Quick Thoughts on SEO

Note: tumblr publishing is down right now but normally I blog at mhandy1.tumbr.com

The goal, for many companies, for a long time has been hitting the #1 position on major search engines. A "science" called SEO was invented to game (both ethically and questionable aka white hat/black hat) the results. Things like Link-building, keyword set, and Meta tags are now buzz words.

I have a somewhat controversial thought about all of this...

SEO isn't as important today as it was a year ago and in a year from now it will matter less.

Google is trying to humanize search, that is what Google Buzz (#fail) and Google +1 are all about. The idea is that great content will be voted up and not so great content will be voted down. Variable data will be a major key to success in SEO going forward. In short content is more important now than now than a year ago, and relationships are even more important.

If your not with me, here is the kicker... Semantic Search. Semantic search is a complicated concept but basically it gives you content based on thematic cues. Semantic search can "read" the content of a site and come up with contextual results that cover several different modalities (youtube, flickr, blogs, websites, product pages, etc.).

I would venture to say within the next 3 years Google will be 80% semantic based. Meaning adding meta tags, building links wont matter as much. It is going to be all about content.

How does this effect community managers?

• Content should be developed with strategic keywords in mind; this will help semantic rankings as search engines change

• Relationships will effect your search engine rankings, no is the time to develop them and get your fans to vote.

• Hitting page 1 of Google shouldn't be your goal... content that spreads should be. Over the long haul content that spreads will = Page 1 (possibly position 1 for Google)

Last point about search and leads...Every brand concerned about being #1 on Google should ask themselves, "what type of leads search is producing?"... Search is not always a good fit for business objectives...

What do you think?

The future of this blog...

Many of you know that I started using tumblr... the future of this blog has been a question for me and I think I now have the answer for this...

Tumblr is like a my guided tour of the web/ thoughts as I go about my day...

This blog is going to be a hub for the work I think deserves a longer life span. Once a month I will grab my tumblr feed and set up reposts of the best posts. This blog is slower moving and can be more powerful as a result...

Consider this blog... Marketing Handy.. the greatest hits!

New strategy starts in December!!!

Tumblr... Follow me

Tumblr is going to quickly become my middle ground between this blog and twitter. Personally I am loving it the speed and simplicity of the blog is awesome... I have 66 posts up there already if you want to check it out find me at

Marketing Handy's Tumblr AKA mhandy1's Tumblr

I will post more than 365 posts but most of them are going to be there. Its pretty much my thoughts on stories I see around the web. I will often post a picture with commentary on my take. Some posts will find there way over here... but that is going to be my primary real estate going forward!

Tumblr is about to blow up!

If you don't use tumblr you may want to start... I will be reposting this content there (mhandy1.tumblr.com )... Tumblr has grown leaps and bounds over the last 5 months. It has an avid user base, simple tools that help your blog go viral and the relational component of twitter. (Oh did I mention free hosting for custom URL's?) The Stats from Quantcast are pretty telling...

The growth is not in the 200 million user range of twitter. However growth is significant and solid. Global growth is strong and it seems that growth has turned a corner in the US... Now is the time to learn the ins and outs of this network, before you are late to the party. The Social network has been around a while but it is on the verge of blowing up, and let me show you why...

The network is pre-college students and most are getting ready to start sharing more substantive insights. Ignore what the data says for a moment about age... I know the network is a key demo because of 2 pieces of data...

#1: 18-34 is a large age range but we can parse this down to the young end of the spectrum based on other demographic stats *Wages and no college. The site indexes high for low wage/ no college, only up in coming Social networks tend to do this.

#2 No Kids indexes really really high... this suggest that the network is under 27 . Kids generally come into the picture around 25 to 27. The youth of the network paired with no kids indicates a college mindset. If this is your demo this is your time!

Within 2 years tumblr should be one of the fastest growing digital properties on the web.

Marketing Handy Episode #4 Geo-location

If you are doing a direct mail campaign stop it do this instead!
http://foursquare.com/businesses/ http://www.facebook.com/places/

Also support Movember by clicking http://us.movember.com/mospace/897444/

The State of Video Blogging

As someone that just started video blogging I found this infographic really interesting. There are a ton of reasons why this matter for business.

1: Video is going to be one of the top web activities with in the next 3 years
2: Any brand can make interesting videos..
3: Be ready... Video is big now but its going to get much much bigger... video probably becomes the only Universal medium on the web...

Why?

If you are reading this please answer of these questions in the comment section below...

Why do you click a link?

What content are you interested in?

What content would you like to see covered in blogs?

What is your passion?

Thanks

Mike