Posted by randfish

I’m not always a fan of Guy Kawasaki’s work, but really enjoyed his post on the OPEN Forum – A Dozen Don’ts for Entrepreneurs. I thought I’d take a stab at replicating it with some of my biggest warnings for those in our field.

For the list below, the word "clients" is interchangeable with "marketing manager" or "executive team" for in-house SEOs.

1. Don’t Create False Expectations
   Clients are just like everyone else – when you exceed their expectations, they love you. When you disappoint, they’re angry. Make it easy for yourself and don’t oversell. If anything, undersell your abilities to do great things and let them be surprised. It’s a hard thing to do, particularly in a competitive bidding environment, but humility and hard work often shine through in presentations and good clients will see that and honor it.
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2. Don’t Ignore Analytics
   Website analytics, both visitor traffic and third party metrics, are important parts of SEO. When things are going well, even if best practices aren’t being followed, it can be wise to match up data and trends to see what’s made a real difference. Don’t undertake an SEO project unless you have at least the essential data points (this also comes in handy once changes have been implemented and your work starts to have an impact).
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3. Don’t Always Take Your Client at Their Word
   If you talk to lots of clients, you’ll find that none of them have ever spammed the engines, bought a link, accidentally cloaked for Googlebot or hidden text, yet the statististics tell another story. Never assume your clients are being dishonest, but always watch out for activities they might not be aware of (or might not have realized were problematic). This goes beyond just white and black hat – we had a client who thought they had a couple dozen active domains; turns out they had nearly a hundred – canonicalization alone has been a big project and a big return.
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4. Don’t Get Into Projects with People You Don’t Like
   If ever you get a "funny feeling" about a client, move on if you can possibly afford it. Some people just don’t click together, and when interpersonal relationships aren’t working, projects have a way of not working out, either. It’s always better to get out before something’s signed than after.
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5. Don’t Give an Unqualified Answer Unless You’re Extremely Certain You’re Right
   If you’ve been reading SEOmoz lately or hearing me speak at conferences, you’ll notice that my advice comes with a lot more caveats than it used to. It’s been a tough lesson, but there’s very rarely a "this is ALWAYS better than that" in the field of SEO. Exceptions abound, so cage your language accordingly.
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6. Don’t Confuse SEO & Sales
   If your client comes to you wanting to drive sales with SEO, make sure they’re keenly aware of the multiple responsiblities inherent in such a request. Yes – SEO can drive lots of high quality, targeted traffic at the perfect moment for capturing the sale. But NO – SEO cannot convert that visit into dollars. If the website sucks at turning visitors into leads, do the right thing and recommend CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) before they dive into SEO.
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7. Don’t Rest on Your Laurels
   If you’re not paying attention in the SEO world, even for just a few weeks, you can miss massive changes. Look at June! We’ve had a reversal of position on nofollow and Javascript links from Google, a new engine/algorithm/brand from Microsoft, adoption of rich text formatting in the SERPs, evidence that header tags may not be as valuable as we thought and data suggesting that alt attributes are highly correlated with good rankings. Stay ahead of the curve and devote some resources to industry news – you owe it to your clients and yourselves.
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8. Don’t Undervalue Your Work
   SEO is hard work. For every consulting hour, there’s days of research, testing, reading, surfing and experimenting. Don’t undersell your services or accept that what you do doesn’t provide tremendous value. If you’re being undervalued now, consider how terrificly trackable SEO really is and show them the data. It’s almost always on your side.
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9. Don’t Believe Everything You Read
   Yes, even here at SEOmoz! We certainly try our best to provide high quality, accurate information, as do many other great sites on SEO, but no one is right 100% of the time, and, more importantly, not every piece of advice is applicable for every business or every situation.
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10. Don’t Underestimate Dev Contributions
    I was recently asked "what’s the biggest roadblock to SEO," and didn’t need to think for 10 seconds before quoting Mr. Ballmer’s infamous adage "Developers! Developers! Developers!" If you get bandwidth cycles for SEO projects, use them wisely. If the developers have made critical SEO errors, don’t be quick to criticize – you’ll make enemies, and, oftentimes, be guilty of hypocrisy. Stay humble, prioritize the big pieces and make sure you have the resources before you commit to improving traffic.
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11. Don’t Overstate Your Influence or Abilities
    Just because you have the ear of some important minds at Google/Yahoo!/Facebook/etc. doesn’t mean you can influence change within these large organizations. I’ve heard a lot of stories from companies that worked with SEOs of how they promised to get their penalty lifted or special treatment from an engine because they got a response to an email they sent to a search engineer. Perhaps an even better rule is – don’t promise something you can’t personally control and deliver.
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12. Don’t Get Overconfident and Dismiss Other Marketing Channels
    OK, yes – SEO rocks. But don’t forget how valuable other marketing activities like email, PPC, CRO, affiliate programs, even display advertising can be for the right scenario. Once you’ve found the SEO hammer, it’s easy to see every problem as a nail – I’ve certainly been guilty of it. If you can resist, think holistically and provide the best answer from a strategic (rather than tactical) level, you’ll become even better and more valuable to your clients.

Your turn – any "don’ts" you’d recommend to fellow SEOs?

p.s. If you haven’t read the whole Malcolm Gladwell vs. Chris Anderson with Seth Godin weighing in thing, it’s pretty worthwhile

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Posted by randfish

This past week, as Sarah, Adam, Jeff and I left the office for our Tuesday lunch meeting, they asked me how the Iceland conference went. I believe my exact words were "It was the most fun I’ve had since my wedding." The more I reflect on the experience, the truer it is.

I arrived in Keflavik airport at 6:15am last Thursday morning. I walked outside to take the bus to Reykjavik and was promptly greeted by a frozen wind flinging rain that stung like pebbles against my cheeks. The landscape seemed utterly barren – almost like another planet. As the sun came up while we drove into the city, a violent seascape and miles of mossy, green rocks filled the horizon. I’ve traveled to a lot of places, but never seen anything like it.

At our hotel – Arnarhvoll – in the center of Reykjavik, Pauline Ores, IBM’s senior marketing manager for social media, offered to take me along as she and her daughter Lea explored the Icelandic countryside. Despite being up for 24 hours straight, I knew I needed to power through the day or I’d never get on the right schedule.

A bit punch drunk, I photograph the landscape outside Reykjavik from the car window

We visited geysers, including Geysir, the original spout from which the English word was adopted. We saw a massive waterfall – the giant Gullfoss, and got caught in a foggy snowstorm that gave us less than 20m of visibility on the road. 

The mighty Gullfoss waterfall pushed freezing cold wind & spray onto the overlook

Near the original geyser, "Geysir"; it smells of rotten eggs (from the sulfur)

On our return, we were whisked out to dinner by Kristjan Már Hauksson, the director of Nordic E-Marketing and founder of the RIMC.

The conference itself was exceptional, particularly given the short program and great distance speakers needed to travel. Kristjan managed to pull together some amazing talent, and after experiencing Iceland for myself, it’s easy to see why – everyone should want an excuse to go. Some interesting bits from the conference itself included:

• Sion Portman, Nike’s European marketing manager, had some phenomenal slides about the branding power of their advertisements, particularly leveraging UGC – and user-driven campaigns like Wayne Rooney’s Nutmegging
• Mark Killingley, NFL Europe’s director of online marketing, shared an equally fascinating success around advertisements the NFL built for their Fantasy Football programs – "Pick Me" (note the millions of views). Again, the unexpected virality of it has made them into a use-generated success – so much so that players who weren’t featured are filming and submitting their own clips for the campaign
• During a site clinic, Adam Lasnik revealed a site issue I was sure Google had solved. Anne Kennedy called attention to an Icelandic optician website’s lack of canonicalizing the non-www and www versions. Adam noted that via his tools, he could see that Google was not automatically canonicalizing these two (although they were virtually identical; a slightly older version was on the non-www), and thus they were losing out on link juice and rankings. It was a great reminder to 301 to a canonical version!

However, this show wasn’t just about the content, and in fact, since it was mostly a beginner-level conference, I’ll instead share the experience visually. These photos can’t nearly do the trip justice, but it’s far better than the thousands of words I’d need to describe RIMC and Kristjan’s incredible "Day Money Can’t Buy" the Saturday following the show.

I get a little excited during the morning keynote on how to derive value from multiple Internet marketing channels

Kristjan, Ingvar, Andy, Adam & me on the "Meet the Search Engines" Panel

The crowd listens intently during a presentation

 
Kristjan attempts an American Football toss at a party thrown that evening at the Nordic eMarketing offices (thankfully, he didn’t break any of the large monitors in the room)

Kristjan’s stunningly beautiful wife, a professional singer, serenaded the crowd at the Nordic eMarketing party

The dinners, the conference, the party – these were not all Kristjan had in store. For weeks leading up to RIMC, we’d been receiving emails about the "Day Money Can’t Buy." It started early – 8am for breakfast, then downstairs, set in cold-weather hiking gear for a day adventuring around Iceland’s natural beauty in massive jeeps.

Haraldur Friðgeirsson (Halli) was our driver, and he gave Geraldine, Anne Kennedy & a day we’ll never forget.

When Halli, our driver, handed me a beer in the car at 11am, I thought he was kidding, but when in Iceland…

While our guides forded the rivers, we crossed via a rickety bridge in the background 

The glacier Eyjafjallajökull covers a volcano (and we had front row seats)

Apparently, we should have eaten a lighter breakfast (note the bridge bending down)

Amazing shards of glacier ice from Eyjafjallajökull

In the volcanic valley, Þórsmörk, nestled between two Icelandic glaciers, we took an hour hike to the top of a tall overlook

After the hike, our hosts prepared a traditional Icelandic BBQ – hot dogs & hamburgers!

Left to Right: Pauline, Lia, Katya, Patricia, Gisli, Andy, Ashley, Richard, Oli, Dan, Paul, Mel, Siôn, Alex, Matt, Geraldine, Rand, Adam, Mark, Ben & Dixon at Þórsmörk

Next, we visited the grand waterfall, Seljalandsfoss, where an indented cave allows you to "walk behind the falls"

Geraldine & I get soaked behind Seljalandsfoss

 
To celebrate life, we drink Icelandic "Black Death" before heading back to Reykjavik

A dramatic snowstorm gives way to sunshine – nearly the first we’d seen on our visit – as we drive back

When we reached the hotel, we had two hours before the relaxing ended and a night on the town began. First, dinner at a traditional Icelandic restaurants, where we dined on fish salad, tender Icelandic lamb and skyr – a sort of dessert-like yogurt. After dinner, drinks were served and Kristjan thanked us for coming & broke into song.

 
Oli & Kristjan sing a traditional Icelandic folk song as we sip armagnac after the conclusion of dinner

Dixon & Mel follow up the Icelanders with a song to defend England’s honor

Tragically, I have no photo evidence of what followed – the Americans were asked to contribute our own piece. Anne looked at Adam; they looked at Geraldine and me… We panicked, briefly, until Anne stood up and belted out Janis Joplin’s classic, Mercedes Benz. The entire room joined in – it was magical. On the plane flight, we talked about the experience and Geraldine said, "I want to be Anne Kennedy."

From dinner, we went downstairs to the touristy, but fun ice bar, where more Brennivin awaited.

I hoist up my wife for a photo in the glacier-carved ice bar

 
Finally, we ended the night in an Icelandic disco, where Richard Chinn had been invited to DJ. We made it back to the hotel at 1:30am, but heard that many were out until 5am the next morning.

Looking back over this photoset, I’m reminded not just how lucky I am, but how lucky we all are to be in the search marketing industry, where relentless spirit, goodwill and hospitality shine, even in the harshest of climates and even in the darkest of times. Our thanks go out to Kristjan, Halli, Oli, Gisli and the entire Nordic eMarketing crew. I only wish we could repay the favor in kind.

BTW – Next year’s RIMC should be equally exciting, and if you live in Boston or New York, the flight is only 4.5 hours (shorter than coming to the West coast)!

p.s. Expect blogging from me to be very slow this week, as I’m leaving tomorrow to keynote Australia’s SMX Sydney conference on the subject of SEO for the CEO. From one side of the globe to completely the other!

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