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Do You Speak Keyword?

Written by Rob Hudson | 02 March 2010
Posted in Relevance

Most of us probably already know that keywords (not just those in metadata) make a difference in your search engine battle to the top (organic SEO), and through that, to the top of your potential customer's click list. It's absolutely not the only thing that matters, but it can make a huge difference in gaining an online audience. I see my web consulting customers making mistakes in this area often and have some great success stories, so it was time to write this reminder about gaining the keyword habit. I want you to learn to speak keyword to improve your organic SEO -- the "free" kind.

Keep keywords relevant.

Keywords should not be used carelessly in your attempts to gain organic search engine optimization (SEO). They should be clearly relevant to what you do. Relevance in this case means words that a customer would use to describe (and search for) your business. If you use industry terms that a customer might not use, then expect failure. Once a customer gets to your site, they need to be clearly rewarded with evidence that your business is truly relevant to their search terms. This payoff should include seeing those keywords again in your messaging as well in the overall context of your site. Good website design also means that the keywords should be fortified with strong "why-to-buys" -- #1 Provider of..., Best, Award-winning... and promotions -- Free introductory offer... so that the customer realizes that you are relevant and the best choice. Your goal is to prevent the dreaded click-back. Click-backs (clicking back away from your site to the search list to pick the next listing) are rejection and a lost sale.

Keep keywords consistent.

If your keywords seem to have Attention Deficit disorder, then they may be ineffective. Some core keywords should be consistently used throughout your site. A select set of keywords can be added to specific pages of your site to highlight its topic. Keep your total keyword list to no more than 5-7 words with a priority given to 2-3 keywords. Keep in mind that derivations of a word make them two different keywords -- rental vs. renting.

Keep your text readable.

Don't get carried away and bristle your paragraphs with keywords such that reading is uncomfortable. Not only will customers be ill-served, but also Google bots may consider it trickery and penalize your ranking. Read through your text and make sure that the text is clear and easily readable. Remember that keywords also should be in metadata that users don't always see (page tags: title, description, keywords; image tags: alt, title, etc.).

Speak keyword.

Make it a habit to throw keywords into everything that you write online. The entire Internet is searchable. so your social media Twitter tweets, Facebook status, LinkedIn status all should be rich in keywords about your business. Remenber also to include backlinks to your site to "bring them home" to your website to close the sale.

Monitor progress. Yours and competitors

Keep your keywords up-to-date and competitive. Remember that your competitors want to be number one in search rankings too and will be trying to beat you. Monitor which keywords are working (and which aren't) for your website AND your competitors'.

Auto Hashtag Is Not A Practice In Turkey

Written by Rob Hudson | 19 February 2010
Posted in Social Media

I fully understand that many of you may not yet be active on Twitter. I sympathize with the confusion as to why you should change your ways, but I encourage you to give it a whirl. There is a whole lot of useful and/or entertaining information out there in bite-sized chunks.

One way that I recommend that customers get their feet wet is to "listen" before speaking. Go to http://search.twitter.com and type a term that interests you. Maybe it's "Tiger Woods" (I hope not), "Job Search" or "Haiti" that might intrigue. One way that those who "Tweet" help you to sort through the millions of tweets out there is through a "hashtag". Hashtags are simply keywords that seek to group tweets around a topic. They always follow a # symbol. Several hashtags can be added to a single tweet.

For example, this one from @Alyssa_Milano: "Congratulations #NOLA. Your city deserves this Super Bowl. #Saints #WhoDat #SB44" In order, the hashtags stand for New Orleans Louisiana, New Orleans Saints, the "Who Dat?" cheer and Super Bowl 44. We use hashtags to help those who search and also to make sure that our tweets fall into the path of those we want to SEE our tweets. It's a bit of deliberate steering of our message. One way to attempt to maximize your audience is to watch what hot topics are "trending" and toss your voice in there with the right hashtags and terms.

One tool to check that out is TwitScoop. For grins, go to TwitScoop and choose menu item "Hot Trends" and then click on the largest term below the "Tag-cloud Snapshot" header. The words will grow and shrink based on which tweeted terms are getting hotter and colder, respectively. Sounds straightforward enough.

IDEA: The AutoHashtag

The problem is, that when I'm tweeting, why do I need to remember all of the possible hashtags for whatever I'm tweeting about? To the degree that I get into a hashtag "rut", I start to limit my audienece again to those who already know that I exist. One solution is to add a feature to my Twitter clients (TweetDeck, HootSuite, Tweetie...) that automagically suggests trending hashtags based on the content of my tweet. Then let me choose the ones that I want to keep. I wonder if I can get #autohashtag to start trending?

Website Design Firm Wins Award For Interior Design Firm

Written by Rob Hudson | 25 January 2010
Posted in General

NARI 2009 Awards - Kelly Hudson and Rob Hudson

Kelly Hudson, owner of iDesign 4 Interiors, LLC was honored with two NARI Wisconsin Remodelers Awards on Friday, Jan. 22, 2010. The Brookfield, WI interior design firm won a 2009 Silver Award for $20,001-$40,000 Kitchens and shared the 2009 Silver Award for Web Site Design with Rob Hudson, owner of Vivosity Consulting, LLC who designed and manages content for the site with the iDesign 4 Interiors interior design team.

brookfield interior design firm awards photo

What is Google Thinking With Nexus One?

Written by Rob Hudson | 11 January 2010
Posted in Design

The reactions to Google's introduction of the Nexus One phone based on its open source mobile OS Android 2.1 have been mixed. This wide range of reactions should not be a surprise. After all, Google has been so dominating and successful with its search, advertising and Gmail plays that it has created a few scared rabbits. Google's reach extends to and through so much of our online lives today, that some worry about it gaining a stranglehold over mobile communications as well. Let's look at why Google would make this move and what it might mean for others in the ecosystem.

Does My Bank Respect Our Relationship?

Written by Rob Hudson | 05 January 2010
Posted in Behaviors

A few months ago, I received a letter from my bank and it seemed important based on what they wrote on the envelope. I opened it and the gist is that I had failed to complete some action and they were asking me to simply sign a document to take care of this issue. The only problem was, it was merely a sales pitch disguised as an official notice. It took several reads to fully understand that the urgency of the note was in no way my emergency. This was my bank seemingly attempting to pimp the seriousness with which I treat my bank notices to try to urge me into a new service. I was angry enough about this that I kept the mailing by my desk and thought that I would write this blog sharing the story. After a while, I decided to ignore it given other work I had to do. My bank is Associated Bank and the promotion is in conjunction with The Hartford.

Click to enlarge

Yesterday, I received a second "Urgent Reminder" "re: important information" shown at left. At least this one didn't take long to uncover its sales pitch. There were, however, hints of the former strategy. "The enclosed form has been supplied so you can send us this missing information by February 5, 2010", emphasis theirs. The prior note really leaned on this idea that I had missing information that I must supply.

Our world has become very noisy, hasn't it? Sales pitches everywhere. I'm fine with that if you make it clear that it is an "offer", not an oversight on my part regarding my existing business with you. My airline reward programs regularly send credit card promotions, but they generally are easy to spot. I don't like them, but I can sign up or reject/shred them without confusion.

Relationship Equity

While at 3Com, U.S.Robotics or AOL, I understood that our relationship with our customers could be steered only somewhat. The customer had to agree with where we were taking them and our interactions with them should embrace, enhance and honor that agreed upon relationship. Sometimes we went too far and we would alienate them or "spend relationship equity". What is "relationship equity"? If you have an approval/excitement meter, are our customers on the plus side? If so, how far up? Associated Bank has generally been a great bank. Now they have spent some relationship equity with me. They've tipped their hand as to whether they respect me or want to fool me into services. If the service is truly a benefit, then the tricks are unnecessary. Secondly, they misunderstand that given privacy and identity theft issues, a bank's relationship with it's customers should be a blatantly forthright one. You can market to me, but make the envelope a particular color or stamp it with "Promotional". You dont have to follow my advice, but your relationship equity will continue to dissipate.

You might ask, "Did you at least tell them that you were unhappy?". Yes. Right now. I don't have time to track down the right corporate wonk personally and hope that they respect my knowledge of the topic. I'd like them to know, but in the end it is their job to monitor, ask and honor our relationship. HOWEVER, I still like Associated Bank and plan to stay with them, but clearly I wish that they had made a better marketing decision.

How might your business evaluate and honor the "Relationship Equity" concept?

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