General

Techvibes with Darren Barefoot of Capulet Communications and Christine & Tzaddi of Bluelime Media have been collaborating and launched last week the Techcouver.com site (and promotional 6″ x 9″ maps) just in time for Saturday’s Barcamp Vancouver 2007. The feedback was positive all around.

Inspired by Montreal Tech Watch’s Map of the Web, Techcouver will be a series of maps highlighting Vancouver’s technology industry on Translink’s zone map. The theme of the first map is Web 2.0 and they have included 22 local companies that they have identified as worthy.

They know that often start-ups are under the radar, so if you think you should be included, be sure to click on the Get On The Map link and let them know.

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This past weekend at Barcamp Vancouver James from adhack wrangled a session called Zero to 30 Seconds in Less than 1 Hour or So You Think You Can Make an Ad?. I thought the title was clever but I did not think we could actually make it within that time frame. He was adamant. This was a pretty ambitious plan. Is it possible to make an ad in 60 minutes? Yes it is!

During that session, which was by far the funniest one during Barcamp, we separated the class of 20 people in 3 groups. Each group was equiped with a laptop (with video and photo editing softwares) and a digital camera. The goal was to take any product or service that we had access to within Workspace (the physical office space we were during Barcamp) and make an ad with it. It is Do It Yourself (DIY) advertising. Since we had dozens of empty and near empty pizza boxes along with actual pizza slices of all kinds from Uncle Fatih’s pizza, I thought that was the most appropriate choice. So, we all started to make an ad for Uncle Fatih’s, a very popular pizza place in the Commercial Drive area. After 15-30 minutes of idea generation, there was only 15 minutes left to execute the ad. We had to choose whether we would do a video ad or a picture. Then, 10 minutes later, we came up with this:

The other groups came up with different concepts. Please find them here. 

That was an ambitious plan but we pulled it through. I can’t wait to do this exercise again. It is way more fun in groups than the individual work. Stay tuned for other Adhack sessions.

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It took a few rounds of iterations but we finally finished it. Ken Jurina and I completed a 5 Question article/interview that has just been published on Onedegree.ca. It presents our current and future initiatives to foster awareness and stimulate the growth of search marketing in Canada through our work with SEMPO Canada. Read about it here.

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As you might know, last weekend was Barcamp Vancouver 2007. Much like last year’s Barcamp, this year showed a great variety of presentations and sessions on all kinda of topics ranging from social media, tagging, drupal, CMS, Photo camp and so on. I had a chat yesterday with Lee Lefever from Commoncraft.com on the creation and publication of Online Video Tutorials. He mentioned about his latest videos in plain english which give an introduction to different web topics. They are really well done which and worth sharing. One of the most recent ones is titled, Social Bookmarking in Plain English. If you don’t know much about Social Bookmarking, you have to view this.

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Boxcar Marketing posted a message this week that all barcampers should read. Essentially, since this year’s Barcamp is heavily overbooked, everyone who participate/attend Barcamp 2007 this weekend must confirm their name on the list. If you’re not sure you’re coming, please strike out your name and post the name of the top person left on the waiting list in your former place.

If you’re on the waiting list, are you sure you’re available to come? If not, please cross out your name. If you’re still keen on coming, check back on the list to see if you’ve been added to the first 120.

We don’t mean to be too anal about this. We just want to make sure that all the people that want to be there and can be there do get to be there.

Also, with regards to the Barcamp T-Shirts, I hope this isn’t true, but apparently the T-Shirts are fuschia (!) this year. They have 120 Barcamp T-Shirts and they go out on a first-com first serve basis. I’d better be there soon then

Finally, althought Barcamp has a lot of sponsors, the Barcamp organizing committee is suggesting a donation of $20 for each T-Shirt, to finance all the unconference activities. Any monies left over will be rolled into financing next year’s proceedings.

Please pass the message around to all barcampers.

For Questions, please communicate with James Sherrett: james{at}adhack{dot}com

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Is it just me or everyone is looking for an SEO person these days? I got a phone call minutes ago from Robin de Pelham, Recruitment Specialist for HealthPricer.com and she is looking to hire a Junior Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Specialist. The Office is in Vancouver (BC). Since I am not a good fit for this position, here is the job description:

Online Marketing Specialist (SEO)
HealthPricer is a comparison shopping engine committed to making it easier and faster
for consumers to find healthcare products at the best price from trusted online retailers.
If you are interested in being at the leading edge of e-commerce/ product search, search
engine optimization, visitor acquisition strategies, and online marketing, HealthPricer is
the place to be.

The culture and company is for you if you are looking for a company where you get
direct access to the senior leaders, there is an opportunity to see the big picture first
hand, and you want to work with casual and talented people. You are also someone
who likes to build stuff, believes in the power of the Internet and you like to be an expert
at the forefront of your industry. You will be starting with the company in the early
stages, which means you will be critical to shaping the culture and future.

The Online Marketing Specialist (SEO) will execute and implement Search Engine
Optimization (SEO) strategies for various HealthPricer.com departments by understanding
customer segmentation and creating tags and keywords that increase traffic from the
target market segments. By tracking, reporting and acting on the results of SEO metrics,
the Online Marketing Specialist will improve HealthPricer’s visibility in the marketplace.

Responsibilities include:
Develops keyword rich content for various products/ product groups and
departments.
Develops title tags and meta-tag to increase online visibility.
Researches health industry terminology keywords and calls to action used by
target audience.
Researches inbound links.
Prepares and analyzes reports on organic search rankings using tools such as
WebPosition.
Prepares and analyzes reports of organic search traffic and the sites status in the
various search engines.
Performs continuous revision and refinement of keywords, title-tags and metatags.

Qualifications include:
Degree or diploma in Marketing, Computer Science or another relevant field.
Training in search engine marketing or internet marketing.
1+ years of industry experience in a technology or online marketing function.
1+ years experience using SEO tools such as WebPosition, WordTracker,
Keyword Density, Google and Yahoo Keyword tools.
In-depth knowledge of SEO principles, factors and techniques (including meta
tags and Google page ranking factors).
Demonstrated experience writing and editing copy for health or comparisonshopping
websites.
Proven experience with sitemap protocols, especially Google.
Expert Microsoft Office skills, particularly in Word and Excel.
Intermediate experience writing HTML and XML code.
Strong understanding of web analytics.
Strong understanding of E-Commerce.
Proven search engine marketing success.

To Apply
Please submit your resume in PDF, MS Word or RTF format via email to
rdepelham{at}healthpricer{dot}com.

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It took me some time to fully appreciate the impact of the new Google Universal search. In my last post, I talked about a friend of mine who made a nice video of Vancouver on a Francis Cabrel song (La Corrida). Dan was basically experimenting & learning the functionalities of his new camera and a new video editing software called Vegas. In any case, the video was uploaded last week on Youtube and as it could have been expected, made its way to the top of Google Search results for obvious search queries such as “Francis Cabrel Vancouver”. As a result, for some people that are more comfortable producing video content, basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) methods do apply quite well. Make sure you give your video a keyword-rich title like Dan did and you will soon rock the place. 

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Dana Todd, President of SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization and also Co-Founder of Sitelab, was interviewed recently by OnTarget, a Vcast series published by The San Diego Ad Club. I find this introduction to SEMPO and to Search Marketing very articulated. I thought you might like it as well. If you want to join SEMPO (and by the same token SEMPO Canada), you can simply get in touch with me and I will give you the lowdown of our Search Marketing actions locally.

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I have never expected that kind of comparison but according to the author of this article, which compares the 2 Giants side by side on their respective motto, mission statements and the like, they actually appear to have more in common that we might think.

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With all kinds of funny stories circulating around in the area of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO), it could have been expected that someone, somewhere decides to launch an SEO Cartoon blog. These stories who most often come from challenging client relationships originate from the fair bit of misunderstanding & miscommunication that arise in any new field. Search Marketing is no different. As such, Chris Genge from 1st on the list Search Marketing in Abbotsford BC just launch the SEO Cartoon blog with the help of one of his employees Tony Hutchcroft, who happens to be very creative.

“We are happy to have on staff a very gifted writer and cartoonist: Tony Hutchcroft. The team here at 1st on the List Promotion Inc. realized just how funny and ironic the SEO industry really is and decided to share some ideas and experiences we feel others can relate to. We will be releasing these comics regularly, so feel free to view, register and comment on the posted comics. Can you relate to any of these comics?”

My favorite is this one.

If you have an SEO comic story you would like them to post, feel free to submit it by email: contact{at}1stonthelist{dot}ca

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I love these Google commands that few people are using. It allows you to refine your search query or to fine tune your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plan. If you are not yet aware of them, here is one of the most commonly used:

site:yourdomain.com
If you include [site:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to those websites in the given domain. For instance, [help site:www.google.com] will find pages about help within google.com. [help site:com] will find pages about help within .com urls. Note there can be no space between the “site:” and the domain.

Why is this important? When you are doing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for an entire site, you want as many pages as possible indexed (index definition) in search results, and you want to make sure each page has its own unique page title, description, body text and so on. You want to make sure that each snippets of text taken by Google from each page will look different in search results. A quick use of this command will let you know if your SEO efforts start making sense. Try it! If you want to test the full list of Google Commands for competitors, clients or your site, you can go here and print the page for future use. The more you know about Search Marketing, SEO tools and search commands, the more you will have an advantage over your competitors.

There are of course other Google Commands that are quite helpful to use. Here is a tutorial on the Google allinanchor:

If you don’t like how your pages appear in search results, feel free to and we will correct the situation.

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I was browsing around the Search Marketing news today and I found this: SPENDING ON INTERNET ADVERTISING WILL reach $61.98 billion, and will surpass newspapers to become the nation’s leading ad medium in 2011, projects private equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson in its 21st Communications Industry Forecast released today.

“We are in the midst of a major shift in the media landscape that is being fueled by changes in technology, end-user behaviors and the response by brand marketers and communications companies,” says James Rutherford, executive vice president and managing director at VSS.

According to the study, Search Advertising based on keywords (PPC or Pay per Click) will be the main driver of this shift and will maintain its first position in Internet Advertising spending in 2011. Please note the gap in this research between Paid Search and Banner Advertising. Whereas, it is more or less 50-50 today, the proportion towards Paid Search Advertising will outgrow banner ads in the next few years. Check it out:

If you are not yet engaged in a Paid Search Advertising program (PPC), now is a good time to start. Tomorrow, it will only cost you more. PPC average click cost has been rising at a steady 10-25% year over year, which erodes your profit margins over time.

Read the full press release here.

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Every week or so, a client would ask, why is it that my bounce rate is so high? What is it that my site is not converting all that hard earned traffic into sales? According to Bryan Eisenberg, Chief Conversion Officer at Future Now, since it is far easier to build a better site that converts than to drive more traffic to it, the law of numbers favors the use of usability studies. As such, Darcy Foster from VKIstudios.com has a very interesting blog on website usability and I find his latest post particularly helpful. It talks about Steve Krug’s and his book called “Don’t Make Me Think”. According to VKI (and Steve Krug), “Don’t Make Me Think” represents the most common attitude with regards to usability and I am guessing they think it needs to change.

According to VKI, certain other authors delight in making the process of improving usability appear as complicated as possible. It’s an age-old trick: inflate weak ideas by propping them up with quasi-academic language and unnecessary jargon. Steve Krug - whose corporate motto is “It’s not rocket surgery” - takes the exact opposite approach. He explains, in everyday language and with vivid examples and analogies, how achieving good usability is largely a matter of common sense.

As a result, if you’re looking for a highly readable, witty, insightful and actionable guide to improving website usability, “Don’t Make Me Think” seems like your best bet. You can buy the book here: Don’t Make Me Think.

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It feels like a déjà vu. Whoever is interested to convert traditional marketing folks to Search Marketing, hopefully in its real sense with a user centricity philosophy, it looks like a major local ad agency is looking for a Director of Search Marketing. No luck with having a full job description there, but feel free to contact The Goodstaff Personnel Department at 604-685-3530 or email your resume to for more information.

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This is funny. I have been telling people that it is important that you Google yourself every now and then in order to have an understanding of your online public record. Every time you leave your name, email, web address is another opportunity to build your online reputation. It is good not only from a link building perspective but also for your reputation as a whole. It shows in which neighborhood you have been hanging out and it gives Google an understanding of who you are. So keep doing it.

As I was Googling myself this morning and my name appears on a list of winners as the best SEO and SEM expert in Canada. It is very flattering as only one person was chosen from each country. The only part that bugs me is that I still have not got the cheque, ribbon or trophy. As such, I am wondering what an SEM trophy would look like. In any case, I figure I must have missed the ceremony at a Tim Horton somewhere. Check out the list of SEO-SEM winners. 

Do you want to work with a (shameless) award winning search marketing expert? Feel free to Contact us.

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