I attended the SEMNE meeting last night that featured Eric Enge of Stone Temple Consulting. Eric talked about the ramifications of Google’s Panda Update.

You can read the various points he made. (The link goes to the Twitter search results for the hashtag #semne — if you can’t see anything, just go to Twitter and use #semne in your search.)

Suffice to say, the key takeaway is this: Unique content written by people for people AND NOT SEARCH ENGINES is key. What is unique content? It’s content that:

1. Isn’t a rehash of crap that already exists.

2. Isn’t stuffed full of keywords.

3. Answers people’s questions — whether they’re making a purchase decision or writing a paper.

Google is getting much smarter (and I think with Larry Page back in the CEO seat, we’ll be seeing even more changes like the Panda Update as Google refines its core product: search). All kinds of things, from social media signals to whether people have blocked a site using the Google Chrome extension, now play into how a site ranks.

What all this means for B2B is that your content must be fresh, clean, and unique. According to Enge, Google’s Panda algorithm is going to become much, much smarter and pretty soon it’s going to be knocking smaller crappy sites off the top positions for many of the same reasons that it bumped off eHow.com and Ezinearticles.com. (As my clients know, I have never advocated adding spammy, half-baked articles to sites like these for SEO or marketing purposes).

Jill Whalen is forever saying that content that’s good for people is good for search engines. Write great content — or get someone like me to write it for you — and you won’t ever need to worry about things like the Panda Update. You’ll also increase conversions and sales.

I read an article in a newsletter recently that stated marketers should ensure their most important message appears at the top of a Web page as Google cuts off search results after a short number of words.

I know for a fact that search engine bots “read” and cache all of the information on a page because I’ve seen my own “bottom of the page” content in the SERPs.

However, things change all the time, so I checked this dubious fact with my good friend Jill Whalen, founder of High Rankings. Here’s Jill’s response verbatim:

Wow, that’s straight out of the 1995 SEO handbook. There are no rules when it comes to the search engines in terms of number of words or [their] placement on the page. Whatever is best for people is typically best for search engines since they’re looking for the best pages for their users (the searchers).

There you have it! To see how Google does view your page, you can do the following exercise:

1. Run a search for your company name. Your company should be #1. (If not, call me!) Click the “Cached” link on your listing.

2. This brings you to Google’s “Snapshot” of your page. Here you can see when Google last crawled your site — always handy information to have. Click the “Text-Only Version” link in the top right corner.

3. This brings you to a new page that shows you how Google’s bot sees your page. You should see lots of yummy text for the bot to crawl — and index.

Seeing this page should make it very clear why copy that’s good for people (your prospects and customers) is also good for search engines.

Don’t see any text or you want to create more of it? You can call me about that, too. I write damned good optimized Web content that shows up in search engines and that gets your prospects to call you.

The SEO world is abuzz with Google’s confirmation that it does NOT use the keywords in the meta keyword tag when determining how a site ranks in the search engine.

In its Google Webmaster Blog, Google states, “Google doesn’t use the ‘keywords’ meta tag in our web search rankings.”

For those of you who don’t know, the meta keyword tag is found in your HTML source code. To find it, open your Web browser and click “View” and then “Source.” This will open a new page where you can see the HTML code. As an example, I’ve shown Yahoo’s! Title and meta tags below:

I’m glad Google repeated their stance about the keyword tag again — because quite frankly, I’m still amazed at the number of people who think that the keyword tag is important.

One prospect called me a few months ago, for example, asking about my SEO services. When I gave him a quote, he choked due to sticker shock and said he had to “get back to me” (re: find a cheaper alternative).

He called me a few weeks later to exclaim, “My site’s optimized! I found someone to do it for me.”

I had to laugh because the SEO “expert” had simply put keywords in the keyword meta tag.

I’ve had other companies say, “We want to rank for this keyword,” and when I say, “Well, you need content to support that keyword” (as in a new page or pages plus links), I usually hear, “Can’t you just put keywords in the keyword tag?”

Short answer: No.

So people, listen up. Google does not and never did look at the keywords in the keyword tag. Period. If you don’t want to listen to me, do pay attention to Google’s Matt Cutts.

According to the experts at Planet Ocean, publishers of Search Engine News, “. . . very soon any business, small, large, local or international must include a plan and strategy to incorporate Local Search optimization efforts into their online marketing plan or be left to catch up on those who do.”

This is basically the same thing I said in my MarCom Strategist newsletter, “Increase Business with Local Search” (I read SE News after publishing it, so obviously great minds think alike!).

In short, local search is going to be BIG! HUGE! (as Julia Roberts says in the movie Pretty Woman) so it pays to take steps now to ensure customers / prospects can find your site when they’re searching for it — whether they’re down the street or across the U.S.

In addition to having a site optimized for search engines, you also need to get your business listed in the three search engines’ local listing centers.

Before you begin, take a moment to ensure you have accounts with all three search engines. You’ll need a Windows Live ID for Bing.

Google Local Business Center
Yahoo! Local
Bing Local Listing Center

Once you open your accounts, you’re effectively creating profiles people can see, so you’ll want to take a minute to ensure that people you don’t know are viewing only the information you want them to see.

Setting up your local listings is pretty easy but can take a good half hour or more — and after having just added my listing to Yahoo and Bing, I have three tips you can do before-hand to help you save some time.

1. Create a tag line — Each listing center requires you to include a tag line of approximately 150 to 200 characters that describes your business. Be sure to develop a tag line that describes what you do using action verbs and plain English.

2. Write a description — Yahoo and Bing also require that you include a longer description where you can flesh out the services you offer and what makes you unique from your competition.

I created a really good one for Yahoo and then kicked myself when I realized that I couldn’t access my Enhanced Yahoo Listing since it’s pending review — hence, I had to make a new one for Bing from memory.

So be sure to have your tag line and description ready to go in a separate document when updating or adding your local listings. (This step ensures that your tag and description are the same across all three platforms, too.)

3. Have images ready to go — All three local listing platforms let you upload images, including photographs of your products (or yourself) and videos. Save time by having these images and/or URLs ready to go.

In addition to the basic listings, Yahoo offers an Enhanced Listing for $9.95 per month and a Featured Listing for $24.95 per month.

And speaking of Yahoo, you can also pay $299 annually to be listed in the Yahoo Directory. Now, I’ve read in places that getting listed is good for SEO as Google considers the directory a trusted source. (This is because a “real” person reviews each directory listing.)

However, some people believe that a Yahoo Directory listing can adversely affect your Yahoo rankings, so I can’t advise you whether you should pay the fee or not.

And, if you were grandfathered into the Yahoo Directory the way I was (and hence don’t have to pay the $299 annual fee) and you’re listed in the wrong category but your URL is correct, just leave it alone (which seems to be the general consensus).

And that’s it for setting up local search listings. Once they’re complete, you’ll then want to ask your customers to post online reviews to sites such as Yelp — which is a Google Partner — as reviews are now part of the local search algorithm.

I’ve been watching my e-newsletter new subscriber stats for a while now, mostly because the number of subscribers had been increasing even though e-newsletter open rates have been declining — according to most industry reports.

In the last year, the number of people who subscribe to my e-newsletter on a daily / monthly basis has doubled, as has the overall number on the list.

The number of subscribers started increasing when I added my e-newsletter subscription form to this blog — which generates more traffic now than my DH Communications, Inc. Website.

Because I have a field on my subscription form that asks people how they found me, I’m able to see which marketing tactics generate the most subscribers.

Hands down, “search” is the number one method of driving traffic and subscribers. Over 89% of new visitors to the blog came through Google organic search alone (for the period 1/1/09 to 6/15/2009).

For the time period cited, approximately 25% of all newsletter subscribers came via search.

Writing articles for other blogs, portals, and e-newsletters is the second best way to drive traffic and subscriptions. For example, an article I wrote for Jill Whalen’s High Rankings Newsletter netted over 100 new subscribers in 24 hours.

And today (June 25), MarketingProfs featured my blog post about “Plug & Play Website Templates” in their Get to the Point e-newsletter — which is driving e-newsletter subscribers even as I write!

What has surprised me the most, however, is the number of subscribers who come in from *comments* I’ve left on blogs — as well as links to this blog from other bloggers.

I’m surprised for two reasons: I didn’t really think people followed blog links, and two, blogs were supposed to supplant e-newsletters when in fact, it’s blogs driving the traffic — and subscriptions.

I’m not quite sure what ideas or analysis I can derive from my numbers except for this:

Despite the number of blogs to which I’m subscribed and don’t have time to read, I always seem to find time for e-newsletters and this is because the e-newsletter arrives in my inbox — whereas I have to open my blog reader to access new blog posts, something I don’t do often enough.

An e-newsletter is like a good sandwich — quick and easy to digest.

Done well, e-newsletters give me a quick tip or two I can use. Most important, they arrive in my inbox without me having to do much of anything — except subscribe once.

If you read still subscribe to and read e-newsletters, please tell me why. I’d love to know.

I’ve been working on a complete Website overhaul for a dentist and noted, while cruising around the Internet, that many dentists across the U.S. use templated or “out of the box” Websites.

For busy dentists, these types of Websites make sense: you get a template with all the pages you need and you simply plug in your content via a content management system (CMS). The CMS even shows you where to add in your name and local keywords, such as the towns from which your patients come in order to help with local search.

The danger with these sites, however, is that they come with “hidden” code. Because the dentist has no clue about HTML or SEO, they don’t know that their source code is filled with stuff like this (name changed to protect the scumbag company):

Copyright 2009 Scumbag, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This software, source code, HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and all other content and code is copyrighted
by Scumbag, Inc. and may NOT be copied, reproduced, translated, reverse engineered, reduced to
any electronic medium or machine-readable form without the prior written consent of Scumbag, Inc.,
except that you may use it according to our Terms of Use agreement. Terms of Use may be
modified at anytime, and you agree to be bound by such modifications.

As small business owners find, much to their dismay, the scumbag company could construe these terms to say they own your site and your content. Afterall, the copyright is there in the code.

According to my Web designer, Jim Somers at Sonora DesignWorks, he gets calls all the time from companies that learn they don’t even own their own domain names because they went with a Web marketing company offering a “turnkey Website solution.”

In addition to the above copy found in one dentist’s source code, I also found that the scumbag company also included links back to its site via the image alt tags. Nice — for the scumbag company!

Key takeaway for small businesses: You get what you pay for. If you have no clue about Website design, SEO, online marketing or anything else, get help. Don’t settle for the cheapest alternative or a DIY site. You’ll end up paying much more than if you had simply went the professional route the first time around.

I write a monthly real estate newsletter for my client, ForeclosuresMass.

Each month I have to find real estate experts to interview on topics ranging from property management and rehabbing to marketing and financing.

Of course, the first place I begin my search is with Google. And, many of the top results for my search terms include articles submitted by “experts” to article submission sites.

After clicking through to these articles, however, I’ve learned that many times you can’t contact the people behind the articles. One day I spent close to two hours trying to track down an “expert” whose name was on all kinds of articles (which were actually rather well done).

Alas, I could not find him — not on any real estate Website, Facebook, LinkedIn, or via Google search on his name and town. I realized that his articles were simply a means to get people to his e-commerce site — and even then, you could not contact him. (Which then made me wonder what he was hiding.)

Suffice to say, I now skip over articles when they appear in the search results and have learned how to cherry pick the real experts — those that have real Websites that include contact information.

I bring up this topic because my last blog post, about saving money on translations, has garnered a number of comments. I wondered if the post is appearing for search terms. I checked, and yes, it’s at the top in Google for “saving money on translations” (I’ve seen it at #1 and #2).

The listing directly below it is to an article on the Ezine Articles site.

Those people who promote submitting articles to sites like Ezine Articles state that it helps you get top search engine listings. True enough.

However, a well-written blog and/or Website can get you the same results – with the additional benefit of driving people to content that resides on YOUR site versus content that resides with thousands of other “experts” on another site.

Having the same article appear on dozens of sites dilutes the value of the content as it’s no longer fresh or original. (And, I’ve found, too, that those blogs and ezines that re-use the content often don’t include links back to the author’s site/blog.)

The translation article in question does at least send people to a valid Website.

But don’t you think it would be better if the company included all kinds of optimized, educational content on its own Website or a blog — in the form of articles, reports, surveys, etc. — versus submitting it to article sites?

(I wonder, too, if Google won’t start cracking down on this duplicate content. Currently, you can find a “reprinted” article listed 3 – 5 times in the top 20 search results for a given search phrase. Is this duplication really helping people find the best information?)

“Content is king!” is a common phrase. It used to mean that content drove targeted traffic and leads/sales.

Now it means developing what Jill Whalen, of High Rankings, terms, “madlib spam pages where you simply substitute keyword phrases from one page into another.”

In her latest High Rankings Advisor e-newsletter, Jill talks about setting realistic SEO expectations. It’s very difficult now to rank well for keyword phrases — even those that aren’t that competitive in terms of search traffic. 

In addition to hundreds of thousands of sites now jockeying for position, Google continues to make changes to the search experience on a regular basis.

(For example, if you’re logged into your Google account, you can move search listings up and down on the page! And, Google will show you results based on your own search history while also serving up results based on your IP address.)

As Jill points out, this doesn’t mean SEO is dead, but it certainly does mean that you need to set SEO goals based on your **business strategy** — not on being “number 1″ for a keyword.

A good SEO strategy includes specific SEO tactics, such as using the right keywords that drive qualified (or targeted) traffic AND creating content that helps drive conversions — from getting people to sign up for your e-newsletter or downloading a white paper to viewing an online demo or actually buying a product.

(It also includes all sorts of other things, such as social media and viral marketing, public relations, and integrating traditional offline tactics.)

Unethical SEO companies will tell you that they can make your site #1 for dozens of keywords (I know, because I’ve had plenty of people call me who have shelled out thousands of dollars with little return after working with these companies).

The SEO/marketing firms you can trust, however, are those that will tell you the truth — that SEO, like marketing, is a long-term strategy that requires consistent and strategic application.

The Chicago Business Marketing Association recently hosted guest speaker Jennifer Howard, Google’s head of B2B and local markets for the Central Region. Her comments were featured in a Finance and Commerce article.

Howard cites a number of reasons why the Internet is a blessing for B2B companies.

1. B2B companies don’t need large budgets to make an impact online — Because the Internet has leveled the playing field, companies don’t need boatloads of money to reach customers. Companies can disseminate white papers, free reports, Webinars, e-books, articles and all sorts of other information and tools — efficiently and cost-effectively via the Internet.

I’m in the process of updating my Website and while going over my keywords and Google stats I noted — to my dismay and awe — that one single archived issue of my newsletter is generating tons of traffic.

I’m dismayed because the keywords people are using to get to my site have nothing to do with my B2B marketing communications services. The newsletter in question was an interview with another B2B expert.