Checkout the latest posting at RM about Analytic Stratagies for Retailers.  It’s a good one…

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MSJ New Article

A few months back I had an interview for the MSJ alumni news paper.   The article was about Alumni that live outside of the Cincinnati area (as a side note, the bulk of the alumni live in the greater Cincinnati area).

Above is my quote (because this is my blog)…but check out the whole article: Hey Alumni, We’re Not Just In Cincinnati Anymore

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Facebook became famous becuase of its adoption on college campuses.  But like every national icon, college kids love to make fun of it.  Checkout CollegeHumor.com or its Youtube Channel to see some great clips.  Preview listed below:

Facebook Off:

Extreme Facebook Wall Makeover

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Apparently So….  Yahoo OMG! News is reporting that Ashton Kutcher is the first Twit (I guess that is a person that tweets on twitter.com) to reach a 1,000,000 followers.  He beat out “rival” CNN Breaking News.  Normally I stay as far away from celebrity news as I can, but this I found interesting because…well just because there is that many people on the planet that actual care about what Ashton Kutcher has to say.   That being said, it is a classic example of if you have something worth listening to and a personality worth paying attention to, you can use Twitter, and the whole social media platform for that matter, to keep in touch and build relationships.

Congrats Ashton.

Disclaimer…the Twitter plug was not really a dig as I also Tweet.  Follow me @NathanJanitz.

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Migrating Blogger to WordPress

Earlier this year I talked about how to get a new blog out of Google’s sandbox by starting your blog in Blogger and the moving it to WordPress for its advanced SEO features.   Aaron Goldman commented that he would like to know exactly how to do that.  Well, I’m sure he isn’t the only one.  The first step is to look at if you are working on Google’s server or your own.  Some people don’t want to pay for hosting (like me with my wine blog) while some don’t mind chipping in the money for a hosting service (like Intellect Interactive).  This migration will only work if you are looking to host your blog on your own server (not Google’s or any other free service), and if you are looking to drop the .blogspot from your URL.

First Migrating From the BlogSpot domain to Your Own Domain:

This step is important because Google WILL NOT run its 301 redirect program unless it does so through blogger.  You WILL lose a lot of your rankings if you do not move your blog to your new URL through blogger.

Start by buying the non-BlogSpot domain name and migrate your files over to that domain.  Blogger will auto-build the 301 redirects for you if you stay on the blogger profile.  Follow the blogger external hosting instructions.  You will instantly see the blog instantly work on your new domain, but the BlogSpot 301 redirect will usually takes about a month to complete (have seen it in a few days but can take up to a month).    Once you have your blog working in a non-BlogSpot domain, you can start the blogger to WordPress process.

Download WordPress  -

Once you have your dedicated URL (newblog.com), setup another folder within your  FTP folder for WordPress.  This will keep your Blogger files and WordPress files separated while you work , and this step will allow you to work on your new template without interfering with your present publish schedule.

Download WordPress for free and place it inside its newly created home on your FTP folder.  WordPress is pretty self explanatory and they have a very in depth help section.  Don’t worry about where on not your URL is point to your homepage right off the bat.  Those are setting you can switch later.  In fact, it is probably a good idea to temporally host your new blog in folder no-one knows about until you have it fully setup.

Setup Template -

One of the best parts about WordPress is the endless number of free design templates.  Before you migrate your blog over to your new platform, take the time to setup your template to your exact standards and speciation. That includes:

• Install all widgets like: HeadSpace2, SphinnIt, and AskApache Re-Write Plug In
• Setup URL parameters. If you want to change your structure, then here is your chance.
• Look and Feel (3 column blog, 2 column blog, 1 column blog, right or left nav, etc.)

Again, set it up in its own folder and use that folder as a beta folder until you are ready for launch.  Once you have the new blog looking good, then it is time to migrate your blog.

Migrating Your Blogger Blog to WordPress-

Once you are in your WordPress CMS system, navigate to the import tool: Tools > Import

WP Blog Import Tool Dashboard

Pick your blog platform to import by clicking on the name.  It will take you to a start screen that looks like the screenshot below.    Follow the onsite instruction to import posts, comments, and tags.

WP Blogger Import Tool

Once you have moved your blog over, you will have to categorize the URLs as to give them new SEO friendly homes.  Depending on which plug in you have to handle URL building will depend on how you go about re-categorizing your posts.   If you do not keep the same structure as blogger (which I wouldn’t), make sure you setup a 301 strategy for each URL so you don’t lose link popularity and give your visitors a bad user experience.

If this sounds simple, it is because it is a simple process.  Just make sure you take the time to plan out your categorization, build your template, and have a good 301 strategy in place.   Happy hunting!

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I’m testing a new twitter plugin to see if it will update my account…..

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In our industry, we often assume “viral” means a really digital.  While viral usual will end up digital…it doesn’t have to start out that way.  I was watching the Big Ten tournament (Boiler Up) this past weekend and saw a commercial from Honda about the “Musical Road Experiment.”

I’m paraphrasing this, but here is the gist.  You’re driving down the road and hit those groves that wake you up when you are falling asleep at the wheel and they make noise, right?  Well, what if you ran over a road with those same groves, but cut so that it plays a song?  Welcome to the Honda Musical Road Experiment.  Check out the video below:

Ya….who wouldn’t love listening to the William Tell Overture while riding down the road?  The best part about THIS campaign is that it has taken on a whole new life of its own.  Looking at the latest Gatorade videos, they had a great viral life to them…but the video was spread around pretty much untouched (unless you count the re-mixes using the same video but with a different background music and/or voiceover).

Search for “musical road experiment” (have to use the quotes because YouTube) and look when Honda’s videos actually come up…it’s like 5^th.  The rest of the videos are self-made home movies talking about the road.    Sometimes the best content is the video itself (take Ball Girl by Gatorade or Kobe’s Nike Stuff), but you don’t need a high dollar production company or a pro-athlete to get your brand to go viral.  Honda put something in place that allowed everyone to take part in the production….not just pass the video around to their friends.   Viral isn’t about the brand but about the coolness and uniqueness of the idea.  We are many moons removed from the ball girl or Kobe jumping over a car…and the viral campaign has since diminished.  However, Honda created something that will stay as a reminder until the road needs to be repaired (if the roads are anything like here in Chicago, then that will 2 months after they finished the project…but that’s another story).  Viral has to be cool, but doesn’t have to start online.   If it’s cool enough then it will end up there anyway.

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By now I’m sure you have seen the teaser campaign Gatorade launched during the beginning of the year. If you haven’t, then take a quick look at the video below. Gatorade’s What’s G series is actually located at MissionG.com.

Now The Good Video Content

I have to say that while I loved the “What’s G” spot, that wasn’t anything to the content Mission G has on its site now.  Let’s take the commercial airing now on TV with the Night’s of G….I mean who doesn’t love a Monty Python spoof.  But the REAL content comes from Leave it on the Floor, their sports reality TV show The Quest for G, Blokhedz, and of course my fav Replay.  Watch episode 1 here and then head over to Replay for the rest…when they come out.  It’s the bombdigity.

My Full Disclosure

Gatorade is a client of mine through Resolution Media.  However, I honestly am REALLY pumped about the Replay show.  I’m a hudge Friday Night Lights fan and this fits right in with that type of show….minus the drama.  I’m stoked….honesly.

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Sean Cheyney wrote an article called 6 Reason Agencies Get Canned sometime in January.  Unfortunately, this article is just now getting around to me (sometime you are on top of things and sometime you aren’t).  I love this article! It gives 6 REALLY good reasons why agencies get canned, with 6 tips to follow ALWAYS if you are an agency.  I especially loved Sinkhole number 1, 2, 4, and 6.  The information was so helpful that I instantly quite working on a SOW (Scope of Work), and I made sure that I clarified anything I once took for granted as just “common language.”   In full disclosure, I have worked with and met Sean at AccuQuote via a search agency for about a minute.  I was brought on the team for some SEO Analytics consulting; I doubt I made a lasting impression.  He is a great guy who has his digital marketing act together.

However, his article also got me thinking about the mistakes clients often make in the relationship with their Agency.  While I admit that Agencies do stupid things to get fired (like sinkholes 1 through 6), a relationship takes 2.  Often a relationship ends not because the agency did something wrong as much as it didn’t help a client fully do something right.  Since I only worked with Sean for a minute and he does have his digital marketing act together, I’m going to say up front that he probably DID NOT make these mistakes.   However, not every marketer is Sean.  Relationships take 2 and it’s up to the agency to make sure that a client doesn’t make these mistakes.

Nothing but the fact…but please give us ALL the facts

It doesn’t matter if it is dealing with contracts, meeting times, or what’s for lunch, communication is important.  In some form, Sean mentions it in 5 of his 6 sinkholes.  Often clients tell agencies what they think is important.  They often include thoughts that aren’t supported by data, goals with no explanation of why, or opinions of work that are based out of niceness or political gain.

Agencies work better if they know EVERYTHING about your business.  We don’t care about what you think you know, but we want to know everything you know.  Data trumps intuition, and our job is to prove your theories right or wrong.   Basically, we can both think the sky is blue, but if data says that a purple sky converts better then the sky needs to start looking a little purpler.  So the more data you through at us the better we can server you.

Knowledge doesn’t stop at data.  No, it also needs to include your organization as a whole.  The more we know about your profitably the more we are able to push the envelope.  A $60 Cost per Lead is just a number if we don’t understand the reason behind why that is the target…even if it is just because you want to see if we can hit it.  The more we know about your internal politics the quicker we can find a way to arm you with reasons to promote a project…or at least an alternative solution that will work within your business culture.  And of course, the more transparent you and your organization are about how view us and our work, the quicker we can make changes to improve it.

Give us everything even if you think it is to remedial or not relevant.  So many problems can be resolved by simply just letting us, the agency, in to understand.

Setting the Right Goals is Key:

Setting accomplishable goals is a skill few people develop an expertise.  Yet, it is one of the most important skills in business.  Every business wants to make money.  That is given, so that is not a goal.  Growing Revenue by 30% Year over Year is a goal.  Acquiring new customers at a cheaper rate is not a goal, but acquiring 90 new customers by reducing our cost by 10% is a goal.  Do you see where I’m going with this?  Often the first comment out of a client’s mouth is, “Our main goal is to acquire more customers, increase lifetime value of a customer, and reduce cost.”  Well, I believe that is the goal of every company.  Not many business say, “I don’t want more customers nor do I want more money out of the ones I have.  Oh, and I would actually like to spend more money in the process.”

Lance once told me that we can get whatever goal a client wants, as long as they don’t care about volume.  You want to sell a Ferrari at a $1.00 per lead?  We can get it…if you don’t mind 1 lead in 3 years. Your business has goals.  You know what profitability level you need to be to survive.  You know how much you want to cut from your operating expense.  Oh, and I’m sure you have people planning on up selling present customers on something.  Set goals for your business, and be as transparent with those goals as possible.  Once people are on the same page, you will be surprised how quickly goals are reached.

Buying the Cow Doesn’t Mean Much if You Don’t Use The Milk:

My father-in-law always says that the 2 pieces of advice your should always take is from your lawyer and your doctor.  You paid a lot to get advice from someone who spent a lot to give advice; it’s not smart to ignore it.  It’s kind of the same way when consulting a search agency.  No, not every recommendation is going to be feasible.  We get that.  However, often there are small recommendations with big impact that just go by the waste side.  Reports aren’t worth anything, no matter how much you paid, if you don’t take action.

Ok, so you just received a tech audit saying that your very pretty and interactive site is completely wrong for search.  You know you can’t tell your higher ups that you have to spend another couple hundred grand and countless IT resources to design a new site.  Ok, tell the agency that.  Better yet, invite the agency to sit down with your web development team as have a 2 hour talk about why things are that way and why things can’t change.  It’s up to the agency to help you find the ways around certain hurtles; it’s up to them to help YOU implement.  Most good search agencies will help you find a work around.

On the flip side, doctors sometimes suggest open heart surgery.  As much as it sucks, sometimes you have to follow the recommendation if you want to survive.   Agencies are the same way with recommendations.  We will take into account as much as we can, but sometimes we really do mean that if you want your digital marketing strategy to survive then you have to update that website which was built in 1995.  Sometimes open heart surgery is the only way to go. 

Agencies are Not Kids, Thieves, or Slaves:

Agencies are not kids, thieves, or slaves…so don’t treat them as such.  A good client will understand that a good agency can take some abuse.  If you don’t like the work or the strategy, speak up.  A good agency will alter paths or change what it’s doing if you say, “I don’t like this.”   Don’t be afraid to hurt our feelings.  We will be more devastated if you tell us you are firing us than if you don’t like the way a project turned out.  If you don’t tell us what you are feeling, we can’t help.

Good agencies are not thieves and will give money back if we don’t use it…or feel we can’t use it effectively.  Please look over the billing to make sure everything is correct.  By all means, make sure the contract is legit.   After that, have some faith in the plans we present.  If they are not on strategy then speak up (see paragraph above).  However, a good agency will put together a plan to grow your business…not spate you from your money.  When looking at a plan, look at it in that way.  This is the best plan they came up with, acceptable or not?  If it is, then go forward and prosper.  If not, tell them to go back to the drawing board and do it again.   Not every plan will be a home run, and agencies know that.  But give them the guidance under the assumption that what they push forward is what they feel is the best for you.  It wasn’t some snake oil to get more money out of you.  Resolution Media will happily go back to the drawing board because it always tries to put the best plan forward given YOUR goals… and they are not afraid to go back to a drawing board if they didn’t get something right (yes, that was a plug for my parent agency…but also a truthful fact about the ethics of RM).

Also, agencies are not your personal slave.  While we don’t mind doing you a couple favors, we have work to do for you.  We try to maximize our hours that we spend on you to your advantage…by executing a strategically built plan that is agreed upon by both parties.  Trying to boss your agency around so you think you have them under control actually works in your detriment.  We are trying to grow your business (our business grows only if yours grows).   You don’t have to crack the whip to get great work out of a good agency…all you have to do is communicate.

Technorati Tags: client relationships, SEO, Strategy

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A few weeks ago, Bruce Clay posted a blog post called ROI for SEO.  The basic idea is that you cannot forecast or project SEO ROI.  I have to raise my hand on this post and scream foul.  I respect what Bruce Clay has done and continues to do for the industry, but this isn’t as hard as he thinks.  I have been working forecasting SEO for a while and I have to say, yes you can….with an asterisk.  One of my many Economics professors in College told me once, “anything can be studied and explore if simplified enough.”   So, let’s take some time to look at how one would use SEO Analytics to simplify the process enough to actual forecast ROI of SEO.

First, a basic forecast takes a couple different variables:

• Average Search Volume for a term (Given by both Google and MSN on exact queries from the last 12 months).
• Ave CTR per position (there are several studies out there)
• Ave Conversion of Website
• Ave Order Size or Lifetime Value of a Client/Lead

The VERY basic formula looks like:

1. Average Search Volume * CTR for Position = Possible Traffic to your site
2. Possible Traffic to your Site * Ave Conversion for Site = Possible Transactions
3. Possible Transactions * Ave Order Size = Revenue
4. (Revenue*months at position)/Cost of Service = ROI of SEO

Wow, that was hard.  I know that isn’t the most scientific method given it leaves out a ton of variables, but we are just getting started.   All of the following factors will end up affecting one, if not all, of those key variables.  By focusing on the Hurtles, you can find ways to account for them within your own forecast.

The Hurtles of SEO Forecasting:

There are a lot of variables to account for in a forecast, but that doesn’t mean we can’t account for them.  Bruce points this out with the statement:

No, there are no guarantees, at least not until I have stock control of Google, and perhaps not even then. Simply put, a guarantee requires enough control to have some chance of success, and nobody has enough control over the search engines or their own competitors to make that statement without it being fraud. I have no control over your developers who may or may not implement my recommendations. And I have no control over a ranking algorithm that search engines have admitted to altering more than 450 times per year. If you are offered a guarantee, it is simply a manipulation tactic — when the company offering a guarantee fails they assume you will not sue them, and their sneaky wording precludes it anyhow (similar to an acts of God clause). When dealing with a moving target, the only guarantee we can make is that our effort will be our best.

Bruce laid out a great deal of hurtles that face us in forecasting.  Thank you for that, but now we get into the nuts and bolts and start making headway in SEO Forecasting.

No Guarantees:

unless you are working under a pay-for-performance contract, no forecast should come with a 100% guarantee.  Executives know this.  They understand that things change.  Despite their best efforts, even they can’t forecast quarterly numbers perfectly.  That being said, they have to have an idea what they will get out of what they spend.  That becomes even truer in this economy.

Client’s development Time:

No, you cannot determine what the development time will be for a client’s IT department.  That being said, you CAN ask.   A proper plan will take into account how much of the company’s resources you will/won’t have available.  If you know what you have to work with then you can prioritize and forecast for it.  If you aren’t talking to your client’s IT department, then you have bigger problems than forecasting ROI.  Clients need a reason to push a project through; you can give them a goal that is more than just a position.

Competition’s SEO/Marketing Efforts:

Client’s know better than anyone that they cannot stop the competition from pushing SEO and/or Marketing efforts through. The nature of competition states that nothing is going to stay the same.  A CFO/CMO wants a forecast?  You just opened up a conversation about what their competitors are doing both online and offline.  Marketing efforts, online and offline, drive SEO movements.  You can’t account for things you don’t know.   If you know what the competition is doing, then you should be able to factor it into the forecast.  If you don’t, leave it out with a statement that we don’t know what is happening in competition’s boardroom.

Un-Know Ever Changing Algorithm:

No, no one knows what the search algorithms are.  Yes, everyone knows what factors are taken into account (at least the most important ones).  The engines have stated time and time again that they are trying to favor white hat sites that deliver the best and most relevant content to a query.  You can’t control the algorithm, but you can be white hat…and not have to worry about it (assuming you’re a client that is looking for long term SEO gain).  It doesn’t matter what algorithmic change they make.  If you building content people want, in a way that is accessible by everyone, from a place that has a great reputation, and actively promotes, you will win on the SERP.  See, taking into account a algorithm that changes 450 times a year isn’t that hard.

Seasonality:

Playing the seasonality game is hard, but doable if you plan it out.  You can forecast it out if you take the time to understand what happens and why.  People don’t write about Christmas gifts in June, but you can plan and build the relationships needed to promote your site in June (and smart marketer will).  You can then take into account lifts and bumps into seasonality…if you take the time to understand what happens and why.

Reputation is NOT a reason to NOT Forecast:

This statement really gets me fired up…and probably the reason I wrote this post.  Being the “best” isn’t reason enough to be lazy and not attempt to give your clients a reason to take your recommendations.

Despite all the uncertainty, you’ve come to the right place. You are hiring the best company because the probability of success increases significantly…

My friend has a question she likes to ask, mainly in jest, when she hears an answer that wasn’t as thoughtful as she would like: “Do you think that answer is acceptable?”    If I was a CFO or CMO and someone told me that hiring them, the best, was just as good as any forecast I would have to object with, “Do you think that answer is acceptable?”  Reputation is not a reason to not attach a problem; it’s the reason why you should be the one to find a solution.  Peyton Manning doesn’t get paid what he does because he just happens to be the best.  He is paid more because he finds a way to do what others cannot.  The more people look up to you, the more you should be the one pushing the issue…not running away from it.

What Makes My Forecasting Methodology Different?

No, I’m not going to give away my secret sauce (if you want it, buy it from RM), but it comes down to true thought leadership in SEO Analytics and understanding of Business.  I make the statements upfront that I use these forecast directionally.  I state I cannot guarantee anything because I cannot control everything.  I also state that the efforts we push through are designed to give us a certain improvement in rankings and, more importantly, drive revenue.   I take into account the objectives of the forecast before I even begin the forecast:  Is this to show potential at a high level or give support to an individual project.

After that, my forecasts take into account:

• Competitiveness of the SERP
• Competitiveness from Paid Search (CTR differs if there are 1 paid add or 10 paid adds).
• Can take into account up to 5 digital assets
• What can we push through from a technical stand point and how important is it to the ranking algorithm (this becomes harder when you are working about the keywords within the H1 header, but works really well if you are converting all Flash sites to something more crawlable).
• And Current Position of keywords (going from position 5 to 4 can be doable but not so much from 80 to 3)
• And this is only version 2.0…I’m working on 3.0 as you read (a science I still see as being in its infancy).

When forecasting, show what you can and can’t account for up front.  State you don’t give a guarantee.  Given the philosophies of modern business, executives will take that over a reputation any day of the week.  If nothing else, you opened up the conversation to become a partner, not a vendor, in their business.  I might be reading too much into the issue, but it feel like strait SEO’s may not want to forecast SEO ROI because it takes away from the importance of rankings.   Great SEO’s, the ones that are paid the most, will find a way to make revenue the highest priority.  I preach SEO Analytics because I’m not a true SEO.  I work with SEO, SEM, and Web Analytics on a daily basis, and focus on gaining revenue over rankings.  Forecasting isn’t something that our industry should run away from; we should be attaching it at full speed.  It isn’t as hard as everyone thinks…just take the time to think it through.

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