Jeff Woelker : Chicago SEO, SEM, and Online Marketing Consultant

Last week, I was priveleged enough to be able to attend Google’s Reaction B2B Summit. Overall, it was an amazing experience. Google’s campus is something to behold, if you’ve never been. A full service dining hall, cafe’s in each building, outdoor work areas, lecture halls, exercise equipment, a volleyball court, bike’s you can ride wherever you’d like, haircuts on site, dry cleaning on site, wireless everywhere - pretty much everything a geek could desire and that’s only the handful of buildings I was able to see.

Unfortunately, upon arriving, we were asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement, which is completely understandable. I’ll just say that the speakers were fantastic, I was able to meet several really smart, interesting people who I’d to meet up with again very soon if they are in Chicago (@socialjulio and @ryandeshazer, amongst others) and that I’ll definitely be going back next year, if my gracious hosts once again extend the invitation. I’m definitely disappointed that I missed day two, but I had my own fun with rescheduling flights and hanging out in airports all day.

Check out some of the pics I was able to snap during my visit below.
Did you attend? How did you think it went?

Created with flickrSLiDR.

In case you are looking for me over the next couple of days, I’ll be attending the Google Reaction B2B Executive Summit with our CEO, the director of our department, and our VP of west coast operations. If you’d like to digitally stalk me over that period, I’ll be making regular updates to multiple platforms as often as possible, without upsetting my gracious hosts of course. Just because you aren’t attending, doesn’t mean you can’t participate. Feel free to shoot me a message at any of these sites below and I’ll try and slip them in if possible:

• Twitter
• Brightkite
• Friendfeed

You can also see feedback/reactions after the event here and here.

I’ve read a few articles recently about “optimizing your website for mobile SEO”. I know it’s the big focus of many conferences in 2008, but frankly, I think this is kind of a waste of time. Mobile SEO - SEO - it will all be the same very soon. As more and more mobile devices become more of an internet gateway than just a mobile device, search engines are going to have to catch up. People will no longer think “I’m on a mobile device, I want mobile results”. They will move to think more along the lines of, I know I get these results on my laptop, so I would expect a similar result set on my mobile device. Just because I’m on a mobile device should not change the results.

PPC/SEM
I think for the short term, at least until search engines combine results, running mobile search campaigns is still worthwhile. However, for the longer term, PPC/SEM will follow suit soon after people begin to expect more from their mobile results.

Design
I do however think designing and thinking about mobile is still a key issue when designing for mobile devices and something that should be kept in mind. Just because you are designing for the web, doesn’t mean that users will not access the site using a mobile device. There are a number of websites which can address the minor technical issues associated with developing a mobile stylesheet. Here are just a few:

• Mobile CSS First Steps
• Mobile CSS is a reality
• Make your site mobile friendly

Now as for local search optimization, I think this is one of the key segments where search optimization can make a big difference, but that’s for a later post. What do you think? Is mobile seo worth your time, or just another piece of hype to keep many SEO’ers busy for 2008/09?

I find it fascinating that Google has someone who speaks out as much as Matt does about SEO and search marketing in general. I don’t think there are many other industries where there is such a reciprocal back and forth between company and customers. Thanks for the insights (and great one-liners) Matt!

My mom sent me another article today about the Detroit auto industry and yet another round of layoffs which continue to decimate the Michigan economy. On a side note, if you didn’t know, Michigan has one of our hardest hit economies right now as a result of the entire state leaning on one industry for over a century, but that’s for another time.

The article got me thinking though about risk. Risk is inherent in any online campaign - be it SEO, SEM, a website launch, an ad campaign, anything. Here’s some questions you should ask yourself before, during, and after any SEO campaign.

What happens if you’re successful?

• Does your client have enough inventory to support a surge in website traffic?
• Can they handle a large volume of sales leads?
• Are their pages optimized for conversions?
• Can you report the metrics they want for success?
• Is there website setup to handle large volumes of traffic?
• If it crashes, do they have a contingency plan?
• What’s your next move if you’re a marketing/search agency and you get to be #1 in Google?
• Is there information on the website you don’t want to get out?
• Any case study or success stories you can harness to use for future sales opportunities?

What happens if you’re not successful?

• Have you defined success? Perhaps #1 in Google was too high to shoot for. See what the sites ahead of you have going for them and set client expectations accordingly.
• Can you at least demonstrate the efforts you made or results you were able to secure?
• Do you have any other tricks up your sleeve you can try?
• Was it your fault? Did the client hamstring you into solutions you knew would never work in the first place? Did you voice your opinions?
• Any learnings that can come out of this?

Is there anyway you can mitigate against those risks? Not everything is within your control, especially when working with third parties, but always good to hedge your bets if you can. Just food for thought.

So I saw this video this morning from TechCrunch and it shows a new search interface that Google is testing out more widely. I remember hearing about this last year and thought, I’d rather not. Seeing it again still kind of leaves me with that opinion. Here are my hesitations:

1. User Interface - Please don’t do this to the current interface. It’s kind of ugly. The reason I go to Digg is because I expect this kind of nuttiness. I go to Google because I want information, not a bunch of buttons to push.
2. Politics - There is a lot of competition out there for top search results. I’m assuming that if this is fully rolled out that voting up and down will only be a marginal part of the search ranking, or if you vote up or down or add/remove results, that it will only effect your ranking views when you are logged into Google.

My gut tells me that this is just another product team project that won’t make it all the way to the homepage. Only time will tell though.

Update: I received an email from Dan Lewis, an employee of Wikia Search, and he said that Wikia Search has been doing a lot of this stuff for a while now. Check them out when you have a second.

So I was doing some research today for a client project and I found this link below listed in Yahoo’s search index.

Any idea why they would continue to publish this result, even after identifying “Dangerous downloads”? I mean, don’t you want to provide the best customer experience possible to your users?

Does anyone have any insight into why they are doing this?

With the increasing emphasis on geo-aware applications and the rise in local search, it seems like local business optimization will be a hot market for 2008 and 2009. Here’s 9 quick tips that any local business can use to get a leg up on their neighbors.

1. Put your address on your website - It seems like an obvious thing, but many businesses either assume customers will know where they are (I mean, they have a huge sign out front) or that search engines will be able to read the image on their website that says “123 Main Street”. The fact is, search engines are not that smart…yet. So make it easy for them and put it in straight forward, obvious text. Users and search engines alike will appreciate it.
2. Microformats - If you want to get really sophisticated, you could put your address on your website using an hCard. An hCard indicates to search engines and other spiders as to the exact format of your address. Instead of “123 Main Street, Chicago, IL” you tell the search engine the exact syntax as to what is the street address, the city, the state and any other information you want to provide. You can create your own at the hCard creator.
3. Google and Yahoo business submissions - Even though you’ve now put your address on your website, with or without an hCard, you should also submit it to Google and Yahoo’s local business listings. Although they will most likely find your business eventually, they may list it incorrectly or not as optimally as you want. So be proactive and structure the listing as you’d like.
   
4. Yelp it up - Yelp is a fantastic local business listing website with a truly passionate following. One of my friends recent away messages said “Yelp is the best website ever”. I know there are certainly days I feel like that. Along with business listings, you can, again, reach out to the community and promote your business listing as well as your products and services. I recently posted on Yelp, “I need a sexy restaurant to go on Friday night.” Now what if you’re the owner or manager of a restaurant in Chicago. Don’t you want to jump in on that conversation and say “Hey, come on by tonight and we’ll give you a free appetizer or something?” You’d be hitting me along with anyone else who reads that conversation, right at the point of interest and most likely purchase.
5. Optimize your website for a few keywords - Although this is becoming more difficult as local markets get competitive for limited search terms, it’s still worth the effort and will benefit your local website listing. Here’s a great list of free keyword research tools.
6. Find local bloggers - It’s always good to get to know your neighbors and beyond a basic Google search, there are now geotargeted blog listings, where you can discover local bloggers and reach out to them to promote your business. There are some niche market blog listings like NYC Bloggers and Chicago Bloggers, but there is also a global listing called Globe of Blogs for a little more exploration.
   Update: And now Best of the Web has a local component.
7. Keep an eye on your competitors - There’s a great website called EveryBlock (previously ChicagoCrime.org), which details local happenings. A quick look lets you see who’s applying for liquor licenses or who passed their last restaurant inspection. It also shows a listing of local crimes, which is obviously beneficial to know prior to moving into an area.
8. Get involved - Beyond business listings, you should also allow people to interact with your business through other avenues, specifically social media. If you’re an art studio, set up a Flickr page with your latest exhibits. If you’re a restaurant, set up a Twitter account with your latest restaurant specials and make it timely so people have a sense of urgency. “For the next 30 minutes, appetizers are free with the purchase of an entree” or whatever. Or get people to sign up for a newsletter just to stay on top of what you’re doing. I subscribe to a local organic grocery store’s newsletter for many reasons, one of which is that I really like the owner as well as their emphasis on community involvement. Just make sure to follow the social graces of each online community before jumping in too deep.
9. Keep in touch - Once you establish these relationships, make sure to follow up and say Thanks! If a blogger features you on their website, say thanks and offer them something in return. If someone comments on your Flickr photo, let them know it’s appreciated. These relationships once established, don’t last very long if they are not nurtured or appreciated.

Anything I’m missing or glossed over, let me know if the comments. The photo above is of one of my favorite sushi places in Chicago.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I love zombies. I randomly found this today while doing some research for social networking and thought it was delightful. Enjoy!

Check these lyrics out: