SEO In-house Blog

Seeking Speakers: In-house SEO Exchange

Have you ever considered speaking at a conference?  Here’s your chance to get your feet wet.  The In-house SEO Exchange is looking for experienced, enterprise-level in-house SEOs to participate on a panel of in-house peers. 

The Exchange is much more intimate than full conferences and will allow you to share your knowledge and experience in a casual interview-style format – that means you won’t need to create a slide deck with bad jokes (unless you REALLY want to, we do love bad jokes).  And because our event is so interactive, you’re guaranteed to leave with as many valuable insights and ideas as everyone else in the room.

The event is September 12^th in New York, the day before SMX East starts.  If you’re interested please email Mike Hofmaier at mikehofmaier@seoinhouse.com. Before submitting, consider first who attends the exchange; we’re looking for very experienced in-house SEOs working full time for an enterprise-level company who has both breadth and depth of information to share. Learn more about the In-house SEO Exchange.

 

Thanks Duane, Thanks In-houser’s for Another Great Exchange!

Well, it’s been a month since the last In-house SEO Exchange and we’ve had time to digest the feedback and start preparing for the next event.  But first, thank you to Duane Forrester for your candid conversation and insight into how Bing treats SEO.  And for the laughs.  People really appreciated you taking the time out to speak with such a small group.  Here’s what one attendee had to say:

“The time with Duane Forrester was a total bonus. I really feel like we got some insight and info that the general conference attendees didn't.”

Thanks Duane! 

The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, but more importantly we got some great ideas for improving the event.  One idea we really like is to have a “link building confessional” where people anonymously write the names of 3^rd party link “promoters” and their experiences working with them.  Oooo, that could be interesting!

Also, following the event up with a dinner out at a pub might also be the perfect cap to the day.  That sounds good; we’ll work on that for the next event in September. 

The next In-house SEO Exchange is September 12^th in New York (the day before SMX East).  You can already register here. 

Finally, we want to share our favorite feedback – feedback that sums up the spirit of the Exchange perfectly:

“The opportunity to just sit and yak with others in a semi-guided and themed way was unique and clearly the best bit.  Pub meets never have that kind of focus, and those kind of conversations rarely flourish in a standard conference situation.  Understanding and agreeing that what was said in the room stayed in the room allowed for a much free-er discussion and I think that was really valuable for everyone.”

Thanks everyone for making it another great event, we hope to see you in September!

 

Bing’s Duane Forrester set to Answer Questions at the Upcoming In-House SEO Exchange

          

The In-House SEO Exchange has had a huge range of amazing speakers in the past, from eBay to Adobe.  We’re excited to have Duane Forrester, Senior Product Manager of Bing’s Webmaster Outreach Program at the upcoming event because it will give in-housers a chance to approach their SEO challenges from the search engines’ perspective. 

Anyone who has been to an In-House SEO Exchange in the past knows that these events are intimate occasions and create an environment where people are much more willing to open up and share their knowledge with peers.  We’re excited for what Duane might share with specific, pin-pointed questions that won’t be blogged (the In-house SEO Exchange is an intimate, closed-door setting without any bloggers, vendors or press).

Duane will be answering questions from in-house SEOs in an intimate, closed-door, one-hour feature of the upcoming In-House SEO Exchange at SMX Advanced in June (and then we kick him out the door to exchange the juicy secrets amongst ourselves – sorry Duane).   

Duane was an “in-the-trenches” in-house SEO for more than a decade before accepting his current position at Bing.  His enterprise-level SEO experience (including working for MSN and working on SEO for Wal-mart, GAP, HP, and Caesars) makes Duane a perfect fit for the Exchange.  He has been active in the SEO community as a SEMPO board member, regular speaker at conferences, and as a blogger – and until recently worked with an in-house perspective.  It will be great to hear his impressions from the other side of the equation. 

There is still limited space in the In-House SEO Exchange so register as soon as possible. The attendee list alone makes it worthwhile to attend – many big brands’ in-house SEOs ready to learn from each other. The event is June 9^th, 2011 following SMX Advanced in Seattle. 

Also, you should check out Duane’s blog The Online Marketing Guy and follow him on Twitter.

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It’s a Good Time to Be Looking for Senior-Level SEO Jobs

It’s a good time to be a capable, experienced SEO looking for a new challenge.  A couple friends of SEOinhouse.com are looking to fill senior-level in-house SEO positions and this is probably a good time to also mention that we at SEOinhouse.com are hiring too.  Here’s a quick summary of the three positions with links to the full job postings:

Head of Search, Affiliates, & Mobile Marketing at Citigroup:

“The head of Search, Affiliates and Mobile Marketing will be responsible for developing strategies and executing initiatives leveraging Search, Third Party Affiliate sites including aggregators, deal sites and blogs, and marketing via mobile devices.  This position will work in partnership with Business product managers to support account acquisition goals and expand these marketing channels to contribute a greater percentage of new accounts for the business.”

Click here for the full job posting.  

SEO Manager at Become.com:

“Become.com is seeking an energetic SEO Manager with expertise in SEO initiatives for large websites. We are looking for a hands-on SEO professional, with excellent problem solving skills that has a fundamental understanding of SEO issues involving site architecture, keyword generation, search-friendly content, link building strategies, blog optimization, and metrics-driven SEO. If you have successfully executed Search Engine Optimization strategies for large eCommerce sites and are looking to build your expertise working with a team of high caliber engineers and skilled product specialists, we want to hear from you.”

Click here for the full job posting.  There are other related positions posted on their site.

Director of SEO at SEOinhouse.com:

(Note that we’ve posted the job in New York, but it is a work from home position so we’re happy to take applications from anywhere in the US.​)

We are currently seeking a senior SEO to add to our SEO Swat Team.​  We come in, get companies sorted and get out, and come back when they need us.​  We are a different type of agency, one whose advice is practical, actionable and works within the limitations of enterprise-level organizations.​  Oh, and we may start with clients, but we end with friends.​  This is a full-time work-from-home position. 

Click here for the full job posting.

Happy job hunting!  

 

4,3,2,1...In-House SEO Exchange!

Uh oh... you're almost out of time! The early bird rate ends January 8^th so don’t delay registering for our upcoming In-House SEO Exchange.  People love opening up in this intimate, closed-doors event because its an excellent chance to swap ideas with other in-housers on the issues facing you.  See what attendees loved from our last event:

"Just merely having those other in-house people in one room, filtered out from all the agencies and consultants, is in itself really well worth it! It's helpful to network with each of these people, who go through similar experiences."

"The opportunity to meet with some major brands...no matter what questions or sitiation you had there was someone there to help you out. Everyone was so willing to give out information."

The event is March 11^th and follows on the heels of SMX West in San Jose.  The Exchange can be purchased together or separately from the main conference.  

For more information or to register go to the In-House SEO Exchange page on the SMX website.

Hope to see you there!

 

We're Hiring - Senior SEO / Technical SEO

SEOinhouse.com is the industry’s leading SEO agency specializing specifically in the challenges of in-house SEO.  We have built our company around helping businesses develop highly effective in-house SEO programs that work more efficiently within the organization.  SEOinhouse.com delivers.  But don’t just believe us – see what our past clients think about us , including well-known brands such as Business.com, Yahoo!, and Salesforce.com.  Our services and products include in-house SEO training, audits, keyword research, in-house program development, and social media strategy, among others.  Our team is growing and we’re looking to add another smiling face – a senior-level SEO that will help us deliver premier SEO services and products that we can all be proud of.

Google Instant: One Week Later, Thinking About Keyword Research

The dialogue continues on the impact Google Instant will have on SEO.  Three big questions remain.

How many affected searches will there be?

Google obviously holds a large share of any site’s search traffic.  But what share of Google’s referrals will actually be influenced by Google Instant?  There are two main variables to consider here.

1.       Availability:  Only a portion of Google’s referral s will come via the Instant interface.  Many people search from the browser bar, toolbar searches, mobile, unsupported browsers, or international search where one needs to be searching from a logged-in account to see Instant results, for example.

2.       Search Behavior:  Even if your search is done with Google Instant, it may not affect the outcome if, for example, you type faster than the screen refreshes or you look at your keyboard while you type.  Also, as Damien Bianchi points out, user intent will play a large role.  If people are searching with a particular result in mind (for example navigational searches such as brand names) they are more likely to stick to the keyword in mind.  It will be people doing less targeted searches (for example informational searches such as restaurant recommendations) that are more likely to adjust their search.

However, both availability and search behavior will likely change over time.  Availability will expand to international sites (likely you will not need to be logged in) and to other devices (mobile), and search behavior may evolve if people adopt new ways of searching. 

Which searches will be affected?

As we mentioned in the previous update, there is some debate about whether it will help the long-tail (because searchers will continuously revise their query until they find what they’re looking for), or if it will harm the long-tail (because searchers will find what they’re looking for earlier in typing the query). 

There’s no doubt that the long tail will be affected because there will be less keyword diversity.  Even if only a fraction of unique searches are influenced by the effect of Google Instant, there will be a change to the length of the tail.  And since a quarter of all searches (before Google Instant) have never been searched before, there’s obviously plenty of opportunity for Instant to chip away at the long tail.  How big that impact is has yet to be seen and depends on how many affected searches there are (although the long tail won’t ever disappear entirely).    

Maybe both arguments are correct to a degree, and that we will see a squeezing effect on the range of search terms.  Head terms may become less important where searches short in length become longer as people refine their search until they find what they’re looking for.  Conversely, some searches that were intended to be long will be answered earlier.  This effectively fattens the “belly” section of search. 

Keyword research becomes even more important with this added new variable.  Long-tail keyword phrases that have the qualifying word early in the keyword sequence will be affected more than those with the qualifying word at the end.  For example, “running shoe review sites” or “Vancouver Greek restaurants near Stanley Park” are much more vulnerable than “top reviews of running shoes” or “most popular greek restaurants in Vancouver”.

This means that keyword competition has a new variable.  Instead of considering the competitiveness of a keyword phrase as a whole, SEOs need to consider how competitive the keyword sequence is at each stage of the query.  

A note to keyword research:  Google has already explained how impressions will now be counted in Google Webmaster Tools (expect an increase).  But there is uncertainty if Google’s other keyword research tools (for example Adwords Keyword Tool) will be impacted in the same way, and increasing search volume.    

How can we optimize for the affected searches?

1.       Map out the possible suggested searches (what Google guesses you want) for your keywords.  I’m looking forward to seeing a tool to do this.  Start in your analytics by sorting your keywords driving traffic (pre-Instant) alphabetically and by volume.  Group keywords together at each keyword change and total the volume.  For example:

1st Word	2nd Word	3rd Word	4th Word	5th Word etc	Volume
Red	Running	shoes			20
Red	Running	Shoes	For	Kids	2
Reviews	For	Men’s	Running	Shoes	10
Running	Shoes				1800
Running	Shoes	Discounted			80
Running	Shoes	On	Sale		200
Running	Shoes	Reviews			550

 2.       At each change in the word, see what Google Instant is offering and whether you should be there or not, and how competitive it is.  You will probably find that a portion of some longer tail keywords will have less importance and their traffic will be diverted up the keyword sequence.  Similarly, watch where your shorter keywords lead to longer ones. 

3.       Divide keywords into groups by search intent.  Some keywords such as brand names are often navigational queries which are less likely to be vulnerable.  (This isn’t always the case though - we have one client whose brand name is keyword rich which means many competitors are now appearing in the process of typing their brand). 

4.       Understand where the competition will come from in the keyword sequence.  You may want to adjust your keyword targeting accordingly, creating new content and focusing especially on great title tags and meta descriptions that answer the query’s intent.   But be careful that the changes are warranted.  We still do not fully understand the reach Google Instant will have and the proportion of affected searches.  It will be different for every site. 

5.       Monitor your traffic to fully understand the impact.  In our first Google Instant update, we had a link to an analytics trick to monitor Instant referrals.  That analytics trick apparently doesn't work (as updated on their site).  Instead, watch keyword diversity (total number of keywords driving search) as well as the traffic levels of individual keywords, especially those that are vulnerable.

6.       Using these steps, look for which top existing keywords are most vulnerable, and don’t forget to also look where new opportunities exist.  Prioritize your efforts accordingly, but do not over-react too early.  Watch to see how many queries are affected and test with small samples.  Quality SEO has never been more relevant.

If you’re looking for more reading, aimClear Blog has put together a handy reference list of the best Google Instant commentary from the past week. 

Google Instant and How it Changes SEO

Google Instant was launched on September 8^th and has created hype around the effect it will have on search marketing – both organic and paid search.  This is by far the most significant change to Google’s  user interface since Universal Search was when it appeared in May 2007.  The one thing we can say with certainty is that the basic SEO best practices remain unchanged because it is not an algorithm change.  What will need to change is your strategy, because Google user behavior and keyword usage will likely be changing. Exactly how it will change or to what degree is yet to be seen.

Google Instant will likely affect only a portion of Google searches, but that proportion will likely grow as users become accustomed to Google Instant.

Google Instant functionality is turned off for users who: 

1. Type their query directly into the browser or toolbar search.
2. Are outside the US, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Russia.
3. Using outdated browsers.
4. Using mobile search. (Google Instant functionality to be added this Fall)
5. De-activates it.

Many search marketers feel that the biggest impact will be felt in pay-per-click because of the impact of having more impressions.

How impression data will be counted (for both PPC and Webmaster Tools):

1. A searcher chooses a query from the suggestions.
2. A searcher clicks any link on the search results page.
3. A searcher is inactive on any results for more than 3 seconds (aka 'the 3-second rule').

The SEO Impact

Many search marketers are hypothesizing that the long tail will lose search volume because people may see the results they are looking for before they finish their intended query.  This means that it is especially important to have results that appear early in the word sequence for highly searched phrases, which often (but not always) are head terms.  Whereas others speculate this might actually be GOOD for the long-tail because it does not force people to commit to a query, searchers are more likely to experiment with suggested long-tail queries. 

The impact to the long tail will be in certain word sequences where keywords are early in the word order, but the query is general enough that it can be answered with the head term listings that appear before the Google user ever finishes the long tail query they planned.  For example “Tom Cruise’s Birthday” will likely be affected more than “How old is Tom Cruise”.

Keyword research becomes even more important, with an added emphasis on word sequencing – this means the time it takes to do keyword research analysis will increase.  Sites that do not have an established presence for head terms will want to be careful in their selection of long-tail terms.  The importance of having enticing meta tags (title and description) is emphasized because people can see what they will get with a given query and are more likely to modify it if they don’t like what they see. Sites that cater to niche markets are less likely to feel an impact.

It is also likely that Google users will do more searches in the buying cycle than ever before, because it is much faster to do the search. This means that you want to rank high for as many search terms as possible, because your target audience will likely be faced with a few more provider options at a faster speed than in the past.

For now, the best approach is to:

1.       Consider the comments above and begin thinking about how your keyword strategies need to evolve.

2.       Monitor your traffic to fully understand it’s impact.  This will be the perfect data for the ROI on the SEO initiatives that may have been on the back burner.  Semetrical has produced a good trick to track Google Instant in Google Analytics.

3.       Study the results (and how they change) when a user types in your keywords.  Identify the ways that your search listing copy needs to be improved.

4.       Focus on ranking as high as you can in search engines for targeted keywords, especially head terms.

5.       Monitor what people are seeing and saying about the Google Instant impact. The SEO community is great about sharing information you just have to look for it.  There will undoubtedly be several studies coming out in the coming months that should offer more insight into the impact on search behavior and the types of keywords affected.

For more reading, we suggest:

Search Engine Watch’s summary of Google Instant’s Impact.

If local SEO is important, this article offers insights on the impact of Google Instant on local search.

Several search marketers have provided their take on the impact Google Instant will have at e-Consultancy.

As an aside, Google Instant is not a new product.  Yahoo! had something very similar in 2005 (almost identical in fact!).

 

Tic Toc, Tic Toc – In-House SEO Exchange Early-Bird Pricing Ends Soon.

The early bird rate ends September 10^th.  Don’t delay – the event costs less than a couple PR4 links and is guaranteed to provide more SEO value.  There’s a reason that Michael Nguyen (SEO Strategist at Shopzilla.com and Bizrate.com) says: “…the In-House SEO Exchange is flat-out the best reason to attend an SMX conference.”

The event is October 7^th and follows on the heals of SMX East in New York City.  The Exchange can be purchased together or separately from the main conference.  You can check out the impressive line-up of speakers, the day’s schedule, and register on the SMX website.

Hope to see you there!

Big Brand In-House SEOs Gear Up to Share Creative SEO Strategies and Answer Your Pressing Questions

The In-House SEO Exchange is less than 6 weeks away and Michael Nguyen,  (SEO Stategist at Shopzilla.com and Bizrate.com) and Janet Bartoli (Manager, Global Search Marketing at LexisNexis) are two of the four panelists who will be engaging in candid, dynamic, two-way discussions and extensive Q&A about how they do SEO.

We got a chance to get a sneak peak at why they’re excited to be a part of this popular event, and what they plan to share at the In-house SEO Exchange.

Why are you excited to contribute to the in-house SEO Exchange?

Michael: The in-house SEO exchange is flat out the best reason to attend an SMX conference.  Every time I attend, I find that I learn more than I end up contributing.  Every attendee has something to share. My favorite thing about the exchange is that it isn't a conference - there are no set sessions, no one is pitching, and no one is sitting around hoping the speaker gets to the Q&A portion. The exchange is heavily participant driven, so it's dynamic yet it's always focused on important themes and pressing issues.

Janet: I am very excited to be able to contribute to the SEO in-house exchange. If there's one thing I love more than SEO, it’s sharing and helping other fellow search professionals in any way I can. It is overwhelming for anyone to come in and build an in-house search program from the ground up. All sorts of questions arise, like: "Which development team do I need to speak with for implementation?" to "What level of search education do the marketing teams currently lack?" and project managing all search activity as well as coordinating with outside vendors. I have a great deal to share, and am looking forward to learning anything from others who might either be new to in-house SEO or those in the trenches for years.

What are some of the important tactics or strategies that you'll help people learn?

Michael: I'm all about scaling SEO. The sites I work with (Bizrate.com & Shopzilla.com) are all large multi million page sites. With large dynamic sites, you are always dealing with strange technical issues, rapidly changing content, millions of keywords, and various other difficult factors. I'll show you how to scale SEO to handle many of these issues and how to apply similar techniques to both large and small sites alike.

Janet: I am looking forward to sharing tips on how best to educate the masses internally – across the globe, effective executive reporting for the C-level, working with various vendors including Link Building and why Search Newsletters are easy and important to share with all. Of course I would also love to discuss the best way to get your internal organization to realize when to talk SEO in the site re-design stages, as well as how to help them always think of SEO before they do anything!

We hope to see you there!  Register for In-House SEO Exchange.