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Posted by richardbaxterseo
Using CSS navigational elements for SEO
A simple example expanding a list of options for a user searching for flights:
Improving your navigation can have a positive impact on your site architecture. By making sure these fundamentals are covered, you can build your marketing efforts on a solid foundation knowing your website is crawlable and super-friendly to search engines. What are your favorite examples of great navigation?
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I am very excited today to be able to announce to you that at this year’s BlogWorld and New Media Expo 2010 that Chris Garrett and I will be running a full day of training – the ProBlogger Track.
In this post I want to share a little more information about what we’ll be doing in the ProBlogger track and also mention that the Early Bird Special (almost 50% off) for signing up ends 15 July. But first, let me tell you why I love BWE!
Why I love Blog World Expo
BlogWorld Expo is an event that I’ve had the privilege of attending for the last two years and for me it is the #1 event that I try to get to in the US each year. I love it because:
- Networking – thousands of bloggers and social media people in the one place opens up some amazing opportunities to build relationships and discover potential business partnerships.
- Learning – some great speakers share what they know at this event. Their expertise covers a range of topics, from design, to SEO, to monetization, to content creation, to community management. There are also a lot of social media specific topics as well as sessions for different niches. Over 200 speakers present – there’s some great stuff to learn from them!
- Not too Big but Big Enough – some other shows are so big that they become completely overwhelming. BWE is certainly big enough to attract great speakers and a large number of people to network with – but it’s not too big that you can’t find anyone. This being focused upon blogging and new media also brings it enough focus that you continually bump into people with shared interests.
- Relaxed and Friendly – my own experience of this gathering is people are very friendly, inclusive and chilled. This is not a hyped up conference, but there is a lot of fun and plenty of opportunity to interact with others (the networking parties are great in the evenings).
- Vegas – I’m not someone who could spend a lot of time in Vegas, but 3-4 days can be a lot of fun. This year BWE is moving from the convention center to Mandalay Bay which will mean that it is much more focused upon one area and hopefully more people will be staying close to each other. Less travel and more chance to interact.
What will the ProBlogger Track Cover?
Most of you should know Chris Garrett – he and I co-authored the ProBlogger Book. This will only be the 4thd time we’ve met in person and the 2nd time we’ll have run this type of thing together (we’re doing one in Melbourne in a few weeks too).
Chris and I are still finalising the exact schedule for the day but here’s what we can tell you so far:
- It will be held on Thursday 14th October. Please note this date so that you don’t just buy a pass for Friday and Saturday. There are other sessions on Thursday also which the Thursday pass will also get you access to.
- I’ve recently surveyed a segment of ProBlogger readers on the needs and challenges that they face as bloggers. We’ll be basing the sessions we run around the main needs identifies. These are ‘finding readers’, ‘making blogs profitable’ and ‘writing killer content’.
- We are hoping to mix things up a little in terms of how we teach these topics. We want each session to contain solid teaching (keynote style) but also time for practical case studies/interviews with people who know what they’re doing and some Q&A. So there will be a mix of keynotes, interviews and one panel on the day.
- Chris and I won’t be doing everything alone – we’re already pulling together a few other special guest presenters to bring their own expertise.
Also at BWE this year it looks like I’ll be involved in a number of other sessions including the usual ‘Super Panel’ that looks at monetization and another that I’m not sure I can announce quite yet.
BWE Early Bird Special Ends 15th July
If you’re coming to BWE NOW is the time to get your ticket as they are currently running an Early Bird Special that ends on 15 July. The special gets you nearly 50% off so it is well worth taking advantage of! Sign up to attend BWE here.
PS: Promote BWE as an Affiliate
If you’re a blogger with an audience that might like to also attend BWE – you can also become an affiliate for BWE (like me). They pay a 10% commission on any referrals you can bring in. With an average spend of $360 this is $36 per attendee referred. Sign up as an affiliate here.
Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.
Announcing the ‘ProBlogger Track’ at Blog World Expo 2010
Early Bird Special Ends this Week!
Over the last 18 months my blogging business has undergone a real shift in the way that I’m making money. While I first reached a six figure annual income 4-5 years ago based almost completely upon advertising revenue – in the last 18 months I’ve transitioned my business to close to a seven figure income by shifting some of my focus away from the ad game and toward launching my own products.
I’m not the only one who has done this – every week I’m seeing more and more bloggers releasing products, whether they be e-books, teaching resources, webinars, membership sites, software etc.
If you’re one of these bloggers today I have an exclusive teaching resource from product launch specialist Dave Navarro (pictured right) that I think you’ll find very helpful.
It’s a 78 minute video where Dave talks you through How to Turn Your Blog Into a Product Launch Engine.
I love the way that Dave approaches his online business. It’s all about delivering value, building a sustainable business (not just going for the fast dollar), acting with integrity (he’s very real and is not one of ‘those’ hyped marketers) and he’s very relational.
In the video Dave covers the following (and more):
- Why most products fail before they’re launched (and how to guarantee yours succeeds)
- How to stand out and get attention in a market saturated with “free” offers
- My simple 6-step process for a successful product launch – use it again and again
- How to make subscribers spread the word about your list so it grows quickly
- The one question about your customers you MUST get crystal clear on to make money
- What really makes people click the “Add to Cart” button (it’s not what you think)
Best of all – the video is based upon Dave’s insights just for ProBlogger readers – I sent him some questions that I knew readers here would find value in hearing answers about – it’s tailored for you.
In addition to the 78 minute video Dave’s also offering his four workbooks from the Launch Coach Library for free.
To get the video and workbooks all you need to do is sign up for his newsletter which I’d be recommending you do anyway as Dave’s constantly delivering insights and quality teaching.
There’s no obligation to do anything more than get the newsletter (which you can unsubscribe from any time if it’s not where you’re at).
Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.
How to Turn Your Blog Into a Product Launch Engine
[Free 78 Minute Video Plus 4 Free Workbooks]
Posted by chenry
Analytics is one of those things that hasn’t always been at the top of my priority list until recently. Google Analytics has many features I’ve never used before because I haven’t had the time to sit down and really investigate what they can do for me and my clients. A few months ago, in one of my late night GA adventures, I found a section on event tracking, a small love soon formed.
The Setup
- category (required)
The name you supply for the group of objects you want to track. - action (required)
A string that is uniquely paired with each category, and commonly used to define the type of user interaction for the web object. - label (optional)
An optional string to provide additional dimensions to the event data.
Example: seomoz.org
Other Uses for Event Tracking
I asked this question over on Twitter on the weekend and it was fascinating to hear the answers and see some of the thinking behind what different people do.
I thought I’d run it as a poll and open it up for some wider discussion here on the blog.
I’d love to get your comments on this topic. Why do you do the number of tweets that you do? Why don’t you do more/less? Do you use any tolls/automation to manage it – if so which ones?
Here’s some of the responses to my tweet asking the question:
“I only tweet a link to it once. I’ll tweet a second time if theres something interesting in the comment section.” – JadeCraven
“One. Sometimes two. Three if it really rocks. But I post daily and don’t want my Twitter to be an endless ME ME ME feed.” – CatherineCaine
“I tweet my new blog posts only once…to me, more is spammy, even tho I know not everyone will see it the 1st time…” – QuipsAndTips
“I always tweet a link straight after I post.Then maybe the next day depending on the post time, for those who may have missed it” – CptTremendous
“I space it out over days/times. Maybe btw 5-8 over a weeks time.” – MyMelange
“I usually retweet about three times, one in a.m., one in afternoon, one at night. Covers time zones.” – docudramaqueen
“Depends on importance and global relevance. If really important to me & relevant also to US audience, I may tweet twice in Aus..” – divinewrite
“Once. More than once is spam and makes followers unfollow and complain.” – Shuttlecock
See a full list of the responses to my original tweet here.
Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.
How Many Times Do You Tweet Links to New Blog Posts? [POLL]
Posted by great scott!
Earlier this week Facebook announced its ‘Open Graph’ at F8. There was all sorts of hubbub (much of it the bye-product of well-orchestrated buzz) about Facebook finally making strides to kill Google’s dominance of the web. So should you hangup your white hat, your black hat, your grey hat, and trade it all in for a blue hat? Much as we love Facebook, the answer, dear reader, is no: SEO is not dead.
Watch this week’s video to hear Rand’s take on how Facebook’s ‘Open Graph’ will impact web marketing and all the ways it won’t. There are all sorts of opportunities that will likely emerge out of this new technology, so you should pay attention. So go ahead and keep an eye out for a nice fitting blue hat in the near future, but don’t plan to throw away your white hat anytime soon.
The sticker we received
Data Visualization Techniques
03/15/10
Posted by willcritchlow
Rob and Duncan are currently in Seattle, with this week full of interviews of SEO consultants for our US office. Since the announcement in February, we have been working flat out with a bunch of new clients and dealing endlessly with the US immigration service. With people on the ground, I guess we’re now officially participating in the American dream, so to celebrate I’m going to spell Visualization with a z throughout this post. I can’t guarantee full American spelling for everything I’m afraid – muscle memory is a powerful thing.
Anyone who has heard me speak will know about my love of data. Heck, I’ve even given talks on Excel ninjas. However, this post isn’t so much about the data (and that’s the last mention of Excel, I promise). This post is about the visualization.
I expect that everyone in SEO has spent at least some time recently thinking about data visualization techniques. They are great ways for content and data sites to get links and branding benefit and are also loads of fun. Tom’s resource for information visualization and infographics is a great place to start if you don’t really know what I’m talking about.
Last week, I was approached by the FT to pull together some data for them about the use of the web (and social media in particular) across the UK’s political parties as we approach the election. As I started thinking about how I wanted to shape this, I realised that I wanted to produce a visualization for the web as well and that the process I was using might be interesting to you guys. Hence, my top tips for data visualizations with bits and pieces of real world examples:
7 Data Visualization Secrets
1. Gather data (intelligently)
Over the weekend, I had a bit of a think about what kind of data I wanted to be able to visualize. Thinking about Twitter, for example, I wanted to know things like the most influential (and least influential) Twitterers in each party, who was doing things really well and who was making a pig’s ear of it, who could I compare unfavourably to some comedy joke accounts and how did the best of them compare to the Prime Minister’s wife’s pretty impressive performance.
In order to answer any of these questions, I needed data, and lots of it. Obviously, had I been working on this on a weekday, I’d have looked around for the newest recruit in the Distilled office and asked for the data on my desk by the end of the day. Without that option at the weekend, I fired up Mozenda to grab Twittering MPS, their grader ranks, retweetranks, and tweetranks along with follower counts, number of tweets and profile information. It took me about half an hour to gather all this information!
Tip #1: use tools like Mozenda to mash up your own data with multiple sources of public data to get unique insights.
If you haven’t played with Mozenda yet, I highly recommend it – with a simple user interface for creating robust crawlers, it’s a superb tool for any SEO.
2. Delegate additional research
There are some things that even the best scraping engine in the world can’t gather for you. For example, I wanted to cross-reference the data I’d gathered against the cabinet and shadow cabinet. Only a human can do this reliably. For this, I recommend using a virtual assistant service for cheap data gathering (I use timesvr – in the US, you could use mechanical turk for this kind of thing).
I discovered an awesome service the other day – Smartsheet integrates with Google Apps and has an integration with Mechanical Turk that enables you to easily populate tabular spreadsheet data using cheap human resource. Unbelievably useful and powerful.
3. Use great design
I’m not a designer. My design sense is about as well-tuned as my singing. I think this makes me appreciate the importance and value of design even more. Since I’m not the expert here, I’m just going to tell you what works for me when getting other people to make things look pretty:
- Wireframes are your friend: although I hate paper for almost everything, I used to always sketch ideas on paper. Recently I have been a late convert to the power of drawing wireframes on the computer. I am, however, definitely sold. Choose your weapon of choice – I’m currently liking MockingBird but have also seen cool stuff from (Balsamiq, gliffy, Pencil (a Firefox plugin – thanks Simon Lilly) and Mockflow)..
- Pay attention to the users of your data: carefully consider the width, colour scheme and any associated links in the embed code to make the most of embedding opportunities
- Get professionals involved early: don’t lock your limited-design-skills-self in a darkened room only to emerge with something that even a pro couldn’t make look pretty. When you’re at the wireframe / outline stage, show what you have to a designer and get feedback before kicking off the final data collection and design phases
- Brief as well as possible: provide a few examples of the style you are looking for and visual elements you particularly like. Include comments about anything you don’t like in the examples you provide. Try not to be that guy who says I just don’t like it – can’t quite put my finger on why…
The example wireframe that follows is for entertainment only. Any relationship to real infographics real or imagined is coincidental:
If you are including graph-based data, choose your charts carefully (tip: pie charts are often bad). I found this neat flow-chart for choosing what style of graph to use the other day – from Advanced Presentations by Design by Andrew Abela:
4. Consider interactivity for widgets
Any time you are working with data online, you have opportunities to provide your users with interactivity. Sometimes, static infographics are plenty enough to get links and sometimes you will get significantly more if you are providing a widget that allows people to offer their visitors interesting functionality.
You don’t always have to build this yourself. We recently started working with Tableau Software whose business intelligence software has a kick-ass free, public version that is really cool for just dropping in data and creating widgets for embedding. Here’s a subset of the UK politicians on Twitter data:
Sheet 1 
5. Quirky is at least as important as correct
You all read the internet. You know the power of random facts, cute animals, in-jokes and comedy references. It’s generally not enough to present just the raw facts – interesting comparisons and strong imagery improve the shareability of any piece. We are all wired to remember (and therefore to repeat) comparisons better than plain numbers.
I’m still working on which elements of my infographic might make for quirky comparisons. For example, did you know that an Oscar is the same height as an adult pygmy marmoset monkey? From a client’s recent Oscars infographic:
Source: LocateTV
6. Know who your targets are
Finishing on a couple of strong SEO points, if your goals are improved rankings, you are doing this primarily for links (and if you are doing it for branding purposes, the sharing is critical). So you need to know who your targets are and find a way to reach them. If your target market happens to overlap with Reddit, StumbleUpon etc. then they are obviously going to be great, but don’t forget to drop people in your niche a line as well.
Bonus tip: don’t forget the infographic fans.
7. Provide the embed code (with a link)
You want to provide the embed code for two reasons:
- to make it easy for non-tech-savvy bloggers to share your content
- to make sure (as far as possible) that you get a link out of it
If you can style and include the link in a relevant way (especially if it links to more data or more information) you increase the chance that the people embedding your content will embed the link along with it. If you want to go even further, you could provide your graphic under a Creative Commons Attribution license.
Please keep the comments for discussions of techniques and ideas, not for politics. Any political comments included above are for amusement only and may or may not reflect the political views of the author, or anyone else.
Technorati Tags
data, visualization, graphics, infographics
Let’s Meet at SXSWi!
03/11/10
As this post goes live I’ll be in the process of arriving at SXSW Interactive in Austin Texas.
I was fortunate enough to at SXSWi two years back and it was one of the best conference experiences that I’ve had – so I’ve made it a priority this year to return.
My schedule is pretty open. The main thing that I’ll be doing is a book reading this Friday night. I’ll be talking about some of what Chris and I have included in the 2nd edition of the ProBlogger book (due out next month).
The book reading is on at 5pm, Friday 12 March on the Day Stage. I hope you’ll come!
For those of you involved in the Third Tribe there is a drinks/meetup the next evening (on Saturday 13th from about 5.30pm) at a bar called ‘Lovejoys’ at 604 Neches Street (2 blocks north of the convention center).
Note: I originally thought that my reading was on Saturday and we’d do one after the other…. but I messed up the time so the book reading is Friday and the Drinks/Meetup is Saturday. Sorry for the messing around 3rd Tribers.
Other than that I’ve got a pretty open few days and am looking forward to checking out a few panels and keynotes and doing as much networking as possible. If you’re at SXSWi I’d love to meet you – feel free to come up and say hi any time!
Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.
Over on Twitter last week @JapanNewbie asked me about how to get people viewing old posts on your blog once they drop off the front page. In this video I tackle the question with 5 suggestions including using:
- Best of Sections
- Autoresponders
- Related Links
- Best of Posts
- Repost Old Content
I’d love to hear your suggestions on how you drive people back to your older blog posts?
Related Reading:
- Updating Old Posts on Your Blog – how and why.
- Interlink Your Old Blog posts
Watch this video at full size on Youtube at How to Get People to Read Your Old Posts.
Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.
5 Tips for Getting Readers Viewing Your Old Blog Posts
A Guest Post by Charlie Gilkey from Productive Flourishing.
No matter how big their blog is, every blogger loves and wants comments. When you’re just starting out, there are few bigger thrills than writing something and having people comment and give you feedback about what you’ve written. Veteran bloggers love comments and also know that the quantity and quality of the comments says a lot about the impact of the particular post in question.
But sometimes you write something that you think is awesome and the comment thread is like a ghost town. To say that this is discouraging is to put it too lightly. Not only does it suck, but it’s enough to make you start thinking that your writing sucks, and it makes it really hard to hit write and hit publish the next time, too.
Here’s the deal, though: just because you’re not getting a lot of comments doesn’t mean that your posts suck. Here are eight reasons why you might not be getting comments – and what you can do about it.
1. Your Posts Are Too Long
While it’s hard to say that long post always get fewer comments – there are a lot of different considerations at play – as a general rule, longer posts set a bigger barrier to commenting. I write a lot of long posts, and I’ve seen this bear out time and time again.
There are two things to keep in mind when you’re writing longer posts: 1) most blog posts are short(er) and 2) your readers are busy. If they’re used to reading 500 word posts on other blogs and then hit your 3,000 word post, they’re might be a bit overwhelmed. It’s not uncommon for them to bookmark your post for reading “when they have time” and move on to the next, shorter post, only to forget to come back and read yours. (For more considerations on blog length, check out Post Length ‚Äì How Long Should a Blog Post Be?)
Some bloggers manage to thrive in the long post format, but you’ve got to understand that you’ll be going against the current if you write in that style. That’s not a bad thing – just understand that you might not get as many comments as if you wrote shorter posts.
Once your post is published, it’s probably best to leave it, though. In the future, see if you can take a long draft of a post and split it into a series or discrete post. Also try varying the tempo of your blog by following a long post with a short post and vice versa.
2. You Haven’t Asked Them to Comment
Sometimes a post just ends and it’s not clear to your readers whether you actually want a response. Because they don’t know whether you want a response or not, they might not comment.
Furthermore, if you don’t answer comments at all or regularly enough, it sends the message that you don’t really value comments. Larger blogs get a pass on this one, since many people understand that bloggers with larger audiences can’t answer every response.
When you conclude a post, ask your readers what they think or end it with a question that makes it clear that you’d like a comment. If you haven’t been responding to comments on your blog, start doing so.
3. They Don’t Know What To Say
Have you ever read a post and were so inspired that you felt that anything you might say wouldn’t do the post service, but at the same time didn’t want to say “Great post!”? Or have you read a post that was so deep or complex that you honestly didn’t know how to respond?
I’m sure you have. Now, why don’t you think that can happen with your own posts?
Before you write off a lack of comments as a sign of your utter brilliance, though, check your post to see if you wrote clearly and simply. Ask if what you wrote was relevant, useful, or interesting to your readers>. And if it is a bit of inspirational awesomeness, consider editing it and including a question or statement that lets people know that you’d appreciate some feedback.
4. They’re Doing What You Told Them To Do
If you give your readers a great tip that requires them to do something to implement it, be prepared for the possibility that they might actually go implement it.
Similarly, if you’re doing a link roll-up and you tell people to go check out the links you’re talking about, there’s a good chance that they might go do that.
I know that this is obvious in hindsight, but it’s easy to forget that our words can influence people into action, and it’s possible to unintentionally steer people away from commenting.
5. They’re Chasing Links On Your Blog
Writing posts that include links to older posts or using plugins that show related posts do have an effect on the number of comments you’ll get. If they click a link that’s midway in your post, they’ll probably read the second post before they comment on the first, and if that second post is linked to others, they might just keep clicking.
It’s for this very reason that you don’t find many links on a sales or landing page, and if you do find them, they eventually lead back to the original page. Marketers know that people will click on the links, and if those links lead away from the original page, that’s probably a lost sale.
While it’s not exactly an exclusive either/or choice, think about the relationship between how long people stay on your blog (due to interlinking) and comments. If you write compelling headlines, there’s a good chance that those related post plugins have an effect on the number of comments you’re getting. Change your linking strategy or consider turning those plugins off a bit if you’d like to see if they’re making a difference.
6. They’re Following Your Social Media Trail
This is very similar to the last two points, but if you’ve given your readers a bunch of different ways to connect with you, then that’s another thing that might keep people from commenting.
Think about how many times you’ve clicked to follow someone on Facebook only to get lost in a chat on Facebook, or how many times you’ve followed someone on Twitter only to get engaged in conversations there. The same thing goes for badges and links that send people to blog networks.
If you’d prefer more comments than social media connections, consider placing your social media links further down the page or only keeping the ones where you’re active.
While you’re at it, it’s probably a good time to declutter your sidebar.
7. It’s Hard For Them To Comment
I ran into this one the other day. I wanted to reply to a friend’s blog that was hosted on Blogger and found myself frustrated that I couldn’t just leave a comment like I can on other websites. It gave me five or six different options – none of which I use – and, ten minutes later, I finally went with the “best fit” option just so that I could comment. If she weren’t my friend, I probably would’ve given up.
Some of the other comment implementations like Disqus can also set a barrier to comment. I’ve often bailed on those, too, because I didn’t remember my OpenID and didn’t feel like figuring it out. (Luckily, they’ve improved substantially over the last year.)
The harder your readers have to work to comment, the less likely that they’ll do it. Think long and hard about all the comment plugins you might want to implement – and remember that sometimes the best solution is the simplest one.
8. You’re Posting At The Wrong Time
If you post when all your readers are asleep, then the soonest they’ll comment is the next day, but then your post is in with a bunch of others in an RSS feed. Likewise, if you post after the time that your email subscribers get their daily email, the soonest many of them will read what post is the next day when they get that hit.
Figure out when your readers are active and try to publish when they’re reading posts. This takes a bit of homework and observation on your part, but it makes a huge difference in terms of the number of comments you’ll get on your post.
There’s More To Comments Than Content
What you may have noticed is that the first five of these points have to do with the content of your individual posts and the last three don’t have anything to do with your posts. It’s hard to say what would have the biggest effect since each of our blogs are different, so take a look at your post and blog from your reader’s point of view, pick one that you’d like to tweak, and see if it has any effect. (By far the easiest place to start is by changing your comment plugin/solution, though.)
As you can see, there are a lot of different reasons that people might not be leaving comments on your blog, and many of them have nothing to do with you or your posts being unworthy. Keep writing and testing what works – that’s the only way you can become a better writer and grow your blog.
About the Author: Charlie Gilkey writes about meaningful action, creativity, and entrepreneurship at Productive Flourishing. Follow him on Twitter to get bite-sized slices of mojo.
Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.
8 Reasons You Might Not Be Getting Many Comments