Sitting down to play around with the Google Wonder Wheel we were amazed when we looked up at the clock to see that over an hour had passed.   Such is the immersive nature of this new tool.

Part of a new set of search options that includes timelines, date sorted searches and other enhancements the Wonder Wheel is Google’s newest method for finding and organizing quality search results.   Using the Wonder Wheel, users are given a visual representation of searches related to their main query.

The Wonder Wheel is a flash-based application that places the primary search term at the center of the diagram and lists the most relevant related search around it in surrounding circles.   Select one of the related search terms and it becomes the center point of the graphic – with its own “family” of related searches in surrounding circles.

Fun and intuitive, the tool is much more than eye-candy however.   It is a dual purpose tool that can aid both keyword research and linkbuilding.   The Wonder Wheel is an ideal way to research and brainstorm keywords and phrases needed to optimize a site properly.  Click around the various circles leads the user down a number of different paths – many of which might not have been immediately recognized using standard search tools.   And by reviewing the backlinks of sites that appear in the top results on the right side of the page, those looking to build additional traffic can find quality targets for link placement at a speedy clip.

The Wonder Wheel is the latest example of Google’s drive to change the way we search the web.   It is one of several innovations that place more of a visual emphasis on search – making it accessible for both novice users, and a powerful tool for SEO professionals.

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We’ve just done some tests here, but so far I can’t see the homepage being updated realtime. One noticable change, however, is that they changed the status update box to something they call “the publisher”; unstead of “what are you doing right now?” it asks, “what’s on your mind?”.

This certainly seems like an attempt to become more twitter-y, having first removed the default “is” in the beginning of the status updates. I am very curious to see the reaction to this – any changes are usually met with initial fist-shakings before people get used to the new look. Like I said, though it says I’m seeing the new interface, I have yet to see anything get updated real time. I will keep updating as new reports of people seeing the new changes come in.

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The following are five burning questions that you need to ask yourself about you SEO content efforts today, tomorrow and next week.

How important are old-school metrics of SEO content such as keyword density?

Back in the day, keyword density was the phrase-of-the-day in terms of search of content.  The denser your copy was with keywords, the better it would rank – as the story went.   But we are more sophisticated creatures now, and so too are algorithms at the major search engines.

Too much emphasis on a single keyword or phrase is likely to get you filtered out by Google and Yahoo! Relevancy has become the order of the day and as such you need to be more selective of how many appearances a keyword or phrase in a piece of content – and instead focus on whether or not your content reads well and provides your audience with a clear, comprehensive chunk of the information they were seeking in the first place.

Is your SEO content truly link-worthy?

Anyone can produce content, but the great ones produce content that is truly link-worthy – the kind of content that any site would be proud to link to off of their site.

To determine if your content is linkworthy as yourself the following questions:

• Is your content something that a lot of people are seeking?
• Does your content have a unique point-of-view or voice?
• Is your content 100% original, and can’t be bought or found anywhere else?

If you answered YES to all three of these questions, congratulations, you’ve got some mighty fine linkworthy content there!

Is your SEO content spread throughout the entire site?

While everyone wants a home page that is well-optimized and rich with great content, it is important that you don’t forget about the other pages in your site.   Great SEO content development means spreading the wealth around your entire site so as to drive traffic to those pages as well.   Don’t use up all your great material on the home page.  Develop logical site architecture and support all your products, services and general information with outstanding content.

Is your SEO copy built to help you convert?

Some of the best, most relevant copy in the world is still deemed a failure because it fails to achieve the most important goal of all:  to convert sales.   Insert calls to action subtly at the end of your content, or position graphic elements around the page that make it easy for people to contact you after they’re all fired up by your amazing content.

Are you constantly developing new SEO content?

Content development is not a static, one-and-done process.  The companies that enjoy the most success in terms of their SEO content are those that continue to monitor their rankings, research new keywords and of course, develop exciting, fresh content.

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How to Increase Traffic to your Blog

1. Add images and video to your blog. Sites that contain imbedded images and multimedia are easier on the eyes and will be more compelling to your visitors.    BE VISUAL and you’ll develop a larger, more loyal following.

2. When you’ve got linkbait, make the most of it. If one of your posts gets picked up by Digg, Reddit or another major player, you have got to take advantage of that spike in traffic.  People are going to be checking you out for the next couple of days following the post so write some of your best content ever – and whatever you do, don’t miss a post during this time.  If people look at your blog as one that isn’t updated regularly they are going to move on.

3. Stay focused. As much as you dream about it, your blog simply can’t be all things to all people.  If you focus on a particular topic – and show off in your expertise in that area – you are much more likely to develop a hardcore following that translates into big time traffic.

4. Use offline tactics. It may seem a bit odd, but you would would be suprised how much traffic you can generate by including your blog’s URL in direct mail pieces, business cards, print ads and other offline matierals.

5. Engage your readers. Give your blog readership a chance to get involved and come back for more.  Create polls, design quizzes and give away free stuff.

6. Get involved with social media networks. It should seem pretty obvious by this point, but you need to give readers a chance to share your magnificent content with their friends on Digg, Reddit and other high traffic sites.   Use Feedburner to fire up the links and bring in the traffic!

7. Don’t forget your core site! This isn’t a traffic generation tip per se, but if your end-game is to get people over to your core business site, be sure and give them ample opportunities to do so with links throughout your blog and blog posts.

Your blog should be doing a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of delivering traffic to your core site.  Pay attention to the tips above and you should be swimming in visitors in no time.

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Well people, this is 2009 and it’s time for a fresh attitude when it comes to social media.  Why?  Let’s start with the most important reason:  you’re probably already behind your competitors!  An established presence on the top social media hubs is the likely reason why they’re ranking so well…and above you!

But we’re not here to wallow in the past.  Instead, let’s take a look at some measures you can inject into your marketing plan that will help you catch up – and then lap the field.

• Choose the right channels. You’ve got to make sure that your products and services are a good match for the social networking sites you choose.  If you want to reach out to tech-heads and liberals, then go with Digg.  If you want to reach people interested in personal health and fitness, go with Mixx.  The examples go on and on, but finding the best matches is a key component of success.
• Create ridiculously awesome content. We love Top 10 lists as much as the next guy, but if you want to take it to the next level, you’re going to need content that people haven’t seen before.  Work with a marketing company that has some seriously creative content developers on board and turn them loose on issues relevant to your keywords and phrases.
• Run some tests. There’s a food chain in the world of social networking sites and everyone has their place in the pecking order.  In 2009 it’s a good idea to try out new material and strategies on some of the smaller, less-trafficked sites to see how everything goes.  Once you’ve mastered the distribution and linking of information, you’ll be ready to move on to the big boys!
• Build more trust. Transparency and honesty is priority ONE for companies that want to succeed in SMM.  Don’t try and fool your potential customers and brand loyalists.  You will be exposed! Instead be consistent and offer those who take the time to get to know you great products, great offers and a life-long relationship.

Make this your year in social media marketing.  Find a great partner who understands the ins and outs of this ever-changing landscape and have at it!    There are few online marketing methods that are more cost-effective and do as good a job at building your brand online.

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It’s not an understatement to say that Google and Yahoo! are the new Yellow Pages.  Although space in the big printed book continues to demand top dollar, more people than ever now get online when they need vital information about local services and businesses.

If you’re going to reach these potential customers, it is important to start paying attention to your ranking in local search and your presence within the biggest customer review sites.

SEO with a local flavor

When someone need a plumber, they are likely to search on a keyword combination that features both their location and the type of business they are seeking.   So if you fix clogs in the City of Angeles, you should optimize your site to feature keywords such as “Los Angeles Plumber” or “LA plumbing”

While these keywords may not generate high levels of traffic individually, taken together they create a formidable amount of traffic.  And you can rest assured that those who DO use them are a very qualified lead for your business.

Keep up with your Reviews

Take the time to track down all the major review sites for your area.  Most commonly, local reviews can be found at Yelp and Google Local.  Monitor your reviews every day and do the following:

• Don’t just look at the positive ones. Positive feedback is a fine feather in anyone’s cap, but it is less-than-favorable reviews that provide real insight into how your customers view your business.
• Respond to every review. Say “thank you” to those who write up a nice mention of their experience with your company. Talk to the people who write negative reviews as well. Open up a dialogue with these people to try and find out why they are unhappy.
• Reach out to negative reviewers. Make a concerted effort to get negative reviewers to come back and give your business another chance. Create a special offer just for them. By showing that you are concerned about their customer satisfaction, everyone who sees the site will see that you are interested in providing the best levels of service.

By maintaining content with relevant geo-specific keywords and enhancing the trust level of your business through responding to customer reviews, you will be in a better position to own your target area online.  And as for the Yellow Pages…anyone need a good paperweight?

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The Most Common Myths of SEO

SEO Myth #1:  The longer the copy, the higher the rankings. Once upon a time, people believed that they had to write the article content that was twice as long as the Magna Carta in order to be effective – and that the longer it was the better.    The truth is, if you can focus on 3-4 key phrases effectively in a 500 word piece, you stand just as good a chance as producing great results.

SEO Myth #2:  SEO is “set it and forget it” marketing. With the rise of SEO, there have come many companies looking to make a quick buck and then move on to their next mark client.  But SEO is not a one-off solution to online marketing.  In order to receive high rankings, companies must examine the data and make changes on the fly.  There needs to be awareness of what is working and what is not at all times.

SEO Myth #3: Flash detracts from good SEO. The only way that flash animation can keep your SEO from succeeding is if Flash is the ONLY thing you do!  As long as there is solid, keyword-rich content on your pages, the Flash won’t keep you from getting the job done.

SEO Myth #4: Repeating the same site copy over and over helps build rankings. Nope.  In fact, duplicate content is one of the quickest ways to see your ranking fall.   You need to treat every article you create as if it was a snowflake – 100% percent unique in its own way!

SEO Myth #5: Anyone can implement an SEO strategy. Technically speaking, anyone can perform open-heart surgery, but it is usually creates messy results.  We’re not comparing SEO to major surgery, but the unique mixture of art and science make it best left in the hands of the experts.

SEO Myth #6:  It is hard to predict how well an SEO campaign will perform. It’s confusing that such a mode of thinking would exist for a marketing procedure that is driven so readaily by analytics and statistics.  Yet only recently have people begun to put faith in their reporting and predictability of certain actions.

SEO Myth #7: You only need to worry about optimizing your home page. There’s no reason to stop with just the home page!   All the pages on your site contain kick-butt content, so why wouldn’t you want people to find those as well?

SEO Myth #8: You should build your site, then develop an SEO plan. This is sheer madness!  If you want to be truly effective in your SEO efforts, then the best course of action is to design your site, your blog and your entire online presence with SEO in mind.  By optimizing everything from the get-go you won’t have to go back and re-do all your hard work.

The myths of SEO are out there, with more be adding to the legend every day.  To succeed online, your business must look beyond these myths and discover the truth behind generating traffic, leads and conversion.

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But the world keeps rolling along, and now those analytical methods that we considered cutting edge just several years ago are now being pushed aside in favor of more accuurate methodologies.

Today, we’ll say goodbye to four outdated forms of web analytics that are ready to go the way of the BetaMax and New Coke.

1. Page views. Once upon a time, having huge page view numbers made you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. The bigger the number, the better you felt. But times have change and now bigger might not necessarily mean better. If your site’s navigation is less than optimal, it may take them more page views to get where they need to be. If your user interface is perfectly optimized, visitors may only need a few page views to make their purchase and move along. There’s just no way to for sure, and that’s why we’re bidding page views a fond adieu.

2. Hit traffic. Hits were another reliable measure in the early days of web analytics. The relationship was simple, a hit could be translated as a single page request because there was always a one-on-one relationship between the data on the page and what was being reported back to the server. Now, images, videos and other forms of media all co-exist on on a single page. One visit to page may represent 30 or 40 “hits”. It’s just not the metric it used to be.

3. Exit pages. We used to look at the last page people visited before leaving the site as a means of determining what part of our UI wasn’t working properly. If people left after viewing the About Us page, the logical went, the About Us must be substandard. Now we realize that visitors arrive and depart from a site for a number of different reasons. And if they leave the site, it might not be due to the fact that things went wrong – it may be because they found exactly what they were looking for and continue on with the rest of their day.

4. Repeat Engagement. When people return to your site often, is it because you have the greatest content in the world, or because they have to take a deep breath before coming back and trying to find what they are looking for yet again? And if they come to site only once and then never return, is that because your UI was an offense to the human soul, or did they find what they were looking for effortlessly and then never need to come back? The answer to both these questions is “you don’t know” and that is why engagement is no longer the tool it once was.

The Next Generation of Web Analytics

So what are the tools we are going to use in the future to evaluate site traffic? The answer may be “none whatsoever.” Moving forward, we want to examine conversions and click density and the rate at which individuals complete tasks on the site. These are the more advanced measures of site effectiveness that will help us run and monitor our web presence more effectively.

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Instead, the most effective way to utilize a marketing budget during a down economy is by drilling down and targeting customers with greater precision and then producing highly trackable programs that allow you to change direction on a dime if needed. Currently, one would be hard-pressed to find a better way to accomplish this than SEO.

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Sure, we still have a couple of wars going on and our economy is starting to look like Pottersville in the dream sequence of It’s a Wonderful Life, but as the Obama family picks out china patterns for their new home on Pennsylvania Avenue at least we won’t have to listen to the non-stop political vitriol that has dominated the news for the past two years.

But this was indeed a historic election – and not just for the obvious reasons. This was the first time in history a presidential candidate truly marshaled the power of the web…and mobilized a huge, dedicated block of voters and more importantly, donors that understood (like the candidate and his team) that SEO and Web 2.0 can deliver a strong message with pinpoint accuracy.

What Obama Got Right

• His blog. President-elect Obama maintained a lively, informative blog – but most importantly, he updated it regularly with fresh content. In fact, some days there were dozens of entries within a 24 period hour period to drive traffic. The McCain camp, perhaps not understanding how quickly readers can bail out of a blog if there is no fresh content, could never quite keep up the pace.
• His social networking. For the past two years, Barack Obama has been nothing less than a dominating presence on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites. And we’re not talking about a handful of die-hard supports like the web-savvy backers of Ron Paul. Instead, these were everyday people who used their own profiles to share content and the feelings about the Junior Senator from Illinois.
• His localized SEO. When you entered the official Obama website, you were prompted to enter your zip code. From that point on, you receive customized alerts and emails for Obama events in your area. This localized SEO gave the entire effort a slick, yet personalized feel, that no other candidate could match in terms of sophistication.
• His fresh website content. There was never a dearth of content on any of the official Obama web properties. Every day, supporters and curious onlookers were treated to new videos of public appearances, transcripts of speeches and even budget plans presented in all their PowerPoint glory. The impression it left was one of a candidate who understood the nature of the web, and cared about the individuals who used it as a primary source of information.

How wide was the disparity between Obama’s website and McCain’s? Consider the following Alexa rankings as of election day:

• www.barackobama.com ranked #707
• www.johnmccain.com ranked #2502

While this may have more to do with Obama’s web savvy demographic, it is still a stunning number and provides further evidence of the President-Elect’s dominance in the medium,

How Obama Got Help

Looking back, there is no denying that Obama was the beneficiary of a web universe that was decidedly pro-democrat and anti-Republican. Whether people were fed up with Bush, scared of Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, or simply enthralled with Obama, the anti-McCain viral presence on the web was strong. Sites like digg.com, Huffington Post and the Daily Kos, used viral content to draw in millions of users – none of whom were treated to any kind of fair and balanced coverage when they got to the site.

Instead, they saw every gaffe, every crazed town-hall audience member and every parody video produced about McCain. The result was a groundswell of forceful and compelling content all focused negatively on the GOP. Many of these items would eventually find their way into the mainstream media where they would assist Obama even more.

Getting help from the big guns

To build his online network, Obama did not work alone, typing away friend invites to potential supporters until three in the morning. Early in his campaign, Facebook founder Chris Hughes and Craigslist found Craig Newmark both signed on to the campaign. Both saw a candidate who was willing to use the tools of Web 2.0 more completely than any other political figure to this point. They helped Obama stay ahead of the curve while riding the wave of online viral and social marketing.

What’s Next for Obama and the Web?

Already, those individuals who supported Obama online during the campaign are receiving emails about getting involved with the rebuilding of our country. President Obama is planning on using all the web tools he mastered over the past two years to build a huge grass roots movement that urges people to get more involved in the community and with their local government. Given the results of the election, there’s no reason to believe that he won’t pull it off.

By winning the election Barack Obama has blazed a trail for future candidates by proving that you can leverage social networks, raise awareness, generate donations and yes, even build a BRAND using social networking and viral marketing tools. Whether or not the next candidate to try it will have President-Elect Obama’s guile and charm remains to be seen.

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