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marți, 8 martie 2011

SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog

Inbound Marketing Attracts Millions from Google, Salesforce and Sequoia

Posted: 08 Mar 2011 05:17 AM PST

Today, Google Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Salesforce.com made a massive investment - $32 million - into Hubspot, the company at the forefront of the Inbound Marketing movement. Hubspot's had impressive growth, reaching more than 4,000 customers in their 4 years on the market. The founders, Brian + Dharmesh, authored an NYTimes best-seller on Inbound Marketing, and the Grader series of tools have been used by millions.

To see these three investors, particularly Google Ventures, put a big backing behind the power of SEO, social media and content marketing (the three cornerstones of Inbound Marketing) is inspiring. It suggests to me that we're moving beyond the era of these marketing practices existing only for early adopters toward a more mature market. That's a great thing for practitioners as it typically means many years of growth, employment, higher salaries and increasing adoption. It also, however, portends greater competition.

What's Inbound Marketing?

In case you're not familiar, here's a diagram illustrating the techniques that fit the Inbound Marketing paradigm:

Inbound Marketing

Traditional marketing, and probably what Fred Wilson was talking about when he called out "marketing" as a poor investment is what we'd call "outbound." It relies on advertising, paid branding, salespeople, cold-calling, etc. Inbound marketing is what nearly everyone who reads this blog practices - it's about getting traffic from search engines, from content (blog posts, articles, videos, infographics, white papers and webinars) and from social media (Twitter, Facebook, the Blogosphere, forums and social news sites).

Why are Google, Salesforce + Sequioa putting money into this field?

Because "Inbound Marketing" is for real. Both Salesforce's CRM and Google (via a million sources) both have a ton of data about what drives traffic and conversions on the web, and I think both are seeing the signs all pointing to Inbound Marketing. Hubspot is the most natural choice, as very few companies at scale are reaching their numbers or penetration.

Hubspot's Growth

I have one, quick bone to pick with the upper-right-hand chart - the competitors chosen; Eloqua, Marketo, Genius, Pardot, Manticore, Neolane, etc. are all in the marketing automation, lead tracking or lead nurturing fields, which isn't really the space in which Hubspot's playing. Their product may have some overlap with these, but none of the other companies listed are philosophically into "inbound marketing," they're into helping customers track leads, however they come. Hubspot's trumpeting the power of these newer traffic sources and focusing their software on measuring and improving them.

I'd say that a more accurate market players list would include firms like PostRank, Klout, Optify, Buddy Media, Hootsuite and, possibly, SEOmoz. The features don't match up, but the goal - to measure and improve inbound channels from search, social + content marketing - strikes me as more accurate.

Can Google Invest in SEO Software?

I wouldn't be surprised to see comments on some of the tech industry publications decrying an investment by Google in a software firm that helps sites rank better. However, I think this investment is about something much broader than climbing the rankings - it's about recognizing a shift in consumer and business buying behavior and wanting to play a part in that market.

Salesforce is actually an excellent corollary and a smart choice as an investor. They disrupted the marketing software world the first time, when businesses switched from guessing about how to track+optimize a funnel to implementing software that made it work. Today, the CRM (Customer Relations Management) software field remains dominated by Salesforce (though up-and-comer Infusionsoft and traditional competitors like SAP, Inuit and Act all have nice chunks).

There's a lot of parallels between what Salesforce did in CRM and what Hubspot is trying to do in marketing. The cognitive leap between Google Analytics and true recommendations is precisely what Hubspot wants to fill. To use the words of Google's own Avinash Kaushik "Google Analytics (is a) glorified data puker."

How's HubSpot Doing?

As the graphic above, not too shabby. I asked Dharmesh to share some additional data and he was able to provide some interesting data points:

Neither Hubspot, nor their clients saw any impact from the recent Google Farmer Update
Twitter is their #1 social media traffic source, but LinkedIn sends the best-converting traffic
Facebook is #2, but in recent months, has occasionally eclipsed Twitter in traffic sent
Organic search sent 67,000 visits in February

And a chart showing that they're drinking their own Kool Aid (getting traffic primarily from Inbound Marketing):

_

Note: This chart shows Hubspot's Blog traffic only

Are there Other Signals Inbound Marketing is Growing?

Here's some data from Google Insights:

And here's a chart from SimplyHired showing the trend of "inbound marketing" being included in job postings:

Inbound Marketing trends

Inbound Marketing jobs

You can see from LinkedIn that Inbound Marketing job titles and open positions are substantive. Basically, I'm drawing the conclusion that this meme has legs.

My view is that it's a good day for Hubspot (who's now raised $65 million!) and a good day for all of us in the Inbound Marketing ecosystem. Next time someone asks you whether all this SEO, social media + blogging stuff is for real, you can tell them it's real enough that Google Ventures, Salesforce and Sequoia put $32 million of their own investment dollars behind it.

Technology Lifecycle of Adopters and Majority
_
Chart via Geoffrey Moore's Crossing the Chasm

Just watch out - as we pass into the early majority with Inbound Marketing, the competition's going to heat up and a lot more marketers are likely to find themselves backed by good software.

p.s. Dharmesh wrote a great post at OnStartups about how they're going to use the funding, why they raised, etc.

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Conversion-Oriented SEO: When SEO Marries UX

Posted: 07 Mar 2011 02:18 PM PST

Posted by renatatr

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.

Hello Mozzers! I'm glad to be here for the first time! Well, as you all may know, SEO is conversion and conversion is money, baby! If you have a great SEO work on your website but a bad usability, you'll have bad ROI. If you have a great SEO work plus a great usability you'll definitively have faithful visitors and great ROI. Period. What everyone needs to understand is that SEO doesn't end on the click. There's always more than just that dreamed Google rank. And, in my humble opinion, the key is on the page and how users see it. So, let's take a look to see how we can marry SEO to good usability.

SEO + UX. Let's get it started. The best to do is to start the project thinking about usability, but if you didn't, after doing all that great SEO stuff like on page, link building etc., and get a good rank in the SERPs, you'll need to start thinking about users clicking on your link. How are they going to act being on your site? Are they going just to click and leave? Are you able to hold them there? Are they really going to convert? When we think about conversion, lots of things can come to our minds: link building, PPC, content, colors, etc. But, before all of these stuff, the first thing you need to figure out is what your visitors want.

1. Questioning

What's the goal of your website?
Who's your audience?
Is your website useful?
Are your visitors able to find what they need?

Remember: if something is easy for you, it doesn't mean it is easy for everyone! So, you do need to research, run surveys (be personal! sell it like if you were selling your products!), usability tests, etc.

2. Know your Analytics Data You also need to know who your visitor is, where he is from, what kind of technology he is using, etc. To define goals and funnels will definitively make your life easier!

3. Gather your data After doing your detailed research with your visitors and analytics data, it's time to put everything together and have fun! My first tip here is to create a word cloud with the main terms you got in your research. A great tool is wordle.net. Wordle Word Cloud Example

4. Prepare your landing pages In SEO, any page on your website can be a landing page. You must be prepared for it. Scott Brinker has a really good concept about landing pages and I think it can be applied for our reality here. It's the R.E.A.D.Y. framework:

Relevant
Engaging
Authoritative
Directional
Yield optimal

It really summarizes how the perfect landing page is!

4.1. Design
In times of Google Instant Preview you must have a good design!

Pattern - use the same colors, logo etc. in all your campaigns (email marketing, offline, website, ...)
No errors - make sure there's no code and style errors or incomplete content on your landing pages

According to the Kiss Metrics Color Psychology Study, 42% of users base their opinion about the website on overall design alone and 52% don't return because of overall aesthetics.

4.2. Website Speed
Check the loading time of your website to make sure it's not too slow. Users are not patient! So, make sure they can finalize their purchases or load your infographics, for example. The faster your website is, the more you sell.
And don't forget: page loading time is a very important Google ranking factor!

4.3. Message
Relevant content is always important. Be unique, specific, up-to-date, talk in such a way that your visitors can understand you!
Use numbers, table data, infographics etc., to justify everything rationally (but be honest!). You can also show credibility on details like images of your products, benefits, testimonies, etc.

4.4. Call to Action
Always show your final goal in every page and also use descriptions explaining why that action is good to be taken.
In case of forms, remove unnecessary fields and make it not too long. If needed, separate it in steps, showing to the user where he is.
The message on your CTA is very important too. Make it clear, unambiguous and, as the name says, a REAL call to ACTION! Not like those boring "go", "submit" or "subscribe".

The design of your CTA button needs some "treatment" as well! Abuse of white spaces to make it clear and noticeable. And the button color... oh, the button color... there's always many viewpoints regarding it! Some people say green is better, some say orange... But my opinion is: use contrasting colors and you'll get a #win! lol

Some tools to help you start

Remote Usability Tests:

UserTesting.com
WhatUsersDo.com
GazeHawk (with eye-tracking)
Verifyapp.com (low cost usability tests)
Headline Split Tester (Wordpress Plugin for A/B tests)
Google Website Optimizer

Surveys:

Analytics:

Google Analytics
Crazy Egg (for heatmaps)
Heatmap Wordpress Plugin
ClickTale (mouse move heatmaps and visitors recording)

Conclusion
In conversion-oriented SEO, content is still the king, but the usability is the queen!

The big secret is: there's no rule or tricks! You must test everything on your website and, when finished, start over again!

Hope you like it! =)

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Link Building – Creating Exceptional Content for Boring Topics Graywolf's SEO Blog

Link Building – Creating Exceptional Content for Boring Topics

Posted: 08 Mar 2011 07:51 AM PST

Whenever you’re at a conference and you speak to a Google Engineer about link building, they will almost always default back to “create exceptional content that is linkworthy” or some similar concept. I’ve been speaking with people at conferences, both clients and potential clients, and mentioning the same thing for years. The response I often get back is, “We’re selling blue widgets, but there’s nothing exceptional about blue widgets”. Here’s the thing–almost everything can be exceptional if you look hard enough, or slice and dice it, or present it in an interesting way. To prove my point I’m going to write a simulated piece about the most boring, mundane, and everyday thing: the fast food restaurant McDonalds.

3 Unique McDonalds Across the United States

As a parent, when you travel with your children, you try to make the experience better by eating at local restaurants and exposing your children to different types of foods than they have at home. However, if you’ve had a long, stressful day and the kids are moments away from a meltdown, McDonalds is a necessary evil you can use to keep the peace.

The Only McDonalds with Green Arches in Sedona Arizona

When you build a successful business, one of the key aspects of success is consistent branding so people can recognize you in an instant–sometimes even from great distances. Kids learn to recognize the McDonalds Golden Arches long before they can read the words on a McDonalds sign. When McDonalds started building in Sedona, Arizona, they encountered resistance from the local government who only allowed certain colors on the exterior of stores. Yellow wasn’t one of them. McDonalds fought the town, trying to get the regulation overturned or to get an exemption, but the town stuck to its guns and didn’t flinch. Eventually, someone realized this was a blessing in disguise, and the only McDonalds without golden arches was born.

World's Largest McDonalds in Orlando Florida

Located in the family tourist capital of the United States sits the World’s Largest McDonalds. This McDonalds has four floors where kids can do things they can’t do in your everyday McDonalds like play skee ball, air hockey, or any of a hundred other video games. While this McDonalds has the standard menu, it also offers quite a bit you won’t find anywhere else, like a collection of different cakes and pastries that would put most neighborhood diners to shame. It also has a huge birthday party area.

Southernmost McDonalds in the United States

Located down in the Florida Keys sits the Southernmost McDonalds in the Continental United States. There also happens to be 2 Denny’s and a Burger King on the island if you aren’t in the mood for local cuisine. The McDonalds offers the standard menu, and the decor has a contemporary flair. While the restaurant does face north and not in the southern direction of Cuba, it still has one of the nicest views I’ve seen from a McDonalds.

Is the post the most exceptional post in the world? No. But does it does its job of making something ordinary like McDonalds into something interesting–or so I’d like to think. Is there room for improvement? Sure. How about adding things like the smallest McDonalds, or the absolute most southern McDonalds, or McDonalds within view of famous monuments like the Eifel Tower. The point here is to grasp the concept of how to make something exceptional by looking at interesting aspects of it or in a unique way.

Sure, some of you are sitting out there thinking, “Yeah, those McDonalds were interesting–you just grouped them all together and made them more interesting. But the stuff we sell is really boring.” I still stand by my point that you can take anything, no matter how boring, and make it interesting if you try. For example, take a look at this pasta infographic (hat tip patrick aloft). Pasta by itself is pretty boring, but different types of pasta with flowcharts and pictures becomes a linkworthy execution.

This type of content will require some time, money, and effort to put together. If you need access to local photographs, use services like Craigslist. If you need cheap research, use services like oDesk. The one area I wouldn’t cheap out on is the finished product. Hire a quality writer or artist to put together the final product. Give detailed explanations and examples so that the person understands what you are trying to do with the finished product. The better the final product, the more links your piece is going to gain.

So what are the takeaways from this post:

Look for unique or interesting ways to look at your product or related products that makes it more interesting
Add visual elements like pictures or illustrations
Use well-written, high quality copy. Don’t scrimp on the budget as it will affect the end result
Access local services through services like Craigslist
Access cheap research with services like oDesk
Use the piece as a link hub to distribute the link equity across your website

No More Link Begging: 4 Engagement Methods for Content-Based Link Building Link begging is the practice of identifying link prospects, usually...
Hare Brained Link Building Ideas for Link Monkeys I’m a big fan of outside of the box thinking...
Creating Head & Tail Content Although I have mentioned head & tail content on this...
Content Ideas – Creating an Ongoing Series One of the problems that website owners and bloggers encounter...
Creative Link Building Ideas There’s lots of talk on the net right now that...

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Link Building – Creating Exceptional Content for Boring Topics

A Game of Catch in the Oval Office

Your Daily Snapshot for
Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Photo of the Day

President Barack Obama practices passing a football with Prime Minister Julia Gillard of Australia in the Oval Office, March 7, 2011. Under Australian Football League rules, a player must hold the ball in front of them and punch it with a clenched fist in order to conduct a legal pass to another player. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Something Must Change

Good morning,

The state of the American education system today is unacceptable. As many as one quarter of American students don’t finish high school. We've fallen to ninth place in the proportion of young people with college degrees. The quality of our math and science education lags behind many other nations.

For the sake of the next generation, and America's economic future, this has to change.

Providing our nation's students with a world-class education is a shared responsibility. We can't out-compete the rest of the world in the 21^st century global economy unless we out-educate them. It's going to take all of us -- educators, parents, students, philanthropists, state and local leaders, and the federal government -- working together to prepare today’s students for the jobs of the 21^st century.

That's why I want to hear from you. As President Obama's chief advisor on domestic policy, I focus much of my time on education reform. As part of the White House’s new Advise the Advisor program, I've posed a few key questions for parents, teachers and students to answer so we can get a sense of what’s working in your communities -- and what needs to change.

Take a minute to let me know what you think:

The good news is that we're making progress and seeing improvements around the country already, focusing on our own Three R's: responsibility, reform and results.

Take Miami Central High School, where the President and I traveled on Friday. Several years ago, Miami Central was struggling. Achievement was lagging at the school, and morale was down. Graduation rates hovered at just 36 percent. But the Miami Central community came together. They set high expectations, and they did the hard work to reform their school. They've turned around their performance -- academic achievement is improving, and graduation rates have improved by nearly 30 points. Miami Central is now well on its way toward providing college and career readiness for its students.

Today, we're visiting TechBoston Academy, a great example of private-sector, non-profit and higher-education partners working with communities to help prepare students with the knowledge and skills they'll need to succeed in college and careers. At TechBoston Academy sixth grade through twelfth grade students learn by using technology in their classrooms. Thanks to strong partners, TechBoston students have access to a 21^st century curriculum, early enrollment in college classes, and an extended day program to provide enrichment and to deepen learning in core subjects.

These schools in Miami and Boston are just two examples of success. I'm looking for feedback from more all-star schools, as well as your strategies and challenges to reform our education system.

As I mentioned earlier, education reform is a shared responsibility for all of us, and it's one that we at the White House take very seriously.

Sincerely,

Melody Barnes
Director of the Domestic Policy Council

P.S. If you're passionate about education issues we've set up a special email list focused on education that will offer more frequent updates on the topic moving forward:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/education-newsletter

This email was sent to e0nstar1.blog@gmail.com.
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marți, 8 martie 2011

SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog

SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog

What's Inbound Marketing?

Why are Google, Salesforce + Sequioa putting money into this field?

Can Google Invest in SEO Software?

How's HubSpot Doing?

Are there Other Signals Inbound Marketing is Growing?

Link Building – Creating Exceptional Content for Boring Topics Graywolf's SEO Blog

Link Building – Creating Exceptional Content for Boring Topics Graywolf's SEO Blog

3 Unique McDonalds Across the United States

Related posts:

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A Game of Catch in the Oval Office

Something Must Change

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marți, 8 martie 2011

SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog

SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog

What's Inbound Marketing?

Why are Google, Salesforce + Sequioa putting money into this field?

Can Google Invest in SEO Software?

How's HubSpot Doing?

Are there Other Signals Inbound Marketing is Growing?

Link Building – Creating Exceptional Content for Boring Topics Graywolf's SEO Blog

Link Building – Creating Exceptional Content for Boring Topics Graywolf's SEO Blog

3 Unique McDonalds Across the United States

Related posts:

Advertisers:

A Game of Catch in the Oval Office

Something Must Change

Pagini

Persoane interesate

Arhivă blog

Subscribe to