seo vertical Archives by Mark Murnahan

26 Ways to Improve TopRank BIGLIST of SEM and SEO Blogs

In every industry there is a list to be on. You know, an industry “A” list. TopRank Online Marketing Blog works hard to maintain such a list in the online marketing industry. It is called the BIGLIST, and it is an A-Z list of search engine marketing and search engine optimization blogs. I agree with much of the list, but I found 26 different places where it was lacking. I will share my findings, but first, I will explain some things about my industry.

Links Rule SEO

Links are something that make or break SEO efforts. Anybody with a website should know this by now. Good SEO are particularly skilled at creating incoming links to websites, and rely on compelling content that people want to link to. Most SEO fail at linkbuilding, but the good ones have something special. Great SEO are some of the best hookers, because they “hook” you into reading what they have to say, and “hook” you into linking to it because you want to share it with others.

Any SEO blogger worth their weight in Fruit Stripe gum will write some sort of “link candy” now and then. You know, that stuff that you just cannot resist linking to or sharing to others because the SEO whipped out a Jedi mind trick or because his sexy eyes just compelled you undo an extra button.

Of course, when these linktacular search engine optimizers are looking for incoming links or to rank tidily for some given search term, it is best for them to be relatively covert about it. Nobody wants to be fooled by some SEO guy’s trickery and clever tactic of doing something that will improve his own lot in life. It is why guys like Chris Brogan announce that each affiliate link is an affiliate link and that he may benefit if you go and buy something. It is perceived as if he was hurting you by making a dollar for helping you to find the offering. So in the order of transparency, I will tell you that I want you to link to my blog like a junkie wants another hit of smack. There should be no shame in respectfully asking for assistance, and a link is not a con job or a threat to global well-being.

Sure, we marketing people are always supposed to operate under the guise of being truly altruistic and never doing anything for our own gain. After all, that is what people respond to the best. If some Murnahan fella in Topeka, Kansas tries to get a leg up and hop on a list of popular search engine optimizers who are known for killing grizzly bears with a rubber band and a toothpick, he had better be kind of hush hush about it.

Oh, for crying out loud! Did you really think I would do something that resembles conformity? Heck no, I want on that damn list, and I will fart sunshine if it will convince you to share my blog with everybody you know and ever hope to know (and their unborn children, too). Sure, I want links … I want a squillion links, but I want them for the right reasons and I am not taking food off your table to get them. I am not conning anybody for a link to my work. I am sharing information and providing value to my readers. I may even cause you to chuckle now and then, and on a good day I can make you shoot a good load of steamy coffee from your nose. Other days I may piss you off, but if I don’t get a death threat now and then, I just didn’t reach enough people. I have learned that you cannot make butter if you don’t stir the milk and polarize your audience now and then.

I like earning a living, and I am not afraid to say it. I work very hard making money for my clients as a search engine optimizer and social media marketing guy, and I have three kids to feed. The killer instinct is alive and well in Mr. Mark Aaron Murnahan, and the great news is that I am one of those toothpick-wielding grizzly bear hunting SEOs who truly does care about doing things well. I have been in my industry since the mid-1990’s and I have been behind the curtain as many clients’ great Wizard (I live in Kansas, so Wizard of Oz references are dear to me).

OK, so on with my disappointment from TopRank BIGLIST of SEM and SEO Blogs. I want to share 26 things I think TopRank has missed, and ideas to make it better. Oh, and by the way, you may also get some benefit from these useful links to blogs by other search engine optimizers. You see, there I go being useful again … I cannot help it, even when I am pushing another piece of link candy and serving my own agenda.

Listings Missing from TopRank’s BIGLIST of SEM and SEO Blogs

I found a full 26 places (one for each letter of the alphabet) that TopRank missed the mark on that BIGLIST of theirs, and I am going to share them with you. Since it is an alphabetical list of top SEOs, I will go through the 26 missed opportunities to improve their list in alphabetical order. I will include the listings immediately before and after the “oversight”, so it will be easier to reference when you look at the TopRank BIGLIST on their site.

Aussie Internet Marketing Blog – Sean Rasmussen writes “down under” about practical tips on a variety of online marketing topics including SEO, blogging, social media and general web 2.0.

Insert “aWebGuy.com SEO and Social Media Marketing Blog by Murnahan” Here

B2B Online Marketing Blog – The folks at Business.com have put together a fine resource for B2B businesses and marketers with a problem/solution format that includes case studies, conference coverage and insights on search, social media and a few Business.com product posts from time to time.

Beanstalk SEO Blog – Dave Davies blogs about news in the search engine and online marketing industry.

Insert “Bear-Killing SEO Blog by Murnahan” Here

Being Peter Kim – Previously with Forrester Research, Peter Kim now works with an Austin based strategic consulting practice that is developing an enterprise class Social Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) suite. He continues to blog about social computing, social media marketing and insights of high value to internet marketers and business leaders.

Charlene Li’s Blog – Previously a Forrester Analyst, this blog that also covers social computing and digital marketing topics.

Insert “Clever Linkbaiting That Nobody Will Notice by Murnahan” Here

ClickEquations Blog – Craig Danuloff writes this insightful paid search product blog from Commerce 360 on PPC, analytics, and internet marketing in general.

Daily SEO Tip – Search Marketing blog guru Loren Baker and SEO smartie, Ann Smarty have partnered to deliver practical, usefuland often creative SEO tips that are good for new pracitioners as well as experienced online marketers.

Insert “Damn Linkable Stuff by Murnahan” Here

Dan Zarrella – Dan is a self described, “Social Media and Viral Marketing Scientst”, and a web developer who blogs about the social media, viral marketing and SEO focused research he does and tools he’s created like the Link Attraction Factors tools and the recent Tweetbacks blog plugin.

Epiphany Digital Marketing Blog – This UK agency offers a mix of internet marketing posts from agency staffers on search, social and industry topics. Many of the posts go into detail about insights, testing and general observations from solving digital marketing problems.

Insert “Eternally Grateful Linkbaiter by Murnahan” Here

Everett Sizemore – Aka @balibones is the SEO at Gaiam and recently launched this blog dedicated to SEO. Gotta love the tag line because it’s keyword rich AND creative: “SEO Consultant – Organic Farmer of Keywords and Tomatoes”.

Flyte Blog – Rich Brooks writes about web marketing for small business.

Insert “Forever Linkbaiting by Murnahan” Here

Forrester Blog for Interactive Marketing – Excellent group blog from Forrester on various aspects of interactive marketing from B2B social media to search marketing to research and industry news.

Get Elastic Ecommerce Blog – The team at Vancouver BC based Elastic Path, an ecommerce platform, blog all angles of conducting tansactional business online ranging from general marketing to usability to social media. There’s are also a series of podcasts from last summer worth checking out.

Insert “Getting a Toothache from Sweet Link Candy by Murnahan” Here

Google Blogoscoped – Phillip Lenssen’s blog about mostly Google.

Holistic Search Blog – UK based Peter Young blogs mostly about internet marketing topics with an emphasis on tips, commentary and insights related to SEO, PPC and online marketing.

Insert “Honest Marketing Ideas by Murnahan” Here

Hubspot Marketing Blog – The team at HubSpot writes about internet marketing and online lead generation for small business.

I – Com Blog – Searched, designed and developed. That about sums up this Manchester based internet marketing agency blog that covers design, development, copywriting and search marketing.

Insert “I Think This May Pass as Linkbait by Murnahan” Here

Ignite Social Media – Ignite is a social media consultancy with the company web site running as a blog. Topics logically emphasize social media with some optimization flavorings. More information on the post authors and a fix to the 404 on the job openings page would be nice.

Junta42 Blog – Joe Pulizzi takes his own advice and provides great tips and advice on marketing and retaining customers with content which is really spot on if you subscribe to the “give to get” principles of social media marketing.

Insert “Just a Bit More Link Baiting by Murnahan” Here

Justin Freid – As Traffic and Lead Delivery Optimization Manager at Petersons.com, Justin Freid posts his personal insights and tips on SEO, PPC and Social Media on this very new and very well designed blog.

Keyword Driven – This is Acronym Media’s agency blog (55th floor of the Empire State Building) which has a variety of posts on SEO topics, tools and observations from a mix of staff. Although, with just 2 posts in December and only 1 in January, blogging isn’t a high priority at the moment.

Insert “Kids … Did I Mention I Have Kids? by Murnahan” Here

KoMarketing Associates SEM Blog – A group/company blog covering SEO, PPC, events, industry news/trends, tips and a lot of personal insight. These folks are clearly involved in, and have an opinion on, what goes on in the industry.

Local SEO Guide – With Andrew Shotland it’s all about local internet marketing and he blogs it well.

Insert “Look! Another SEO Blog by Murnahan” Here

LyndiT blog gets our attention for great design and user experience in this BIGLIST update. Lyndi Thompson is a Social Media and Online Marketing Specialist and like me, is addicted to peanut M&Ms. Besides writing about a mix of social media, SEO, web design and online marketing topics, you might be interested to know Lyndi lives on a mini farm, owns several animals including a donkey and supports some great causes in the Northwest.

Mannix Marketing Blog – This agency blog focuses mostly on SEO, web design & Internet marketing as well as agency news and involvement with industry events.

Insert “Mark is Just Short for Marketing by Murnahan” Here

Marketer Insight – This is an agency blog from the team at WebSiteBiz covering “current thinking and strategies related to improving online marketing” with search, social media and analytics focused posts from Eric Dudley, Kyle Bumgardner and Tom Dressler.

NLC Internet Marketing Blog – A light posting group blog from the folks at non linear creations.

Insert “No Good Reason to Overlook aWebGuy.com by Murnahan” Here

North South Media Blog – This Scotland based agency blog offers tips, news, interviews and an interesting “Top SEO Companies” feature each month that ranks regional, national and international SEO agencies by keyword rankings.

Online Marketing Blog – Lee Odden and TopRank team members blog about search marketing, social media as well as interviews, reader polls, SEO blog reviews, marketing tips, guest posts from industry leaders and SEM conference coverage.

Insert “Only One BIGLIST Listing is OK by Murnahan” Here

Optimized! – Mary Bowling is an experienced online marketer who writes for a Local Search Marketing column for ClickZ. She’s also blogged her observations and insights about a range of SEO topics and of course, local SEM since December 2007.

Practical Blogging – Adsense, affiliate advertising & general blogging help from Robyn Tippins.

Insert “Pretty Hard to Miss This SEO by Murnahan” Here

Proactive Report – Sally Falkow blogs about online PR and social media

Insert “Quite Interesting Blog by Murnahan” Here – The only “Q” blog on BIGLIST.

Read/WriteWeb – Next generation web technology from Richard MacManus.

Insert “Really Similar to Read/WriteWeb if You Squint Hard Enough by Murnahan” Here

Receptional – Added on November 2007, we’re happy to see this UK based blog re-added to BIGLIST. Dixon Jones and the team at UK internet marketing agency Receptional blog the gamut of web marketing topics including affiliate and search marketing, usability, analytics and social media.

SEO and Tech Daily – The Daily Scoop on SEO, SEM, PPC Trends, Analytics, Web 2.0 start-ups and more!

Insert “SEO and Social Media Marketing Blog by Murnahan” Here

Seoaware Blog – Freelance writer and web designer Melissa Fach blogs about her thoughts on search marketing and points to many articles of interest.

The Leading Edge – PR and social media guru Sally Falkow has her own blog on this list already, but also shares her insights on trends in PR technology for popular PR industry publication Bulldog Reporter. Sally’s advice includes online PR, social media and search marketing.

Insert “The Least Obvious Linkbait Ever by Murnahan” Here

The Search Insider – Not to be confused with MediaPost’s “Search Insider”, this blog from Wpromote’s Mike Mothner provides insight into pay per click and the business of search marketing.

Trail of the Fire Horse – Another excellent Canada based search and social media marketing blog comes this time from the very smart/savvy Dave Harry aka “the Gypsy”.

Insert “Underestimated SEO by Murnahan” Here

Understanding Google Maps & Yahoo Local Search – The title of this blog by Mike Blumenthal says it all.

Vertical Measures Blog – This Phoenix, AZ agency blog focuses on SEO, link building, agency events and industry observations, Posts are written mostly by Social Media Architect, Kaila Strong.

Insert “Very Underestimated SEO by Murnahan” Here

VIZION Blog – Search Engine Watch columnist Mark Jackson and his team at VIZION blog about a wide range of SEO topics, worth subscribing to for sure.

WebConnoisseur – Dustin Woodard’s thoughts on search, web analytics and the web in general.

Insert “Web Guys Don’t Linkbait by Murnahan” Here

Web Ink Now – David Meerman Scott helps innovative marketers use digital information effectively.

Insert “X Should Be SEO’d Too by Murnahan” Here

Yoast Tweaking Web sites – This blog from Joost de Valk covers web design and SEO from the Netherlands.

Insert “Yoast Who? I’ll Show You Yoast by Murnahan” Here

Yodel Anecdotal – Yahoo! company blog.

Insert “Zen SEO by Murnahan” Here

This concludes my list of 26 Ways to Improve TopRank’s BIGLIST of SEO. Now, I know I am not supposed to do this, because people don’t like to see other people get ahead. However, if you want to share this with others who may find it to be interesting, I will tip my big white SEO hat to you.

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Tylenol Cyanide Murders Reflected in Social Media

In 1982 when the world heard that somebody had laced Tylenol products with potassium cyanide, many people were terrified to take a Tylenol for their headache for fear it would kill them. Some caution was in order, for certain. I remember my mother dumping out any Tylenol we had in the house after watching the reports on television. Was it realistic to believe we actually had laced Tylenol in our own home? Probably not, but similar types of unrealistic caution and chaos are still happening every day in social media. Can you imagine how many more people would have been trying to capitalize on those news stories if Twitter was around back then?

The Tylenol cyanide murders of 1982 changed a lot of consumer views. If you don’t believe me, just take a look at the packaging of nearly any product. Before 1982, product packaging was much less secure. Many products could easily be tampered and you would never know it. This created a lot of change in the world, and it resembles changes that we see in social media. From location-aware service causing home burglaries to swine flu (H1N1) killing millions, to social media marketing, the Internet is wrought with fear-selling. I will give you some examples and hope you see the similarities.

Location Aware Social Media

There have been a handful of reports of people’s homes being burglarized after they made a Foursquare, Twitter, or other social media service update while away from home. This is a very personal matter that I neither strongly advocate nor oppose, but as an observer, I think the reactions are a bit overzealous. All of the sudden, there is a huge wave of concern for home security making headlines. It didn’t take many burglaries to see a mob mentality take shape and for people to use fear to spread a message. A smaller number of people made the point that only because you make an update away from home does not mean that nobody else is home. Even fewer made the point that it may be better to be away from home while the burglar is at work.

Swine Flu Put Twitter Over Capacity

I blogged about the Swine Flu (H1N1) spread on Twitter very early, on 25 April 2009. It was an amazing case of how quickly things can be passed along, but also how little vetting and how much corruption can happen in communications. I also wrote about concerns of real-time social journalism vs. professionally vetted journalism. Fears are easy to promote, while facts are often a bit harder to produce.

Social Media is a Great Marketing Tool

When the world heard that social media is a great marketing tool, the masses rushed in. It seems that every public relations rep, advertising rep, or SEO who was starving in their line of work decided to starve selling social media services instead. Note that those fields are not dead. There are still successful PR firms, advertising agencies, and even SEO who do not sell social media consulting and marketing services at all. Although each of these services are deeply intertwined, many of the people who made significant efforts to focus on social media above their previous focus did so because they were already at a low production level. It seems that since many of them saw a bunch of people talking about their business on Facebook, they signed up for everything they could get their hands on and hung their shingle as a social media expert. That should get them rich beyond all belief, right?

This can initially create more of a problem than a solution for the industry. It creates great challenges for people to filter quality. At the same time, there is the positive side, in that it causes the cream to rise to the top, so to speak. Business uses the same law of nature that we call “survival of the fittest” and the weak will starve and eventually die.

As we wait for the weak or less talented to die their slow miserable death, we endure these times of turmoil. Saying that anybody can provide a justifiable service to a company in social media is like saying that any guy off the street can be Tom Brokaw or Walter Cronkite. Sure, they can report something, and they can even make it believable, but is there a sustained value? We shall see, but in the end, I believe it all comes out well.

In the famous words of Walter Cronkite, “… and that’s the way it is.”

Here are some delicious tater chips for your enjoyment. Many SEO / Internet marketing and non-SEO people alike took notice of my recent article on how to sell SEO (and compare SEO). It is a pretty important topic for anybody hoping to do more business using the Internet. So, I thought I would write a piece on how to market SEO, but as before, this is not just for the SEO and Internet marketing folks. Whether you sell SEO services, fishing lures, or potato chips, this article can help you, too.

Don’t get confused just yet if you are not in the fields of sales or marketing. This should help to get your thoughts in the right place, too.

Sales and Marketing Are Not The Same!

I want to get this point clear first. Sales and marketing are so often intertwined that some people just look at them as the same thing. Please pay close attention. Sales and Marketing are not the same thing!

People in the fields of sales and marketing often realize this, but even they will get this mixed up a lot of times. Sure, the two disciplines of selling and marketing both have the similar focus of driving more dollars into your pocket with super-fantastic return on investment (you know, ROI). If you seek the definitions in many places, you may even find these two terms to be very similar. The truth is that they are different … they are vertical, but not the same. I can tell you that many salespeople know a similar amount about marketing analytics as their marketing counterpart knows about being bitten by that dog that answered the door on the last sales call.

Some people have called me a great salesman. They clearly missed something, because I actually kind of stink as a salesman in some ways. I give them the proof they want, but I am not about to grovel to the lowest bidder … that is just not my style. If I have to ask somebody to buy what I do, I consider it a failure in my marketing. This is because if the marketing is done right, the sale should be nothing but the fun part. Really, if somebody wants a big sales pitch, I just tell them to get a pen handy so I can have them call some of my customers … or even better, read more of my blog.

So argue if you must (that is why I allow your comments), but let us look at this as Internet sales being when somebody clicks your “buy” button or rings your phone, while marketing involves the sequence of events that led up to that wonderful (huge beam of light coming from the sky and angels singing) click that made your cash register ding.

Vertical Market? Guard your Wallet!

I do not like those industry terms people toss around just to sound smart or to throw the customer off long enough to grab their wallet. I have made fun of this in the past, because it is often designed to obscure the message just enough to distract a smart and hard working person who just doesn’t have a reason to know everything about cytology, acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, or how to bring more customers to their business.

If you are not a marketing person, you may not understand a vertical market compared to a horizontal market, or a skazmodic market. OK, I made that last one (skazmodic) up just for fun. You are not expected to know everything about marketing. Seriously, nobody knows everything about marketing, and the majority of the world’s population has another discipline to focus on. Should a dentist know as much about marketing as a marketer knows about dentistry? Not at all, but I can tell you that either of them is just as important in whether you eat or not. Without good marketing, most of what you know in this world would look a whole lot different.

So you may ask, what is a vertical market? Let me break the term “vertical market” down for you. If you are selling fishing lures, it is a vertical of fishing supplies, which is a vertical of outdoor sports. Other vertical markets are camping supplies, and hunting, but fishing lures will probably never be a part of aircraft repair (and if so, please choose a different airline).

Wikipedia includes the description of a vertical market as follows:

“The activities of participants within any given vertical market are typically similar in that they aim at solving the same or similar problems. These markets are typically competitive, due to the overlapping focuses of the products and services that are provided to the customers.”

Love Your Vertical Market … I Do!

In the SEO profession or in any market, I suggest falling in love with your vertical market. Get to know this market and it will not take very long to realize that your vertical market is chock full of mutually-beneficial assets. With this considered I use SEO as my example. Surely you can see how SEO is a vertical of website design, web development, web hosting, technology, marketing, advertising, and more. These are markets for the SEO professional to consider as their friends. Yes, vertical markets are your friends! Do not mistake this, because if you do it will hurt your bottom line whether you sell SEO / Internet marketing, fishing lures, or potato chips.

Any marketer worth the water they are made of should be highly aware of the vertical markets of their clients. Sadly for marketers, as so many marketers seem to be fighting for the same dollars, they forget about their own vertical market. For example, I am a search engine optimizer (SEO), but if you think that means I do not work very closely with other SEO, you must think I am totally stupid. These folks are my closest allies, and often my best clients. That is because as with any industry, we each have specific skills and when we put those skills together, we get a whole lot more accomplished. Digg.com is really not a huge piece of my own personal work, but you can bet that I know a whole bunch of people to who leverage it massively. On the other hand, I have somewhat of a whacky way of producing content with massive appeal. I mean, I produce really great results with things I come up with after a gallon of coffee and a pack of cigarettes. I do all of the things an SEO does. I create content, I am a programmer of about every known language, I have wicked skills with incoming link production, I am highly active in a squillion social media venues, I write for a good handful of blogs, and so many other things. So am I out to grab up the whole market by myself? Heck no! Not at all, because the more meat on the bone for those friendly competitors, the more food is on my table, too.

This, my friends, is vertical marketing at its best. Never think you are so amazing that you should try to do it all by yourself. The best SEO people know where their marketing talent lies, just the way the heart surgeon knows that he doesn’t want to perform vasectomies.

Horizontal Market … Oh, Beautiful Sunrise!

If the sun rises with your horizontal market, there are still some pretty huge things to consider. If you are trying to sell your product or service to anybody and everybody, you do so at your own demise. Trust me … no wait … I hate that term, because it implies that I have been lying to you all along. Don’t trust me … just go find out for yourself how miserably you will fail at trying to reach the hundreds of millions of people who desperately need what you offer if you can just tell them all about it. Let me know how that went after you spend hundreds of squillions of dollars on that campaign. Just be sure you set a couple squillion aside for when you are ready to do it the right way.

Consider the massive potential customer base of a potato chip company. They must have a really easy marketing plan. All they have to do is tell everybody who eats potato chips how good their product is, right? Wrong! If this was the case, you would probably never see a potato chip company advertising that their product is fat-free, in earth-friendly packaging, cheesier than the rest, low salt, in a nice can so the chips don’t get broken, or any of the other things that segment their market based on targeted desires.

To the SEO / Internet marketing people reading this:
Let’s think about that vertical market and start working together.

To the rest of you:
Call me right now so I can get my vertical market to talking about targeted reasons that your potato chips taste so amazing.

Wow, did you see that coming? I have something that anybody with something to market needs, but I am calling my vertical market to action. It is fancy how that works, isn’t it?

Tag: seo vertical