SEO, PPC & Adwords Marketing Tips | The Forge

Google has made a pretty cool update to its real time search module by adding time and location variables to play around with.   If you aren’t familiar with real time search, simply search for something in Google and click ‘more’ on the left hand column and scroll to ‘updates’.  These updates pull primarily from Twitter to show the what the latest tweets are for your search query.

Now, with Google’s new tools, you can hone in your real time search to a specific place or time.  Say you want to get more information on a San Francisco earthquake that occurred a few hours ago.  Simply type ‘San Francisco’ into the ‘custom location’ field on the bottom left, and drag the time indicator on top to the correct time of day.  You’ll get a great representation of what people in San Francisco were saying when the earthquake occurred.

Based on a recent comScore report it looks like Facebook’s invasion and conquest of mainland India is all but a foregone conclusion. With Zuckerberg’s brainchild outpacing the growth of Google’s Orkut by a factor of 10, the over 33 million member strong Indian social networking market appears to be slipping into the hands of Facebook. This changing tide leaves Orkut with one last stronghold high in the mountains of Brazil. Given Facebook’s obscene growth rate, is a world social networking monopoly inevitable? Does the legend of Google Me have the will to break the stranglehold and offer up a legitimate alternative? Where does Orkut stand in all this? Here are some ideas and strategic suggestions to create competition in the social networking market.

The Dilemma of a Closed Garden
A wise man once said, “A ship in a harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” In the realm of social networking, some might suggest that if the “harbor” is organized well and used by many, then there are merits to sticking to what works; in this case Facebook. What happens if the harbor master hates red sails and decides to charge a tariff for traveling between the shores? This metaphor speaks to the potential problems of letting one organization control the entire social networking arena. We all know that both Facebook and Google are in it for the money. Ultimately, having more than one legitimate choice gives the consumer at least some decision power. With other distributed social network initiatives like Diaspora on the horizon, the future still holds hope for a less money oriented solution to your social networking needs. The more portable your social networking information is, the less control an outside organization will have over your freedom of choice.

Privacy is in its Death Throws
As a consumer, you should know that all of these companies are recording a massive amount of data about your personal interactions. While this data currently concerns mainly the online world, new developments like Facebook’s Location Service are guaranteed to change things. Imagine the day when companies will know where you are at all times, who you are spending time with and the exact time intervals for each of these activities. That day was yesterday. Ultimately, for companies in the social networking space, data is money. The more data they capture, the more money they can squeeze out of their user base. Facebook, Google and other players in the social networking space have to make strategic decisions about how they capture this data. Are the new programs opt out? Do they make the controls to toggle off certain privacy settings intentionally hard to find? You bet they do. Each of these companies has a decision to make about where they stand on the privacy spectrum. Imagine if a company’s stance on privacy actually revolved around letting the user decide. A more open privacy strategy might give users incentive to make a change.

The legend of Google Me
If you have spent any time in Silicon Valley or ventured into the blogosphere recently you may have heard the chatter; sweet rumors of a true challenger to Facebook’s stranglehold on the social networking space. What is Google Me? A better question is what does Google Me have to be in order to fulfill its promise of a new tomorrow. Ultimately Google Me has to be something that people are both familiar with and comfortable using. Let’s think of an example that fits those requirements. How about Facebook? A true Facebook clone is a scary prospect. Will most people see it as just a knock off?

Where does Orkut figure in to all of this?
With over 100 million active users, Google would be foolish to cut the cord on the Orkut user base. Ultimately, if Google Me is going to work, they will need to seed the new service. Building a user base for a social networking site requires getting massive amounts of people to sign up, establish social connections and fill out a wealth of personal information. Where could Google Me possibly get a kick start of users? How about building the service so that user info can easily, perhaps automatically, be ported over from Orkut? While they are at it, why not do the same with Gmail. Google currently has most of the core information to build a profile for hundreds of millions of users. If they can make joining the service a push button decision, then perhaps they can chip away at the networking effect that is powering the Facebook phenomenon.

In the past, Google has adopted features from Facebook and incorporated them into the Orkut Service. This cloning strategy may be the focus of the Google Me effort. If the Japanese can do it with cars, who’s to say the same strategy will not work with social networks. Ultimately, to gain insight into what works for social networking Google may have to go to the source; engineers with direct experience in social networking development. To build a true Facebook killer Google may want to fire up some hiring software and target Facebook employees. Tapping the Facebook brain trust may be a critical competitive maneuver for overtaking the social networking giant.

As Facebook continues its dominance in the social space, the honest chances of Google Me rising to prominence are slim at best. Google’s best chances of making an impact with Google Me will require building something that has a small learning curve and can incorporate assets they have already developed through sites like Orkut. Only time will tell if the social networking stronghold is unbreakable in the immediate future, but for the sake on competition, let’s wish Google the best of luck.

Mashable recently reported on a social media story where celebrity Justin Bieber tweeted out a user’s phone number, telling fans to “call or text” it.  The number reportedly received 26,000 texts from Beiber’s Twitter fan base of 4.5 million followers.  The 16 year old pop star’s actions were designed to get back at the user, Keven Kristopik, who had previously hacked Beiber’s phone number and sent a text message to the celebrity.

Mashable asks the question: “Celebrities suffer from invasions of privacy on a regular basis, but does that justify them in using their social media influence to turn the tables on over-enthusiastic fans or uncooperative reporters?”

Over here in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset, we actually encountered a similar case of celebrity social media misuse.  About a month ago, a local bar, Yancy’s Saloon, reportedly booted magician Brian Brushwood and his camera crew (Revision3’s Scam School).  It seems Brushwood wasn’t happy with getting kicked out of a bar, so he tweeted to his large twitter fan base (@shwood) to write bad Yelp reviews on the bar.  Within a few days, over 70 1-star reviews had surfaced on the Yancy’s Yelp page, pushing down the bar’s overall rating and in turn hurting business.

This clearly is a misuse of Yelp and Twitter.  If he had a bad experience, it makes sense that Brushwood could go on his own blog or Yelp account and write a bad review, but to turn a legion of Twitter drones against a local establishment just seems wrong (especially when none of them had actually been to the bar).

How far does it go? Although celebrities have always wielded power through their ability to make any statement newsworthy, they have never before commanded so many actual people with the push of a button.  Should Twitter monitor cases of misuse like this, or should it be more of a ‘wild-west’ environment?

The Facebook Movie, “The Social Network” is about to be released on October 1st.   I’m not sure what to think of this movie, although it does have some interesting casting choices, including Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg (did they cast him because of the ‘berg’?) and Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker.

Because Google and Facebook have been battling for internet dominance lately, does this mean we should be expecting a Google Movie soon in retaliation?  I’d like to make some bold predictions on the casting choices for this nascent Google Flick (lets call it ‘The Algorithm‘).

Sergey Brin played by Bronson Pinchot (Balki from ‘Perfect Strangers’)

Larry Page played by Steve Buscemi

Eric Schmidt Played by Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrute from ‘The Office’)

And of course…the antagonist Steve Ballmer, played by Alan Dale (Charles Widmore from ‘Lost’)

Right now, Google’s famous ‘Do no evil’ mantra seems irrelevant, even hypocritical.  I’d like to take a look at Google’s 10 guiding corporate philosophy principles and see how relevant they are in light of their new ‘net neutrality’ proposal. In the last update to their corporate page Google stated: “We first wrote these “10 things” several years ago. From time to time we revisit this list to see if it still holds true. We hope it does – and you can hold us to that. (September 2009)”

Well, Google – we do hold you to that, and I think it’s time you took a review of this page and ask yourself if these items are still true.

1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.

Google, you clearly have strayed from your path of focusing on the user.  In fact, you seem more focused on colluding with huge penny-pinching businesses nowadays.  If you focused on users, you never would have reversed direction with Android – an open mobile OS that was said to eventually free users from the chains of giant mobile carriers.

Today, we are seeing the opposite with Android; users are getting tied to lengthy carrier contracts through offerings of super phones (recently Verizon’s Incredible and Sprint’s EVO) which are filled with irremovable bloatware.  Google, this definitely is not focusing on the user – it is focusing on making carriers and corporations happy.

2. It’s best to do one thing really, really well.

Google, admit it – you are trying to become more than a one trick pony.  No longer are you purely focused on search, but you’ve now got your tentacles wrapped around the mobile sector (among other things). We were OK that you went in a different direction to build Android (even if we knew it was just another way to display your ads to users), but you seem really confused now.

You’re kind of like Michael Jordan – you were really good at basketball, but when you started playing baseball everyone started to realize that you suck at it.  Google, you’re starting to suck at stuff.

3. Fast is better than slow.

I’ll give you this one Google – you are sticking with this philosophy.  In your ‘net neutrality’ writeup you propose creating a new second internet that runs in the fast lane, allowing companies to develop innovative and wonderful pay-for services that require more bandwidth. Only problem is: if there is fast lane it leaves the old internet, the one that most people use, stuck in traffic.

4. Democracy on the web works.

Google, how democratic would the new internet you envisioned really be? I can see it now: carriers denying apps that don’t suit their purposes and people denied internet services because they aren’t paying for the ‘premium’ internet.  Google, if democracy means letting businesses walk all over people by denying them freedom of choice in broadband and the wireless spectrum, then by all means, democracy works.

5. You don’t need to be at your desk to need an answer.

This one is true Google.  You know that you’ve hit on something really big with this mobile thing. People need answers everywhere they go, and now that your Android is the #1 selling mobile OS in the United States, they can conveniently Google anything, from anywhere (and click on the ads to prove it!) Although you tout Android as being ‘open source’ – it seems that your services like Google search and Gmail are a ‘must add’ to any Android handset on the market.

6. You can make money without doing evil.

To address this one I’d like to refer to Huffington Post writer Marvin Ammori: “You have to hand it to Google. Going from “Don’t Be Evil” to “Greedier than BP” overnight is a pretty impressive trick.”

7. There’s always more information out there.

Google, you’re making us question who will have access to this information in the future.  Your CEO Eric Schmidt referred to the proposed second pay-for internet: “This means that broadband providers can work with other players to develop new services. It is too soon to predict how these new services will develop, but examples might include health care monitoring, the smart grid, advanced educational services, or new entertainment and gaming options.” So these fantastic new health care and educational services will only be available to people willing to pay for it?

8. The need for information crosses all borders.

Apparently not for people in China.  Although you made a short stand by pulling your service from China due to censorship disputes, you eventually gave in.  It seems that the prospect of tapping China’s huge market was too alluring for you to stand up for what was right.   This situation seems vaguely familiar: throwing internet freedom aside in order to try and make more money…

9. You can be serious without a suit.

Google, I’m not sure anyone buys this hippy-dippy corporate culture bullshit anymore. Don Draper wears a damn fine suit and I’d love to see his take on Adwords.

10. Great just isn’t good enough.

As much praise as you get for your algorithm, there are several other search options out there (Bing in particular) that have been gaining on you in the past year.  I don’t think you realize how many people use Google simply because ‘its Google’.

They liked the way you did things simply, they liked the idea of not going ‘corporate’ with Microsoft, they liked how you stood for what was right.  In other words, people found a reason to like you.  If people start to realize that you are just another corporate giant out to make a profit I wouldn’t underestimate their ability to realize that “Google just isn’t good enough” anymore.

A wise man once said: “building incoming links to a page are an important component to SEO and Page Rank.”  Actually, it was probably some SEO guy that said that.  Anyways – getting links to your local franchise landing page is an important strategy for pushing your site up in search engine rankings so your customers can find you – if you go about it the right way.

There is a right way and wrong way to link building.  Let me elaborate:

The Wrong Way to Link Building: Pay some link building service to submit your site to hundreds of random directories.  Although this would seem to be a cost efficient and fast way to get a ton of incoming links to your site, it won’t have the long term effect you’d like.  You want the sites linking to you to be relevant to your content, not some random directory that clearly is a paid service.

The Right Way to Link Building: Think about other websites that have to do with your town, state and service sector.  These are the sites you want to link to you.  You can try ‘reciprocal linking’ by contacting the site’s webmaster and saying “I’ll link to your site if you link to mine,” although it’s pretty hard to get some of those micro-deals going.   There are also pay-for directories that have specifically to do with your location or service sector that would be valuable for you to get listed on.  Keep the price in mind, as some of them are known to overcharge.

The ‘best way’ to get links to your site though is by creating content that people genuinely want to link to, because it has some value to them.   This is why it’s so important to keep putting out fresh and relevant content on your franchise page.  Hopefully, if your content is interesting or entertaining in some way, shape or form- somebody out there will link to it.

For inquiries on our franchise marketing services, feel free to contact us at contact@insightforge.com

Google has added a new feature that lets local business owners respond to reviews in their Places accounts.  This feature-add continues a trend with Google Places matching / competing with Yelp  as a major player in the user-generated business review sector.

For both Yelp and Google Places, the ability for a local business owner to respond to a good or bad review is a very powerful tool.   In a world where many potential customers look to other people’s reviews before purchasing goods or services, it is important the local businesses have some control of their brand identity.

Although the age old advice of simply providing good service to bring in the good reviews holds some water, there is always the case of the disgruntled ex-employee who posts a bad review just for the hell of it.   This would be a case where the business owner could take time to respond and let the rest of the community know the reasoning behind such a review.

It’s a sure thing that the local business owners in San Francisco, who are attuned to the ongoings of the large internet companies around them, will be the first to take advantage of this feature.   Google – we’re looking forward to seeing more improvements with Google Places (i.e. a version of Adwords MCC for Places to manage multiple client accounts).

For of us who work in the world of SEO & PPC Marketing, its safe to say that we use a ton of Google’s products.  Gmail, Adwords, Google Docs, Spreadsheets, Presentations, Voice, and Analytics are just a few of Google’s tools that we utilize on an everyday basis.

One problem we’ve encountered over the years is the logistical nightmare of managing a ton of Google accounts at the same time.  You’re signed into your Adwords My Client Center account in Chrome, Personal Gmail account in Firefox and a client’s Google Local account in IE.  It becomes quite a hassle.

Finally, Google has started to make some headway on this problem by letting a user sign into multiple Google accounts at once, all from one browser window.  Simply go to your Google Account Settings, and switch the ‘multiple sign in’ button to ‘on.’  It looks like Google is still working on getting some extra features working in multiple accounts like Docs and Spreadsheets, but this is a great first step.  Way to go Google!

So you’ve got the hang of updating your twitter feed, blog, and Facebook account on a regular basis. You still don’t have much traction though.  What could be wrong?  One possibility is you aren’t providing your readers with valuable content.

Think about it from your reader’s perspective. Why should they be reading your blog posts and tweets?  What’s in it for them?  This comes down to the basic content value proposition.  Value can mean entertainment value or informative value – anything that your end user can take away from the content that you produced.  If you are just pumping out useless posts that no one in particular would find interesting, you probably won’t get that much traction.

Try and think out of the box.  Tie what’s going on in your franchise territory to local news, or pertinent geographic, or historical information.  Try and get in your customer’s / reader’s head and make sure they would find value in the content you are providing them.

For inquiries on our franchise marketing services, feel free to contact us at contact@insightforge.com

San Francisco is truly a unique place.  We’ve recently been working with several local businesses & stores within the city, helping out on various fronts.  Some businesses need a basic SEO overhaul or a PPC campaign, others require more complex work.  The amazing thing about local San Francisco businesses  is how attuned they are to internet marketing – from social media to Google local listings.

When speaking to several local business owners, it became apparent that being internet savvy was considered a necessity.   Considering the fact that much of San Francisco works in the tech / internet sector, this makes a lot of sense.  Any storefront that utilizes some form of online marketing improves their chances of getting the right eyes on their business.

Take a restaurant for example – a new, trendy bistro that is opening in San Francisco’s SOMA district.  Although the bistro technically will be able to survive based on its great food, service and prime location, they are still missing a key ingredient.  In San Francisco, reaching out to foodies via Twitter, making sure that you are on top of the SEO food chain and getting a YouTube clip featuring organic ingredients embedded on the website can make the difference between a good and GREAT restaurant.   Keep in mind, the difference between a good and great restaurant might not be completely be about food and service, it could also be about the customer feeling ‘connected’ with the restaurant, which is the role social media can fill.

Overall, its great to live in a city where the ‘real world’ is very in sync with the ‘virtual world’ – meaning there isn’t a complete disconnect between working on web pages for a living and the eating a delicious meatball sub downtown (does that make any sense?).    Anyhow, the Insight Forge team would love to get in touch with more local businesses – whether it be for the purpose of San Francisco SEO, PPC campaigns, design, social media, or whatever else.