Posts Tagged image
Written on August 31, 2010 by admin
Filed Under: Advertising, book, marketing, seo
Posted by Dana Lookadoo
This post was originally in YOUmoz, and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author’s views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc.
Day 1 of SEOmoz Pro Training was like being at a race track. The course careened from clicks to conversions and from search results to landing pages. The audience watched 9 speakers drive their search marketing race cars at speeds faster than fingers can type. Given the finger-breaking speeds, it was fortunate all SEO fans were well fueled - beginning with a healthy breakfast buffet, mid-morning energy bars, lunch (more all-you-can-eat) and a scrumptious mid-afternoon pit stop with fresh cookies and treats. After everyone was fed each time, it was off to the races.
Todd Freisen was in the sports booth service as emcee, host of ceremonies, referee, judge and time keeper. The event was like a well-oiled machine. Maybe that’s why they call Todd, “Oilman.”
When I said “yes” to attending the Mozinar on a Press Pass, I didn’t realize I was going to be covering a sporting event. GoodNewsCowboy asked me how I was going to recap and condense this “wild ride.” I realized there was a lot of horsepower on-stage and that we were at the SEOmoz Training Raceway.
Mozinar fans experienced exhilaration and gleaned insights as we watched performance race car drivers present their seminar presentations. The following race highlights are condensed from 32 pages of notes. I strongly suggest you buy the Pro Seminar DVD when it’s produced so you can see under the hood for yourself.
From Clicks to Conversions with Local, Social, Analytics and SEO in Between
1st up: Rand Fishkin had pole position and drove a car with a most unusual name, “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad SERP.”
The results we are seeing in blended search results are even more unusual, starting with changes of the past 2 weeks. For those who attend SEO races regularly and are watching Google, this may be old news. For others, brace yourself. A branded search can have more than 2 results. Rand explained:
- You have to be seen as a brand.
- You have to have lots of links pointing to those pages with the brand name.
- You need to have a high volume set of people searching for those terms, so off-site advertising and media buys can influence the SERPs.
Changes to Image SEO was next, and guess what? Google has a new image search interface.
- Image results don’t always match image SERP’s order, i.e. images for the artist “manet.”
- Understand, and be prepared. You will not always get the same position in the blended results, leading to frustration.
- Image SEO value is reduced by the new overlay.
The image below results from clicking on one of the images for the artist “manet” and clicking on an image
Tip: Write some JavaScript that breaks the overlay to avoid having the image overlay. Not only does it produce the longest, ugliest URL, but “it’s just an invite to right click and steal this image.”
Rand covered 10 Tips for Image Rankings. (Since we are in race synopsis mode, we’ll speed through this.) One quick takeaway was the minimum image size:
Image Pixel Size - If you go smaller than 400×300 pixels your chances to show in image search are dramatically decreased.
So you don’t have to remember any formulas, basic on-page SEO factors for image SEO include page title and surrounding text.
Video SERPs
It’s or easier to get into video SERPs than to get into the regular SERPS. There is lower competition than ordinary results (most of the time), so take the opportunity. Follow this inclusion process to enter your video race for top ranking:
Step #1: Embed Video Content on Your Pages
Step #2: Create Thumbnail Images for Videos
Step #3: Build a Video XML Sitemap & Submit
Step #4: PROFIT $$$
See Google Webmaster Tools for Video to learn more.
Rand’s foot stayed pedal-to-the-metal as he showed how to produce Rich Snippets in the SERPs. Why is this important? This is where you get most of your clicks. His closing remarks were retweeted with fervor:
“If you can stay on top of this, you will have a big win. It demands full-time SEO.”
2nd up: David Mihm was full-speed as he raced through “Ranking in Competitive Local Results.” He explained:
Straight from Google’s mouth:
Local intent is 20% of total search volume (April 2010)
And who would imagine that local results could equal 100% of page 1? Try a search for “dentist chicago.” (If it’s not 100%, it’s close.)
Google organic results are not, however, the dominate factor for local search. Neither are results from Yahoo! or Bing. Local search is now:
- Craigslist
- Twitter
- FaceBook
- Citysearch
- Google Products
- Mobile devices
- Garmin GPS
- Wikipedia
- Virtual Augmented Reality
Understand that local requires a different mindset from traditional SEO, because the ecosystems vary:
- Traditional SEO is about optimizing websites.
- Local SEO is about optimizing locations.
Takeaway:
“It is essential to have a holistic local search marketing strategy.”
“Even if all your boss cares about is that friggin’ 7-pack!”
Resources to claim your listings:
“The Big Three” major data providers:
Citations - David recommended a new citation finder tool by Darren Shaw & Garrett French: Whitespark.ca Citation Finder
Find local SEO resources on GetListed.org.
3rd up to race: Dan Zarrella racing in the “Science of Twitter” car. Dan warned us he talked fast. Pro Seminar attendees listened attentively, but given the subject was Twitter … many tweeted insights into how one can get clicks and retweets.
Tags: Advertising ,analytics ,browser ,business ,community ,google ,image ,images ,local ,marketing ,science ,scientist ,seo ,video
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Written on August 10, 2010 by admin
Filed Under: Object
When we think of social media, the image that comes to mind is remote workers scattered in coffee shops across the world, working for virtual corporations — the last place that comes to mind is probably a dairy farm in Ohio. Earlier this year, social platforms became the tool in a public relations war between [...]
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When Social Media Conflict Comes To The Farm
Written on August 4, 2010 by admin
Filed Under: Advertising, book
As a graphic designer, you are always searching for new inspirations and tools to improve your skills and speed up the design process. The online world now provides an array of design tools to improve your workflow and efficiency - putting more money in your pocket each month from satisfied clients. Here are the top 10 online design tools grouped by categories to improve your graphic design business.
Image Manipulation Websites
1) Aviary.com
Aviary.com is a powerful online resource offering image editing, vector editing and a variety of other tools. The website is well designed and is known for its user friendly format. While, as a graphic designer, you may not use certain portions of the website such as the music creator, most sections are very valuable for the design process.
2) GIMP.org
Another top online image manipulation program is GIMP.org. This website deserves a spot among the top online design tools because it features, among other things, image perspective manipulation, channel mixing, and cloning.
3) Pixlr.com
The Pixlr.com image editor is the last image manipulation program making the top 10 online design tools list. This program features an interface similar to top graphic design software applications and is very user friendly - making it a great resource for all experience levels.
Stock Photo Websites
4) iStockphoto.com
iStockphoto.com is widely used in the graphic design community and features an extensive stock graphic library. The cost per image on iStockphoto.com is higher than other stock photo websites but the image quality is worth the higher cost.
5) Bigstockphoto.com
Lower cost photos and illustrations are available on Bigstockphoto.com if you can’t afford more expensive stock image websites. The quality of images is still high and you can browse extensive image galleries. As with most stock photo websites, you must purchase a credit bundle before downloading your first graphic.
6) Shutterstock.com
Shutterstock.com is comparable in price and quality to iStockphoto.com and contains, among other resources, photos and illustrations. Browse graphics by category or keyword to quickly locate a particular subject.
7) Stock.xchng
If you are working on a tight design budget, Stock.xchng is a great option because it offers free stock images for download. While the image qualities are lower than fee based websites, it’s still a wonderful free resource.
Graphic Design Training
Lynda.com
As a graphic designer, you must always be acquiring new skills. The Lynda.com tutorial library offers top notch free and fee-based training videos on a variety of design software programs to aid in the learning process.
9) Kelbytraining.com
Another top training website is Kelbytraining.com which offers a variety of graphic design tutorials, DVDs, and books. This resource is constantly updated with the latest software tutorials and can be a great resource to stay on top of the graphic design field.
10) Tuts+
The Tuts+ network is the final online design tool earning a spot on the top 10 list. From vector tutorials to creative sessions, this resource offers a variety of learning materials to improve your graphic design skills.
To be successful designer, you must always learn new skills and try new things. Hopefully these top 10 online design tools will be helpful outlets for improving your graphic design skills.
Sonia Mansfield is the content editor for PsPrint and editor for the PsPrint Blog. She likes to write, do yoga and make nerdy “Star Wars” and “Simpsons” references. PsPrint is an online printing solutions company, which you can follow on Twitter and Facebook.
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Top 10 Online Design Tools
Tags: a-credit-bundle ,a-graphic-designer ,a-great-option ,a-tight-design ,Advertising ,book ,design ,design-software ,image ,learning ,online-design ,resource ,tools ,while-the-image
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Written on August 2, 2010 by admin
Filed Under: marketing
We have noticed, along with many other people, just how Google and bing are beginning to look a lot alike. Google seems to be adding features that in some ways look very similar to bing’s interface. There has even been indications that Google’s stranglehold on the US search market is starting to loosen just a bit. So what does this all really mean?
According to the New York Times, this race to match features is creating some real competition. An article from this weekend opens with an interesting scenario.
Edwin Perello discovered that Bing, the Microsoft search engine, could find addresses in his rural Indiana town when Google could not. Laura Michelson, an administrative assistant in San Francisco, was lured by Bing’s flight fare tracker. Paul Callan, a photography buff in Chicago, fell for Bing’s vivid background images.
Like most Americans, they still use Google as their main search tool. But more often, they find themselves navigating to Microsoft’s year-old Bing for certain tasks, and sometimes they stay a while.
“I was a Google user before, but the more I used Bing the more I liked it,” Mr. Callan said. “It’s more like muscle memory takes me to Google.”
In some ways I have to agree with the muscle memory assessment. For me personally, I have grown so comfortable with Google that it is very hard to break the habit with the idea that there may be an option out there that is actually viable. Throw on top of it that that option is from Microsoft and it gets even more bizarre to consider.
So has there been a real impact in this so-called “arms race”? comScore suggests in the following two charts that Google shouldn’t be circling the wagons just yet but any time you see a ding in the Google market share dominance it’s worth thinking about why it has happened.
Sure the gaps are still very significant between Google and the rest of the field but there may be a few chinks in the Google armor. As a result, Google is responding.
And while no one argues that Google’s dominance is in immediate jeopardy, Google is watching Microsoft closely, mimicking some of Bing’s innovations — like its travel search engine, its ability to tie more tools to social networking sites and its image search — or buying start-ups to help it do so in the future.
Google has purchased ITA Software that does the same functions as bing’s Farecast in predicting rates for air fares. It has also made cosmetic changes with a left-hand navigation on its search results features, updates to the image presentation and the somewhat infamous Google homepage image option. All of these things come off as looking like Google is actually playing catch up to bing.
Of course, Google last year made an average of over 1.5 changes per day to its search methodology which are mostly behind the scenes. The changes that actually face the user are the ones, however, that look like they are chasing bing to some degree. We all have to remember that despite what we really know, we still live in a world where perception is reality and the perception is to many that Google is playing catch-up to bing in some areas. Is that really the case? I don’t believe so. It is interesting though, how Google’s Marissa Mayer comes off looking a little defensive in the article.
Google’s new features have not been in response to Bing, said Marissa Mayer, the company’s vice president for search products and user experience. “A lot of these things have been in the works for a long time,” she said. “Left-hand navigation we worked on for almost two years. We wanted to make sure we had it exactly right.”
For example, in May, (Google) too added the left-hand navigation tools — though Ms. Mayer of Google pointed out that many of the tools had already been available, just not easily visible from the search page.
“Certainly there’s been increased competition in the space,” Ms. Mayer said of Bing. “When there’s more competition, everyone’s search gets better, that serves the users a lot better.”
So as we anticipate just what the whole integration of bing and Yahoo! will mean to the search world, it may be more important to really be examining the two horse race that is possibly in play with Google and bing. Don’t get me wrong, bing has a lot of work ahead of it to make a real run at Google but Microsoft seems to be willing to lose money in this area in order to make a dent. Lucky for them they can afford it.
So let’s hear your take on this. Is there really competition brewing between bing and Google? What do you see happening over the next 12-18 months in the search environment? Will we look back and say that the whole “bing as competitor to Google” thing was real or just something that we needed to roll out because Google was making it boring by crushing every competitor?
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Is bing Really Challenging Google?
Written on July 30, 2010 by admin
Filed Under: searchengineguide
by Stoney deGeyter
If you have ever spent any amount of time doing keyword research you can walk away amazed (or even frustrated) about the sheer volume of ways people search for what is essentially the same thing. Take a single core term like “window cleaner” and you can get dozens, if not hundreds or thousands, of search terms all using those two keywords. This is what happens in the world of search. Someone starts with a basic concept, then continues to refine their search by adding qualifiers such as: homemade, recipes, magnetic, insurance, liability, vinyl, glass, streak free and “confessions of a” (that’s no joke) to help them find more sites that offer what they are looking for.
If you are in the window cleaning business, you can easily discount many of these qualifiers. But there will also be others in there that you most certainly will want to use to optimize your site for higher search engine rankings.
The question is, how do you target all of these qualifiers on your window cleaner web page? The simple answer is: you can’t. Nor should you want to.
Whatever keyword you are researching, the mass of keyword phrase + qualifiers can make you a bit overwhelmed. How do you target so many keywords without mucking up the site? One solution is to look at your keywords from a Research, Shop, Buy lens. Separate them based on visitor intent.
The next step is to start grouping and separating your keywords based on qualifier similarity within each segment of the shopping cycle. Pouring through a list of 50+ keyword phrases, you can immediately begin to see some distinctions between qualifiers and their meanings. The goal is to group together qualifiers that are similar in meaning and/or form a logical grouping together.
In the example above, I’ve chosen three words that can quite easily be worked into the content of a single page. If you are selling cars, you can now easily target “exotic cars,” “vintage cars”, and “classic cars” all on the same page without diluting the effectiveness of your content.
As you group similar qualifiers together, be careful about placing words together that either change the meaning or negate the others. If you were to add the word “cheap” to a page where you are also using the word “quality”, you are pretty much negating the ability to sell your item or service as “quality”.
The qualifiers used in the image above could also easily apply to a jewelry site as well. However, if you provide dance lessons, you probably won’t want to use “exotic” on the same page as “classic”. That gives these keywords an entirely different meanings.
Not all keywords will have a positive or negative impact on each other. But, for the ones that could have a possible negative impact on each other, use them together as a last resort. It’s better to find phrases that have similar meanings first.
When you target phrases with similar meaning and intent, you reinforce the message on the page. Why target the word “discount” when you’re talking about the quality of your products? Let the quality speak for itself. Have another page that offers discount items where you can go after “cheap” and “sale” and all those other words that would otherwise provide additional support or value to similar qualifiers.
Using similar qualifiers together is a great way to reinforce your message without having to repeat yourself over and over. It also helps you give your page an overall unifying theme that speaks to each visitor’s particular wants and desires.
The combination of qualifiers used will vary from site to site. Some combinations will work well for one site, but not for another, as I demonstrated above. But by grouping these similar qualifiers together, you are giving yourself fodder to move up, not only in searches using those qualifiers, but also in searches using your primary phrase. You use the many, similar words to help you focus on the one word that really matters.
This post was inspired from The Princess Bride themed presentation I gave in early 2010 at SEMpdx’s Searchfest titled Inconceivable Content: The Dread Pirate Robert’s Guide to Creating Swashbuckling Content, Pillaging the Search Engines, and Commandeering a Treasure Trove of Conversions. If you enjoyed this post you also might enjoy other posts inspired from the same. Search for “inconceivable content” on this blog to find them all.
Be sure and visit our small business news site.
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How Using Lots of Keywords Can Help You Focus On One Keyword
Tags: content ,easily-discount ,image ,impact-on-each ,keyword targeting ,keywords ,message ,page ,post ,princess ,quality ,queen ,search ,vintage ,word
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Written on July 20, 2010 by admin
Filed Under: Object
Google announced a new image search UI and new Image Search Ads today. Barry wrote about the new UI last week.
Consumer image search is much improved in several respects while the new Image Search Ads opens up ads on Google Images to all advertisers. It had been essentially limited to retailers with image feeds via [...]
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Google Revamps Image Search, Debuts Expanded Image Search Ads
Tags: a-new-image ,Advertising ,google ,growth-vs- ,image ,image-feeds ,last-week ,the-full ,the-headline ,while-the-new ,wrote-about
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Written on July 13, 2010 by admin
Filed Under: book, marketing, seo
Like many others, I recently purchased an iPad out of curiosity. While my intentions were of discovery, I quickly found some productivity gains with blogging.
The upside to blogging with an iPad is that it’s portable and you can easily log your thoughts on a screen that is a lot more convenient than typing into an iPhone or other smartphone. Also, there are a number of apps to make it fairly easy.
The downside is that even though typing is easier on a much larger screen, typing on a screen vs. a tactile keyboard still takes some getting used to, even if you’re an iPhone owner. I also found some issues with copy/paste and for web based tools, anything that uses Flash is a no-go.
Here are several tips and tools that you can use to become productive more quickly when blogging using an iPad. Each icon links to the app store and this post was written entirely on an iPad.
WordPress App – The free app for WordPress is handy and is of course a very limited version of the web based version. The advantage of using the app is a simplified view and larger editing area. Basic functions like create, edit and delete of pages, comments and posts is available. If the limited nature of the app doesn’t work for you, the web based version works well too, albeit with smaller text and work area.
Bonus tip: Another handy blogging tool for iPad is BlogPress, which now supports updating Twitter & Facebook as well as upload & embedding of YouTube videos.
Dragon Dictation – One very handy workaround awkward typing on the iPad is to use speech to text. I had pretty low expectations of Dragon speech to text software but it’s pretty easy to use. You just speak into the microphone on the iPad and then copy the text from Dragon software over into WordPress or wherever it is that you’re blogging with. There might be a few small edits to make, but I found it to be pretty efficient and pretty accurate. Speech to text saves a lot of time and it’s something you can do when typing isn’t convenient. In fact, most of this post was done with Dragon.
PhotoPad & Built-In Screen Capture – With many blog posts, I capture images as screen grabs and then do some editing to customize for a particular blog post. iPhones and iPads can easily take a picture of whatever is displayed on your screen by holding down the top and bottom buttons at the same time. The image is automatically stored to your images folder.
Then I use the free PhotoPad app to open the image and do basic editing. Upload the image using WordPress and you’re all set. Editing options are very limited and I would love to get other recommendations.
Disqus Pro App – We use Disqus to manage comments on Online Marketing Blog, so moderation duties can be handled in part with this app that is made for iPhone, but usable on the iPad.
Echofon Pro – What good is writing a great blog post (or dictating one as in our case here) if no one knows you’ve published it? That’s where tools for Twitter and/or Facebook come in. I use Echofon for my Tweeting activities on my iPhone 4 and the iPad. In regards to blog promotion, it’s a quick way to share links to your best posts. There is a Tweetdeck app for iPad too, but I’ve had little luck getting it to work.
Analytics App – If you need a quick fix for top level web stats for your blog and you use Google Analytics, then this app comes in handy. Like the other apps on this list, it’s limited, but can offer you info on the go.
Will the iPad server as a replacement device for blogging over the laptop? For now I would say no. The limited features of the iPad apps over their web counterparts means too much switching back and forth between app and browser. However, I do see the iPad providing more convenient access to blogging than a cell phone. If you’re like me and manage a large number of draft posts at any given time, being able to finish off a post in between watching streaming movies on Netflix or HuluPro can add a slice of productivity to an otherwise all-entertainment device.
There are many other apps for iPad and if you have found some that are particularly useful for blogging, please share in the comments.
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Tags: a-large-number ,a-very-limited ,book ,facebook ,free ,google ,image ,images ,ipad ,iphone ,netflix ,online marketing ,post ,thoughts
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Written on June 30, 2010 by admin
Filed Under: book, marketing, seo
This image might need updated in the years to come, but it does a great job laying out how Google works when you type a query into their search engine. Search is so easy to do that it is hard to appreciate how complex it is unless you take a look under the hood. Which is exactly what this graphic does 
Click the image to get the full sized beefy image
A side benefit of this graphic is that it should help prospective clients realize how complex SEO & PPC campaigns can be. So if anyone is trying to be an el cheapo with their budget you can use this to remind them how complex search is, and thus how time consuming and expensive a proper search marketing campaign is.
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How Does Google Work?
Written on June 15, 2010 by admin
Filed Under: seo
Posted by MichaelC
First, a quick refresher:
