search Evengalest (aka: MiniMatt) Andreas Mueller, President of Search Marketing Firm Bloofusion, David Hahn, the LinkedIn Director of Advertising and Joelle Gropper Kaufman, Engage’s Vice President of the Experience.

On to the discussion… The issue with user generated content is that you hand over the control to the community. Andreas advised that those of us working with Web 2.0 sites should harness the collective intelligence of the group by:

• Motivating contributors
• Offering guidelines
• Creating a relevant hierarchy
• Getting the community to focus on the keywords

While Web 2.0 sites deliver a rich user experience, the issue with Web 2.0 technology is that content can’t be indexed and search engines cannot get behind logins. Andreas advised that AJAX be used for non-essential, private or duplicate content.

Usually as SEOs we want to get as much info out there as possible to the search engines, but with Web 2.0 sites there are privacy issues, so some things must be kept from search engines. Joelle noted that “30% of all searches on Google are name searches” (Adam could not confirm this) therefore users of social networks “need control over their personal identities.” In the case of social networking dating site Engage, opening up too much content to the public is a matter of member safety (and online reputation management J ). LinkedIn, understands the need to not make all user information public because they “want to make sure that people are not open to all of the salesy types.”

However, to drive traffic to a site via Search Engines, Web 2.0 sites need to compromise between internal vs. public profiles. Search Engine Optimization can be used on content without “giving away the farm.” The Public Profiles vs. Private Profiles on LinkedIn is a great example of “slicing the data just right” to allow privacy while opening up content to the search engines. Joelle recommend the use of mashups as a way to share information with the public about a person without giving away too much information. For example, your playlists and your bookmarks tell the world a lot about you and help people get to know you.

Is your Web 2.0 SEO Simply Tactical or Holistic?

After giving a brief history of the “content to links” movement in SEO, Andreas wisely advises the audience to build link building into their mindset. He then asked each panel member if they have a specific linking strategy and what is the role of SEO in the Web 2.0 strategy. David of LinkedIn said that they didn’t have a specific linking strategy because they “had the luxury of having a high page rank before the public profiles.” While SEO was not an initial focus for LinkedIn, “optimization of the public profiles has brought more users,” though they rely more on viral marketing.

I love that Joelle from Engage told the crowd that they were in the process of developing a Linking Strategy. Not many new companies (or well established ones) think like that. I guess that stems from her previous experience at Reactivity. When Reactivity was redesigning their site they found an SEO company to help them reach users via search engines because they targeted a niche market. I especially appreciated that Joelle realizes that with Engage, “it is more important that you find the people as opposed to general keyword terms.” And thinks of general keywords such as “dating”, as being part of the head or tail of a long keyword search. This is exactly what Ammon Johns was talking about when he wrote about The New Model SEO Customer.

Finally they covered online competition for Web 2.0 companies. Is a Web 2.0 competitor different? What is their Strategy and are they spamming? Andreas brings up a screenshot of a spammy page from eHarmony (Scroll down to the links) and Joelle repeats it a few times to Adam so that maybe one of her competitors would be taken out and punished. (That was hilarious. I love her!) When someone from the audience asks if this SEO method works, Adreas replies “Only as long as the search engine doesn’t find the mistake.”

Well obviously Yahoo and MSN Live Search have not found out yet, since eHarmony ranks #7 in Yahoo and #3 in Msn Live Search for the search query: Florida Online Dating. And when you check other queries by state such as: [state] Online Dating, they rank in the top 10 for both Yahoo and MSN Live Search for many of these queries. I wish I had done this search that night to see where they ranked in Google at that time.

While the meat of optimizing AJAX and Web 2.0 technologies weren’t actually discussed until I asked during the Q&A, it was still a great event with a great discussion. However many people afterward told me that they were disappointed for the same reasons that I was.

The What Have I Been Reading Reading List:

• SEMPO: Top Execs Paying More Attention to SEM. Too bad The President of SEMPO doesn’t “have time to keep up with all the various blogs and forums these days”, because if she did, she would realize that Nick Wilson (Still miss ya NickW) left ThreadWatch 1 year ago!
• Is the Meta Description Tag Worthwhile? – Umm…only if you care about your click-through.

The I Also Glanced Over Reading List:

• Checking the Con in PubCon
• WWSD? (What Would SEOs Do?) The Future of Search Engine Watch
• Beating Your Google Rap Sheet
• Young favor Internet over TV – via: Marketing VOX

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The Too Cool: Goes to my new “Cheers”, Amber Bar. (Of course I’m linking to the Yelp page since Andreas optimized that site.) Finally, I have found a bar in San Francisco that meets my slighty dive-y, slighty hip (but not too much) standards. Cool bartenders, variety in patrons and good drinks. What more could I ask for? So I’m heading there tonight.

“We are young but getting old before our time / We’ll leave the T.V. and the radio behind / Don’t you wonder what we’ll find.” – Stepping Out – Joe Jackson

Posted by: Natasha “That Girl From Marketing” Robinson

Thank God It’s Friday. And if you are going to the Blogger Happy Hour in San Francisco after User Research Friday, I’ll see ya then.

The What Have I Been Reading Reading List:

• Technology Enables Product Placement in CGM – New term alert: Plinking – “Plinking is the process of adding a product or service link to a visible object or image in a video. When deployed, it will have an interface for users to upload and tag video. Users will freeze a single frame and define an area where the product is located. It can be any product from an iPod to particular jacket or pair of jeans. Once tagged, the item will be clickable throughout the runtime of the video, and will link to an e-commerce page.”
• MySpace, ByeSpace – Registrations are slowing has critical mass been reached? Or have all the older people showing up slowed signups? Or is it that the spammers have been stopped. (Via: iMedia Connection) “There’s no question, however, that MySpace’s recent popularity has brought with it a proliferation of spam that has annoyed some users. Many advertisers take advantage of the “friend request” function and send out requests that are really just advertisements. And programs have cropped up that can automatically send mass friend requests to MySpace users — in short, a new generation of email spam.”
• An Introduction to Microformats (via: Micropersuasion) “Microformats are small and gentle syntactic touch-ups for your web pages. They have one major purpose: to make your data readable by both man and machine. They are the technical diplomats of the Web; allowing the same piece of data to be shared among many applications and people.” Ever since I first heard about Microformats on a Social Media Club podcast, I’ve been intrigued. This is one of those posts that I will have to print out and read over the weekend. A good example of a Microformat is the XFN (XHTML Friends Network) which I never realized this was a Microformat.
  
• Kickstarting RSS: How to Make the Right Decisions to Reach Your Target Market: “In this article, we look at five such issues that you should consider in planning your feed marketing communications.

1. Deliver Relevant Content By Identifying and Targeting Your Audience
2. Don’t Confuse Your Customer By Offering Too Many Feed Choices
3. Content Strategy Can Affect Subscription Levels and Loyalty
4. Know how often you will update your feed
5. Make Sure Your Website Visitors Find Your Feeds”

The I Also Glanced Over Reading List:

• Long List of Link Searches – Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz, does it again – he has created yet another highly linkworthy piece on using Link Searches for Competitive Intelligence.
• Advertising Mix n’ Match: Examining the Coalescence of Branding and Search Engines Online “A survey conducted by The Dieringer Research Group found 45% of adults say their brand opinions have changed as a result of advertising and other product information found online.”
• Second Life Takes Off, Gains Interest of Older Generation
• Wiki Showdown at Web SIG

“Finally the weekend’s come and everything is goin’ down” – Thank God It’s Friday - R. Kelly

Posted by: Natasha “That Girl From Marketing” Robinson

Dear God, it’s me Natasha, please don’t let me start seeing articles calling Second Life Optimization, SLO in the near future. And please forgive the SEO in me who could not resist buying the domain names SecondLifeOptimization.com… ah hem and VirtualWorldOptimization.com. (FYI:  C.C. Chapman of Managing the Gray owns SecondLifeMarketing.com and VirtualWorldmarketing.com)

The What Have I Been Reading Reading List:

• Second Life Optimization – “Yet as with so much of emerging media, I’ve learned to stop questioning why people use it and to start embracing what can be done with it. …The universal principle of search engine marketing applies: You want to be there when they’re looking for you.” See also: Bridging Second Life and Amazon.com. Virtual World Optimization Shortlist:
• Title Tags should include a few important keywords
• Descriptions: Adding keywords to the description can help virtual stores come up for relevant searches
• Link Optimization: In Second Life, if marketers own multiple properties, they can include billboards for visitors to teleport around to each one.
• Advertising: An advertising network for Second Life, MetaAdverse, allows property owners to post billboards, and marketers can advertise on them and track the visitors.
• Moms Respond to Word of Mouth Marketing: “Most moms–67%–would rather get information from a peer than a celebrity mom. The best way to reach them is not through daytime TV–who’s got time to watch?–but through their friends; one study found 91 percent of mothers prefer easy-to-find brands that other moms recommend.”
• Video, social networks to surge in ‘07: “Social networks are estimated to attract $280 million in ad dollars this year, according to eMarketer. Online video-sharing sites are estimated to attract about $385 million. EMarketer estimates that $15.9 billion will be spent in online advertisements in the U.S. this year. That means social networks and video-sharing sites only attract about 1.8% to 2.5% of total online ad spending. Will the gap close?” (via: I Want Media) See also: Boost Mobile pushes it’s phone-based Mobile Social Network, Hookt

The I Also Glanced Over Reading List:

• Overlooked Link Building Opportunities – Discounts via Customer Service for web site mentions. What a great idea!
• Branding via Search Ads: “Now, some advertisers are taking a broader view of search, buying terms they want consumers to associate with their brands, even though the searchers clearly aren’t hunting for their products.” See also: Does anything come close to SEM for online customer acquisition?
• 68 million U.S. Internet users performed an Internet Yellow Page (IYP) search online in July “This represents a 46 percent increase versus year ago. Yahoo! Sites and Verizon SuperPages garnered the largest share, with 23.9 percent and 20.1 percent, respectively.”
• Social Bookmark Scripts & Widgets - Thanks for the code… now I just have to implement it
• Spy Fu Competitive Research Tool (Similar to GoogSpy)

The Too Cool: Goes to the YouTubers Video. It is a 9 minute short film about the YouTube community compiled from snippets from YouTube videos that is a video response to The Beauty of Being Human Video. It’s like watching a great documentary short on a sub-culture. I can only agree with Pete Blackshaw it is “captivating”. Of course the SEO in me, thinks Mick B, the creator should have also dropped a URL in the end of the video so I could find out more.

“And you may ask yourself / Where does that highway go? And you may ask yourself / Am I right? Am I wrong?” - Once in a Lifetime - Talking Heads

Posted by: Natasha “That Girl From Marketing” Robinson

Well more news seems to be coming in… guess everyone is back from conferences, events, yahoo, etc.

The What Have I Been Reading Reading List:

• The Trifecta of Multimedia Search: The current state of video search, The current state of audio search and The current state of image search. Niall, you rock! I need to print these posts - they are that good.
  
• Choice Kills Conversion: “Users are coming to your site or landing page with a goal in mind. Optimization is the work of anticipating that goal and finding the right messaging so the user knows this is the place to fulfill it. Optimization is not about asking questions or presenting choices. Nor is it, in my opinion, about trying to persuade users to behave in a certain manner. You should have done that work BEFORE the user got to your page.” See also: Google Website Optimizer program. The Website Optimizer allows you to optimize your landing pages
• Freemiums: 9 Tips from VCs to make Your Freemium Service Soar (via: SteinBlog) “1. Have a product or service that truly stands out 2. Know your upselling plan from the beginning. 3. Once you’ve decided that a product will be given away for free, don’t change your mind. 4. Access to your product should be just one click away. 5. Make sure the major bugs have been exterminated. 6. Harness the collective intelligence of your users. 7. Keep improving the product to give users more reasons to stick with it. 8. Identify a range of revenue sources. 9. Timing is everything”

The I Also Glanced Over Reading List:

• DuggTrends (via: Micro Persuasion) Cool tool to plot Digg Trends and Forcasting which stories will make it to the front page of Digg
• Organized Wisdom - The collaborative health information community. (via: WOMMA). Good idea, especially in light of all the information on the use of the internet in health care research. See: More Americans rely on the internet for important health information, Eight in ten internet users have looked for health information online and Blogs and health care
• What Kind of Ad network is Right for You – Excellent article showcasing the different types of ad networks.
• Top 5 Search Marketing Opportunities for 2007 – PDF. I like the new chart that they have on SEO vs. PPC Conversions which includes average website conversion rates.
• David Armano’s Excellent Presentation: Blog’s Eye View (Power Point)
• Loyalty Programs Can Be a Waste of Money
• Second Life Hits One Million Accounts

Too Cool goes to: The Making of HP Hands. Pretty cool video on the creation process of those cool HP Celebrity hand commercials.

“A note to my opponents / Yeah I got now and I always got next ‘cause I seize every moment / I’m an opportunist with ambition / Keep an eye on that number one spot before it wind up missing” – We Got Now – Little Brother

Posted by: Natasha “That Girl From Marketing” Robinson

My Imaginary IM Message to News Media and Blogs today : OMGICRASAGAYT!

Translation: Oh My God, I Can’t Read Another Story About Google and YouTube!

The What Have I Been Reading Reading List:

• Optimizing Online Retail Word-of-Mouth Techniques (Sorry they have not put the latest newsletter up yet) – Neilsen/Netratings reports that “More than 75% of online shoppers recommend retail sites and 55% forward a retailer’s e-mail marketing message to friends and family.” Interestingly enough, “Heavy frequency of recommendations does not equate to heavy online spending, Online spending actually declines as consumer recommendations & reviews become too frequent, so numerous messages may distract customers from promoting your site.” Who would have guessed that. See also: Consumer reviews drive online sales: “Some 77 percent of online shoppers use consumer generated product reviews/ratings. Online buyers who find user-generated product ratings and reviews useful spend more online than the average. Buyers who write consumer reviews make up only 20 percent of online shoppers but account for 32 percent of all Internet sales.”
• As a follow up to the research on : How Consumers Find Web Sites In 2006. Generations’ Media Habits Shape Their Site-Finding Behavior, check out: Search Engine Usage by Age Groups (via: Shimon Sandler – there is a redux there as well) and to the Derrick Daye who asked about Search Engine Usage by Gender, check out: How Gender Affects Search

The I Also Glanced Over Reading List:

• Three Dynamics of Viral Marketing: 1. Viral marketing does not spread well . 2. The probability of viral infection decreases with repeated interaction 3. Viral effectiveness varies depending on price and category
• Impact of Ad Copy on Click Through Rates. See also: The search world and display advertising world reside in different universes -
• Well, I’ve found out on RentOMeter (via: The Daily Searchcast) that that my rent for a 1 bedroom in the 94103 area code of San Francisco is a bargain. Good to know. I definitely had sticker shock after moving here from Atlanta where the most I paid for a 1 bed room was $800.00.
• Intel Partners with Second Life. See also: First Look at the Bartle Bogle Hegarty’s Office in Second Life

“You’ve got a new horizon its ephemeral style / A melancholy town where we never smile” - Feel Good Inc - Gorillaz

Posted by: Natasha “That Girl From Marketing” Robinson