I never would have thought that Toby Keith’s lyrics would have actually applied to real world issues. Funny how things like that happen, eh? Enough about country music (I know you all secretly love it), and onto my point.

About two weeks ago I wrote a heartfelt plea to the Internet marketing world to knock off the recent drama and nonsense that has been plaguing this industry. I had been meaning to write that post for some time, but I was worried that if I posted it here on my blog it might fall on deaf ears. I eagerly awaited Andy Beal’s scholarship contest where I knew it would gain exposure. Unfortunately, I feel as though it faired the same result.

The Internet marketing world has become nothing more than a tabloid. Post after post we are seeing personal attacks and outcries. I find myself double checking what blogs I am reading because they are sounding more and more like Star Magazine cover stories. Why is it that we only focus on Search Marketing ethics now? And why can’t we stay focused on those debates without getting personal? I’m all for constructive criticism, but I’m begging you all to please start writing about Internet marketing tactics and strategies again. Please!

I couldn’t agree more with what Lisa Barone said on Twitter today with regards to Mystery Guest’s SEOmoz post:

“I don’t mean this offensively and I love MG, but, yes, there’s sexism on the Web. So what? Pointing it out does nothing. Be the change.”

I couldn’t have said it any better. I’ve read one too many posts complaining about X, Y and Z. Nothing is going to change unless you make it change. Yes you can argue that it helps to start the conversation, but don’t we have enough of those going already? We’re all in this industry together. We are like one giant team. Sure, we are competitors in a sense, but this industry was founded on coopetition.

Put on your white hat or black hat and get back to marketing! If you don’t like the way something is, be the leader and take the steps to fight back. It’s going to be hard, and it would be a lot easier to just write about it – but nothing is going to change unless you make it change.

Save the hypocrite comments. You won’t hear another peep about this from me, I’m making the change.

This is a post from Taylor Pratt's blog: Awesome SEO

What The SEO World Needs is a Little Less Talk and a Lot More Action

There are a number of great keyword research tools out there (paid tools and free tools, too). Many times, however, I really wonder if I’m doing enough work to get into the mind of the customers. Getting into the customer’s mind is critical, and there isn’t always a tool that can help you do it. You are forced to turn to other methods of keyword research. Here are my favorite ways to figure out what the hell the customer is thinking when they are looking for my customer’s product/service.

Ask a Question on LinkedIn or Yahoo! Answers

This is one of the best ways to get in touch with potential customers and to get a first hand view of what they are searching for. Ask them an open ended question that will encourage them to leave you a detailed response. Word your question carefully so that you don’t put words in their mouth, and within 24 hours you’ll have a large number of responses. Pull out any keyword possibilities and use your conventional keyword research tools to decide whether or not they are worth going after.

Interview Your Client’s Secretary, Receptionist, or Anyone that Answers the Phone

These people are dealing with the customer every single day, and can provide great insight as to what language the customer is speaking. I usually come up with a 5-10 questionnaire that is filled with open-ended questions to get them to give me a long, detailed answer. Ask them what the typical customer asks for when they call in, and what words they are using to describe their product/service. You’ll be amazed at the insight they have. This is one of my most reliable resources.

Ask Their Customers

More than likely your client has a list of preferred clients that they wouldn’t mind you speaking with. Have your client send out a personalized email requesting their help. Let them know that you’ll only need about 15 minutes of their time, and you can even send them a thank you gift at the end (it will be worth it!). You should also create another 5-10 questionnaire that gets their client talking. For example, ask them how they would describe your product/service to a coworker or friend. There are a number of great questions you can come up with to try and get them to spit out a handful of keywords.

You should never assume you know what the customer wants. More than likely, they are on a completely different wave length than you are. The best way to figure out what language the customer is using is to ask them directly. What unconventional tools are you using for keyword research?

This is a post from Taylor Pratt's blog: Awesome SEO

3 Unconventional Keyword Research Tools to Improve Conversions

SEO isn’t a dying industry, it’s an evolving industry. I think that Greg and Shoemoney make good points, but I disagree with their overall impression of SEO’s future. Yes, the Search Engines’ algorithms are changing, but they always have – and always will. One thing you change today, may not work a week from now. Isn’t this how it has always been?

The sentence that I disagree with most comes from Greg’s post: “Search engines are too smart and they have a different agenda.” Let me break down why I think this is a horrible argument:

Yes, Search Engines are very smart and they have smart people working for them too. However, they don’t have all of the smart people working for them. With every new process there is a new opportunity. You can figure out what the Search Engines find important, and optimize your site for those things. It is done through testing, testing and…testing. This is how they did it in the 90’s, this is how they did it 5 years ago, and this is how they do it today.

In many cases, I think the Search Engines encourage SEO. Many times it is beneficial to the users. Optimizing your local Children’s Hospital website so families in need are able to find the information they are looking for is a good thing. In many cases, the designers of these websites don’t know how to create a Search Engine friendly site that can easily be found. They need SEO’s to help them.

The best SEO’s create a marketing strategy that is Search Engine compliant. They build the natural relevant links through creating strong educational content that is beneficial to the users. What is so wrong with that? Not every SEO spams the Search Results.

Unless the Search Engines start ranking all of their results by hand, they will need to use an algorithm. No matter what the algorithm is, it has important factors that it is looking for on a website. You can play to any of these factors in the algorithm and get your site to rank. If it is about how many people bookmark your site, develop content and new ways to make it easier for people to find your site and bookmark it. The possibilities are endless. Every algorithm is looking for specific things on the site, and almost all of them can be manipulated.

In the end, I’d like to reiterate my previous statement: as long as Search Engines exist, SEO will exist. SEO will continue to get harder, and the tactics SEOs use will continue to change. That should come as no surprise to anyone in this industry.

This is a post from Taylor Pratt's blog: Awesome SEO

As Long As There Are Search Engines, SEO Will Survive

Ever notice my blog roll on the right? I don’t call it “links” or “blog roll” or “blogs I read.” I titled it, “Gonzo SEO’s” and each person on that list is on there for a reason.

To me, a Gonzo SEO is someone who offers a unique perspective to the Internet marketing world. The criteria I look for when choosing to knight these awesome people with such a flattering title include the knowledge they are giving away, and the writing style they are using to do it.

I’ve had Crazy Egg installed on my blog for a couple of weeks now, and I’m disappointed to see how many people are not clicking through to these awesome blogs. So, in an effort to point you to some solid reading material, allow me to argue why I recommend each of these Gonzo SEO’s.

Aaron Chronister aka The Mad Hat. One of my favorite characteristics about Aaron is his ability to tell it like it is. If Aaron disagrees with some myth, fact, or some SEO celebrity’s theory – he’ll call them out on it. He is no sheep. His posts are entertaining and full of great information. My favorite series on his blog: Why The SEO World is Full of Shit.

Brian Chappell. Brian’s blog should be on everyone’s radar. He is extremely knowledgeable, great at explaining things, and also a really cool guy. Brian’s posts are very original in the sense that he doesn’t worry about writing about the latest SEO buzz (like Twitter). He focuses on new opportunities that he doesn’t see people taking advantage of. My favorite post on his blog: Wordpress vs. Drupal – Battle of the CMS.

Brian Clark aka Copyblogger. With over 33,000 RSS subscribers, there is a good chance you already read Copyblogger. If you don’t, boy are you missing out. Copyblogger is one of the (if not the) best resource for content creation. His posts are full of new ideas for your blog, link bait articles, and even keyword research. My favorite post on his blog: SEO Copywriting 2.0.

Jason Green. Jason has a new blog, but you may have recognized him from his frequent guest posts here. Jason is an analytics expert, and has a great entrepreneurial mind. As his blog continues to take off you’ll find that he is an excellent resource on how to take full advantage of your analytics. My favorite post on his blog: How to Monetize Social Media Traffic.

Karl Ribas. Karl Ribas was one of my first friends in this industry. He has to be one of the nicest guys I have ever met. His blog is great evidence of that. Karl blogs with a tone that gives you confidence that you’ll be able to duplicate his success. He always has top-notch PPC and SEO advice. My favorite post on his blog: Learning From Sony’s Mistakes.

Kimberly Bock. Kimberly’s blog, Learning SEO Basics, has to be one of the (if not the) best SEO blog out there for newbies. She is one of the few people who actually take time to go over how to become a great SEO. Even if you consider yourself “experienced” you’ll find that you benefit from her great writing style, tips and tricks. My favorite post on her blog: Competitor Analysis.

Lisa Barone. Lisa is without a doubt, my favorite blog writer. Her wit and humor make every blog post an entertaining and educational read. There are so few people with a great gift for writing, and Lisa is certainly one of them. She is one of the more outgoing SEO’s in the business, and a great source for knowledge. My favorite post on her blog: Which is Better for SEO: Shared or Dedicated IPs.

Matt McGee. Matt McGee is one of the smartest SEOs out there. He really gets it. And it isn’t just the whole SEO thing he understands, he understands the big picture of it and the business side. He is a local search genius, and if you aren’t subscribing to his blog – you are really hurting yourself. An awesome guy and a great source for U2 music, too. My favorite post on his blog: The SEO Success Pyramid.

Pamela Lund. Pamela is another great writer who is full of educational information. One thing that makes her unique from the other blogs mentioned is her frequent video blog posts. She writes on all aspects of Internet marketing, and she does it with great charisma. My favorite post on her blog: Marketing and Optimization for Non-Viral Videos.

Rae Hoffman. While Lisa may be my favorite SEO blogger, Rae is definitely my favorite SEO. She has more passion (and aggression) than any SEO out there. She has to be one of the most knowledgeable people in the industry, and her generosity to share so many of her secrets is amazing. Rae also holds one of my favorite conference sessions every year: site clinics. No one does it better than her. My favorite post on her blog: Before You Launch That Local Small Business Website.

Scott Baldwin. Scott, like Jason, is another great analytics guy. He has a deep understanding of how any Internet marketing strategy will affect the big scope of things, and is able to tie it all together nicely. My only wish is that he would have more time to blog! My favorite post on his blog: Are Your Geo-Targeted PPC Ads Being Seen?

Sebastian. Sebastian’s Pamphlets, in my opinion, is one of the top resources for technical SEO information. With each topic he goes into an in-depth analysis of why something works the way it does. The best part about his blog posts: he tests everything and shows you the results! Instead of just saying that he tried something, he shows you what he did. It is a great blog to learn advanced SEO tips and tricks from. My favorite post on his blog: Nofollow Still Means Don’t Follow, and How to Instruct Google to Crawl Nofollow’ed Links Nevertheless

Shana Albert. Shana is one of the best social media minds out there. She has mastered the art of all things social media, and is kind enough to share her wisdom. Shana’s writing style is easy to understand, and you can tell how much time she puts in to each post to make them so worthwhile. She is a rising star in this industry, and rightly so. My favorite post on her blog: 5 Reasons my StumbleUpon Profile Stands Out.

Tamar Weinberg. Tamar is the master of social media. I can’t think of a single person that knows more about social networking than Tamar. With a combination of extreme kindness and kick-ass intelligence, Tamar Weinberg is one person everyone should be keeping tabs on. Each of her blog posts are thorough, and extremely informative. She also is great at social media site clinics! My favorite post on her blog: Every Social Network is Different – Here’s What You Need to Know.

So what are you waiting for? Subscribe! Subscribe! Subscribe!

This is a post from Taylor Pratt's blog: Awesome SEO

I Call Them Gonzo SEO’s for a Reason

After reading through the great discussions regarding SEO celebrities, and after much thought, I have decided to reveal the secrets of the top SEO celebrities in the industry. If you desire any sort of stardom, you must read this guide. I hope the celebrities exposed in this article will support my decision to reveal their secrets.

Spy Satellites (aka Danny Sullivan’s Secret). I think this is pretty obvious. How else could one man know every little thing that happens in the industry the instant it happens? I don’t have evidence to support this, but I have sources that have told me that the recent spy satellite shot down by the government was one of Danny’s. With satellites so advanced that he can watch the Googlebot in action, it was only a matter of time before he rose to stardom.

Polyphasic Sleeping (aka Rand Fishkin’s Secret). Polyphasic sleeping is a sleeping method where you take short naps throughout the day in place of your normal once per day sleep. By switching to polyphasic sleeping, one will gain an extra 20-40 hours of free time per week. That would be plenty of time to create one of the most well-known SEO firms, a top SEO blog, plan a wedding, and speak at numerous conferences.

Cloning (aka Barry Schwartz’s Secret). Cloning is the only logical explanation to Barry’s success. It is a physical impossibility for one man to cover every piece of search news known to man, stay active in forums, run a business, and attend conferences. I’ve considered the theory that he might have an identical twin, but it is too hard to imagine another man would have the same dedication as he does. The only other explanation is cloning.

Time Machine (aka Eric Ward’s Secret). This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Eric has been building links since 1994. Why in the world would anyone be doing that in 1994 unless they knew that it was going to be important in the future? The only way he could have known that is if he had a time machine. Scientists have claimed we aren’t far from that technology, and I believe Eric stumbled on the secret sometime in the future.

Teleporting (aka Vanessa Fox’s Secret). Have you ever tried to work for multiple companies, organized huge conferences, speak at conferences, operate multiple blogs, and still have time to watch your favorite show? Chances are that you have tried and failed miserably. I’ve asked myself hundreds of times, “How can Vanessa do that and why doesn’t she watch Angel?” The secret, my friends, is teleporting. By teleporting, Vanessa is able to cut down on hours of travel time, giving her plenty of time to keep this crazy schedule.

It isn’t my style to expose other peoples’ secrets, but I felt that the something had to be said. Danny, Rand, Barry, Eric, and Vanessa, I hope you will understand. I think it is best for the community to understand that working your ass off, strategic planning, and original thinking can’t get you anywhere.

This is a post from Taylor Pratt's blog: Awesome SEO

The Secret to Becoming an SEO Celebrity

Watching the Giants dismantle the Patriots last night reminded me of a critical step to every website strategy: competitor analysis. I find it amazing how little people actually talk about it. Yet, with every audit I complete and with every web strategy I create, a competitive analysis still remains a priority.

Kimberley Bock from Learning SEO Basics wrote up a great beginners guide to competitive analysis. I’d like to take a closer look at some of the great points she made in her tutorial.

Keywords

One of the first places I go when doing keyword research is the list of competitors that I ask my clients for. I ask my clients to come up with 10-15 online and offline competitors, and then I dive in. Reviewing your competitors’ sites will help give you an understanding of how competitive the industry is online, and what keywords they feel their customers are using. Many times I’ll find a gem or two that I hadn’t found before. You can get a good idea of what keywords they are going after by doing a mini audit on their website. Look at:

• The keywords used in their Meta tags
• Keywords used in headers and in their content
• Anchor text
• ALT text

I’m not saying that you should be targeting the exact keywords they are, but keep track of all the keywords you see they are targeting. Then, use your keyword research tools to figure out if the keyword is worth targeting. Obviously these tools don’t give you an exact number of the popularity of the term, but it can give you a good idea as to whether or not it is worth targeting.

On-Page Factors

Run through their site and figure out how strong it is. I’d recommend using Matt McGee’s guide on how to SEO your site in 60 minutes. From his guide I’d recommend looking at the following on-page factors:

• Look for any black hat techniques they are using (hidden text, shady redirects, etc.)
• Look at their site navigation and figure out how Search Engine friendly they are
• Do a site:domain.com in all 3 main engines, and look to see where the search engines are having trouble

And most importantly…

• Figure out what strategies they are using that are putting them ahead of the game (a blog, widgets, videos, etc.)

This is the most important part of your competitor analysis because you need to figure out what they are doing wrong (so you can avoid it and take advantage of it), and what they are doing right (so you can create a strategy that can compete with it.)

Off-Page Factors

In addition to the on-page factors, you can also learn valuable information from the off-page factors on your competitors’ websites. Most importantly, what great links they have that you need to get. This can take some time, but investigate the backlinks that your competitors have that might be helping them with their search engine rankings.

What blogs and forums are they commenting on? Are they providing unique content to industry magazines or resources?

This will give you a great head-start on your link building campaign.

Final Thoughts

Once you choose which keywords you’ll be targeting, figure out which keywords are your most important. From that list, I also like to go through and take a look at what I’m up against. The information you find from these competitors and the competitors mentioned above is priceless.

Capitalize and learn from their mistakes, and put your client in the best opportunity to dominate on the web. You should be prepared enough that there won’t be any surprises. Remember, there is no reason why your website can’t be the juggernaut that everyone is trying to compete with. Stay ahead of the game and become that website.

This is a post from Taylor Pratt's blog: Awesome SEO

Stop Guessing – Study Your Competition!

Dev Besu’s “Just Do It Philosophy in Search Marketing” inspired me to figure out what I could do to improve my time management. I sat down and I started planning out what I should get accomplished throughout the rest of the week. I remember writing down the word “Today,” and the next thing I knew I was reading through The Mad Hat and Sugarrae’s awesome rants. After I was done, I tried to figure out what I was supposed to be doing. Then it hit me. I realize now that I suffer from SEO A.D.D.

One of the biggest problems with working in the Internet marketing world is trying to focus on one thing. All day I am constantly pulled in different directions. Whether it is Twitter, Facebook, or checking my RSS Feeds, I’ve got serious SEO A.D.D. and I don’t think I’m the only one. You may be suffering from SEO A.D.D. if you have any combination of the following symptoms:

1. Your morning routine consists of: reading old Twitter messages, updating Twitter, reading your Facebook stalker feed, updating Facebook status, and then going back to Twitter to see if there are any new updates.
2. You spend more than 2 hours in the morning reading RSS feeds, and then you check them every couple of minutes throughout the day.
3. By lunchtime you realize you have yet to accomplish any real work.
4. You check your subscriber numbers more than once per day.
5. You open up your analytics to get a quick visitor count for yesterday, and you end up spending an hour going through every little detail of each visitor.
6. You find yourself checking to see how many Sphinns you have for your latest submission 4-5 times an hour.
7. You stop everything you’re doing to help a friend index his porn.
8. You update Twitter and chat on IM during meetings and on conference calls.
9. It’s 3pm and you glance over at your to-do list and the only thing checked off is the nag email you sent out this morning.
10. With every new email you get, you instantly stop what you are doing and read what it says. You might start to reply, but definitely won’t finish in one pass.
11. You monitor domain auctions and propose a new online business plan to the guy/gal sitting next to you at work every day, even though you own over 20 domains with inactive websites.
12. You lie in bed at night and realize you have yet to work on a single client’s account.

This is a post from Taylor Pratt's blog: Awesome SEO

12 Signs That You Suffer from SEO A.D.D.

1. You won’t get the same old tricks you can read on hundreds of other blogs out there. Here, I will provide you with real-life client management catastrophes and how they should have been handled.
2. You’ll learn how to present to clients. Internet marketing is more than just what you know. You need to be able to simplify it enough so that your client will understand how you are helping them.
3. You’ll learn how to answer those frustrating emails about your clients’ ideas of how your Internet marketing strategy should work.
4. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned in this industry is that you are going to have to deal with many different types of personalities. Some clients are needier than others, and require more hand holding. Others just want you to handle everything and keep them posted on the results. This blog will teach you how to identify those personalities, and the best way to manage them.
5. You’ll learn how to “dumb things down” to your client to give them a better understanding of what you can do for them.
6. You will also learn how to manage your Internet marketing team most effectively. How do you get the most out of them? How do you motivate them and keep them happy? What management techniques are the best when it comes to a fast-paced, high-tech industry like ours?
7. There aren’t any blogs out there about Internet marketing and client management. Gonzo SEO will give you a unique perspective to keeping your business alive through effective client management.
8. Finally, and most importantly, you’ll improve your clients’ and team’s morale while also giving you a better understanding of what they are thinking. Remember, much of this business is spread through word of mouth, so your reputation is critical.

This is a post from Taylor Pratt's blog: Awesome SEO

8 Reasons Why You Should Read Gonzo SEO