Geotargeted and Local Search: Engagement Chatter
When dealing with national and international clients, who can and do sell their services around the world, it is incredibly easy to discount the value of geotargeted and local search. In my latest post on RBD Rodeo, I talk about geotargeted and local search from a user’s perspective. While I do offer four takeaways at the end, I found it useful to think from the perspective of a purchaser, which I might have been. (Read the post to find out what actually happened.)
As I continue on my path to a wedding day, I am sure the local search capabilities of Google (my search engine of choice) will become more and more helpful as I look for locations that can hold a reception, perhaps caterers and florists, bands, DJs, musicians, photographers, videographers, and probably a dozen other things we haven’t made up our mind on and will need for our celebration. If you’d like to hear more about geotargeted search, let me know in the comments. I should have more geotargeted thoughts on both blogs in the near future if it’s something you’d want to hear.
Why Internet Marketing is like a Treasure Hunt.
Instant results, instant gratification, instant riches. This is the promise of the thousands of internet marketing products out there in the “make money online” niche.
And each minute, another person is purchasing the latest product, right before the price goes up. The latest product, which inevitably is going to change the way we do internet marketing. If you don’t purchase instantly, you are going to get left in the dust while early adopters make all of the money. And then, even of those people who DO get in at this limited-time price, aren’t going to do anything with the information, so YOU, who is going to ACT on this information, stands to gain the most.
Each of these products is a little path. These products, sometimes quite literally little (7 pages), wind intricately from subject to subject, sometimes saying nothing and somehow leading somewhere, and some true gems extensive and packed with information. But unfortunately, these intricate paths may have unmarked detours, blockages, and obstacles.
Saying nothing, or perhaps saying everything, these products are a map to gold. Is the treasure at the end of this product? Or at the end of the next one? Internet marketing is like a treasure hunt because the treasure may or may not actually be at the end, depending on whether you believe in it all.
Maps are good for the believers, but for these customers to truly succeed, they need the process! I can scream from the rooftops that you need to do keyword research, create a product, and sell it, and even tell you how I’ve done it, but even the how usually isn’t clear enough to get a person to act and achieve success.
The process needs to be revealed. The process needs to be flexible enough for personal modifications. And the process needs to guide a person through to profits! Treasure hunt maps, at their best, are a great start, but the best internet marketers are the guides that can help produce results.
I am an SEO Professional.
The consulting firm over at SEOMoz have put together a quiz for people who work in SEO. There are five arbitrary levels defined, based on the number of points each question has been assigned that you answer correctly. I don’t imagine many people will be advertising and linking their quiz results when some of the answers are debatable, though. More discussion on the debate and a couple of people telling their scores is at Sphinn.
I assure you, I am an SEO Professional. And I think that’s quite reasonable, seeing as I’ve not been heavily engaged in international SEO or have a current need to know off the top of my head what search engine is most popular in Korea (it’s Naver). I will admit to getting the following question wrong: “The de-facto version of a page located on the primary URL you want associated with the content is knows [sic] as:” The correct answer: “Canonical version”. If I ever speak to a client and discuss the “de-facto version of a page” as the “canonical version” of that page, I would be doing that client a disservice.
While I think businesses and nonprofits should do their homework and know some SEO and PPC, I do not think a 100% score on a test or a usability expert who engages focus groups is always the best SEO for you. I’ve said previously, “there’s an odd security in having what looks like the perfect search engine optimizer, only on paper.” An SEO may be ideal on paper, but can you work with and understand their language?
