Cornwall SEO

Content Marketing Blog

Social media marketing

SEO Keyword Research using Google Insight

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Update: I didn’t think to check that the information presented was going to be live and so what I talk about in the post does not now reflect the data. DOH! Obviously I should have taken a screen shot and done it that way. But the points are still valid, it’s just the data set has changed on me.

Interesting to see seomoz as a breakout keyword. I would have thought they were riding too high to breakout, possibly recent press has sent a new bunch of people to search

Dannyseo

At first I thought, Danny Sullivan but no. This guy is called Danny Seo and is a Environmental lifestyle expert, sigh! He’s the kind of guy that makes me want to go out and burn tires in my garden.
Looks like he does a lot of TV and print, hence the boost in the search data. He also seems to smile a lot, maybe the new algo has a happy clappy quotient.

SEO Woo

This is interesting as I have chosen the search to be USA centric, this is a Korean of some sort. What I am realising here is “Seo” must be a Korean name and so when someone of that name gets famous they start ranking for “seo”

Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

Guess what, Seo Hyun is another female star of some sort and so is Hee Kyung Seo.

A quick search in US Google of SEO, only reveals our friends in the search optimization industry and no Korean stars, which is not surprising. But what we have uncovered here is a little nugget of information. How valuable is that nugget? Don’t know, but one semantic occurance, that of a Korean name popped up three times in the break out data.

What I find with this kind of knowledge, is that there is someone, somwhere who will put this to use to their advantage. 99% of people will probably be “so what”? But then 99% of people fail. It’s those who can take a piece of information and meld it to their own use, whilst no one else knows about it.

Lets turn our attention to top searches related to SEO

First thing you notice is “google seo”, twice the amount of searches than the second in the list. More searches than “how to seo” or even “seo website”.

What this tells me is like it or loathe it, Google is the web. Lets not get into that right now. Using “google” as a keyword seems an obvious choice for an seo site to optimise for. I would never use “google” as a keyword search term when loooking for info, but I am neck deep in search knowledge and so may not reflect the ordinary person.

This is an important point. When trying to figure out what ordinary people are searching for, try to search like an ordinary person.

Using a brand in your long tail is a no brainer, using the brand of Google within keyword phrases with the root of “seo” is essential.

Some may like to point out that the optimisation for this site is terrible, and it’s true, I’ve never bothered with SERPS traffic, I get my conversions in other ways, but that’s another story. I just wanted you to know why I am suggesting it but not bothering myself.

If you are in the SEO business and aggresively targetting the keyword you probably already know all this.

WordPress pops up two times, once by itself. What’s that about? Why would google say that someone searching for “wordpress” is an seo related search? Possibly Google is factoring in other metrics, such as where the searcher came from, what are they doing, what were their previous searches and so on.

The important thing is to realise that “wordpress” is within the semantic gaze of seo.

All interesting stuff, it’s fascinating what you can learn from mining data and seeing where it leads. Hope this has been educational, it certainly has for me.

Social Media Myth No. 1 "It's about the conversation"

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“Social media is all about the conversation”, I think that phrase started to rankle me around last July and I couldn’t figure out why.

It’s something I have taught people in my training class for years, so it’s not like I haven’t agreed with it. Blog – people comment – you reply – they blog – you reply, blah blah blah, yada yada yada.

Also with twitter, you tweet, they tweet, we all tweet.

And round it goes.

But it may be that the thinking is wrong. After all, the objective is not to have a conversation, the objective is something else, be it:

  • Links
  • Exposure
  • Sales
  • Branding

The objective is not the conversation, that is merely a stepping stone and yes it is an important and useful stepping stone, but it is not the objective.

I realise this may get me kicked out of the Secret Social Media Marketing Society, but social media marketing is not about conversation, it’s about getting people to do what you want.

This guy, Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli…

Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli

…. probably has more to teach us on social media networking than Chris Brogan, Brian Sollis, David Meerman Scott, Robert Scoble, Darren Rowse, Mark Hughes, Josh Bernoff etc. Although I have learned from you all and you are all at the top of your game, I can’t help thinking that you need to dig down and get into the root nature of human interaction and manipulation to really understand the fundamentals of social media.

Sure Machiavelli is not going to teach us how to integrate a twitter feed onto our blog, but he is going to teach us something about the nature of mankind. And although we use a lot of technology to do what we do, at its core is the human being with all the ancient brilliance that that entails. It’s not until you understand people and their motivations and the way people are, that you can truly understand what social media is about.

The chaps above who I have mentioned all know this, they are all students of human nature and have simply used a technological interface (social media) to employ what they know.

Social media marketing is not about conversation, it’s about getting people to do what you want them to do.

UK SEO Company Goes Bust

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I first heard about Lattitude having problems from Dave Naylor’s blog

The Telegraph is also reporting the story.

I’ve worked with the Lattitude guys before and chat with the seo guys on a regular basis and I can say they know how to cook it. They didn’t go down because they were bad at seo, but rather seem to have been a credit crunch victim.

There are other very large SEO firms that I don’t rate, who seem to make their cash by pumping pretty pie charts for the clients top chomp on and being visited by well suited salesmen with ultra white teeth and an unhealthy fixation for reading the Art of War by Tsun Tzu.

But as Dave Naylor said in his post, if you really want the job done well you have to go for the “special ops” guys. And in a recent blog post by Econsultancy they brought up the Specialist Vs Agency debate.

Which is all very interesting. Especially for me as I specialise in one thing, creating content to be pushed over social media to get links.

If you need the other stuff, I can send you in the right direction.

I’m not too worried about the seo guys at Lattitude as they are experts at what they do and will always land on their feet. Not too sure about the whiter than white toothed salespeople though.

Update: Alex Hoye, the big cheese at Lattitude has issued a statement saying things are calm and it’s business as usual, which is good to hear. Also, spoke to a few guys at Lattitude and they are not worried at all. Sounds like there is going to be a smooth transition and a shedding of a lot of debt.

Link Building to the Right Kind of Tunes

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Music to link build to.

Building links with linkbait can sometimes by a labour and time intensive process leaving you drained quicker than snakes ass in Death Valley.

Here’s a selection of tunes to help ease the link building or linkbaiting process along.

Still smells fresh.

Nirvana, Smells like Teen Spirit

This one is jammed on repeat on my mp3 player

Florence and the Machine, You’ve got the Love

When you get into that link building sweets spot it’s like being on fire.

Kasabian, Fire.

A big stain of dirty, filthy energy from the Stranglers.

No More Heroes

One of the best base lines ever, turn it up and really feel it.

Yes I know, Stranglers again, well it’s my blog after all.

Walk on By, written by a very clever man called Bert Bacharach

Sticking with the Bert Bacharach theme, Do you Know the Way to San Jose. No points for guess the importance of the geographical reference.

Linkbuilding can be very entertaining if you have the right tunes.

The Jam, That’s Entertainment

Try not to take yourself too seriously.

The Dickies, Banana Splits

Bit of big band action with Lily Allen. The Lady is a Tramp

If you do too much link building, you are going to go….

Dizzee Rascal, Bonkers.

Mashup time, and mashups are always a tasty way to link build.

Speaking of Tasty, Kylie and New Order all mashed up. Who’da thought.

Bit of old, bit of new. Bloody Hell, look what happens.

Dizzee Rascal vs Nirvana – Stand Up Tall

Special thanks to Jools Holland

Do I really Need to Hire a Social Media Consultant?

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Yes you do.

A successful social-media campaign integrates social media into the many elements of marketing, including advertising, digital and PR. Opinion and theory are no match for experience and the best social media marketers now have more than 10 years of experience incorporating interactivity, blogs, forums, user-generated content and contests into online marketing.

Adage

I’ve been involved in social media for about ten years now and what I find obvious, natural and easy, others find impossible to grasp.

Sure you can read a bunch of books and blogs and learn the knowledge, but that only goes some way to delivering the goodies. There are other people out there who know and live in the space of social media. It is a complex and nuanced place and takes a lot of real time experience to develop the ability.

I wouldn’t say it’s an art, it just takes time and incredible amounts of grit to keep working at it.

Those of us who have been doing it for years have a head start.

Over the years technology has improved, making a few things easier, but there is not technological solution for experience and real life knowledge.

And if you were thinking that this blog post was all about trying to persuade you to hire me and others like me, you are absolutely right.

Pay to Get a Digg Front Page

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Diggs for sale

Paid Digg
Paid Digg

It seems you can now pay for a front page digg. Great, where do I pay. Oh wait, it’s looks like you have to be a multinational corporation with a big fat wallet.

I wonder how much Paramount has paid digg for the front page?

So much for people power.