Author: Andy Commons

Facebook announces Graph Search

Post author By Andy Commons
Post date January 16, 2013

So Facebook just announced something called Graph Search.

See how Facebook describes it here: http://www.facebook.com/about/graphsearch

Already there are tons of people weighing in on what it is, and if they like it.

I say it’s too early to tell, but if you run a business and are online (and I hope you are) this will be something to keep an eye on. I’ll try to help bring you just the basics so you don’t have to spend hours researching the next ‘new thing’.

While lots of people are less than impressed, AJ Kohn (https://plus.google.com/115106448444522478339) says Local Search is one of the better features. In my opinion, I’m always looking to USE facebook vs. being used by it… it can be a great marketing tool if used right, and Graph Search, like Google Places may become one of those Must Do activities to help you keep a competitive edge. AJ’s post about Graph Search and Local is here: http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/what-local-search-looks-like-in-facebooks-new-graph-search/6885/

He shows an example of a search for “Restaurants Nearby”. I’m telling you. Businesses need to pay attention.

Scott Gallagher of Local Marketing Source also has thoughts, which he put into a short video on the topic. http://www.localmarketingsource.com/blog/facebook-graph-search-facebook-enters-search/

Finally, Mike Elgen (https://plus.google.com/113117251731252114390) has his own take. He says, ” if you love Facebook, you’re going to love Graph Search. But if you hate Facebook — oh, boy, are you going to hate Graph Search. He points out some serious concerns about your privacy, and possible ways “bad people” will be able to use this new feature to do all sorts of nasty things.

His blog about it is here:
http://www.datamation.com/commentary/the-trouble-with-facebooks-graph-search-1.html

Since the only constant is change, here we go with another new thing to deal with as a local business. If you are trying to keep up, and sort out what you should or could be doing online, check out my special offer. I review your site, and then consult with you on how to get more qualified traffic to your site, and turn them into paying customers.

-Andy

Online Marketing Search Engine Optimization

Welcome Montana Public Radio Listeners

Post author By Andy Commons
Post date January 10, 2013

I’m proud to have become a sponsor of Montana Public Radio this year. Each day, I spend a little time catching up on the local and national news, plus enjoy many of their other programs.

Besides giving back to Public Radio, I’m also offering a discount on my Website SEO Audit package. For a limited time, if you mention MTPR, I’ll take 20% off my very comprehensive Search Engine Audit service.

Normally $500… yours for $400 when you mention MTPR.

You’ll get:

A detailed review of SEO Factors and how your site stacks up
Insights to the keywords you want to be ranking for
Analysis of your competition
A plan to help you compete for online visitors
A one hour phone call to go over the reports

Call or email me today to discuss how to get started.

Andy Commons
andy@andycommons.com
406-962-5683

Social Media

Facebook Marketing Blog Post – cliff notes

Post author By Andy Commons
Post date November 13, 2012
2 Comments on Facebook Marketing Blog Post – cliff notes

A great blog I follow (InsideFacebook) had a post the other day on some of the questions marketing folks are asking. It dove into how to get a Fan Page’s posts seen, and other things.

It’s a good read. If you have time, check it out here:

http://www.insidefacebook.com/2012/11/08/news-feed-edgerank-and-page-posts-whats-really-going-on-with-facebook/

But Here’s a quick summary:

EdgeRank is a tool Facebook uses to try to figure out what it should show users.
Marketers get upset when their posts don’t get seen by their fans.
But without EdgeRank, it would be worse.

How does EdgeRank work? It looks at past behavior of the user, and their friends, and tries to give them more of what they probably want. (And perhaps less of what the marketers want them to see).

Other reasons fewer posts are getting viewed include: more posts by others, people using a new “hide” feature or creating Interest Lists, ongoing updates to the EdgeRank algorithm and the sheer luck it takes to post at the same time your fans are using Facebook (and much more.)

Some feel the new “Promoted Posts” feature means Facebook is showing your fans fewer updates in order to make you feel you need to pay to promote your post. Facebook says this isn’t true. Others tend to agree.

So what can be done to get those fans you worked so hard for to see your posts? Inside Facebook recommends, your posts “be as interesting and engaging as possible. Before making a post, admins should consider, “Would I want to see something like this in my feed?”

Adding photos is another good thing to try.

And you might educate your fans that there is a tool called the “Interest List” and “Get Notifications” that can help them see your stuff if they really want to.

One last thought: What InsideFacebook doesn’t mention in their blog post, but I will point out, is that Facebook is just one tool for communicating with your customers and prospects. Getting them to opt-in to a more direct communication tool, such as an email newsletter or text message alert system, can really help you stay in touch with your most passionate fans.

-Andy

Search Engine Optimization

Google launches Disavow Links Tool, but should you care?

Post author By Andy Commons
Post date October 18, 2012
1 Comment on Google launches Disavow Links Tool, but should you care?

A few days ago at Pubcon, Matt Cutts of Google announced the “new and improved Disavow Link tool”. (A good write-up of the Google announcement at PubCon by Lisa Barone).

So what is this tool? Bascically it’s a way to tell Google which links pointing at your site are low quality junk that you don’t really want held against you. (In case say, a competitor purchased bad links for your site to try to hurt your rankings). Yeah, that’s it.

But do you need to worry? Well, if you didn’t see a big drop in your rankings, or in your search traffic over the past couple of years for your site, you’re probably fine.

But, If your site has a large number of spamming inbound links, you may want to check with the person doing your SEO about running this tool on your site to clean up some of your past indiscretions. Again, for most people this won’t be a problem. Just keep up the good fight of

a. adding good quality content to your site (via a blog or adding pages)
b. getting a guest blog opportunity on a relevant site which includes a link back to you
c. encouraging others to link to your content via social networking and social bookmarking tools.

Here’s a deeper look at the tool by David Naylor.

Oh, speaking of rankings. Remember my post called “Movies without Shaq in them“? I just checked my rankings for that phrase while not logged in, and that post now ranks in 5th position on page 1 of Google. Kinda fun.

-Andy

Search Engine Optimization

Movies without Shaq in them

Post author By Andy Commons
Post date September 26, 2012

How did some guy in Montana rank for Movies without Shaq in them? That’s called SEO or Search Engine Optimization. Can I help you rank for something?

So this is really a little experiment. Someone just created a spoof of Google, that is poking fun at the NFL Replacement Refs. So if you visit http://replacementgoogle.com/ and you enter a search phrase, you’ll get sent to the real google with a seeming random different search, such as “Movies without Shaq in them”.

Seeing this, I thought… Hmmm, can I get on page 1 of Google for that Shaq Movies phrase? You tell me. Did I?

Want to help? Link to this blog post.

And if you want me to help you review your website for how it can rank better in the search engines, drop me a line at andy@andycommons.com.

I have clients all over the world.

Random Thoughts

Annual Ranking Factors Report

Post author By Andy Commons
Post date June 11, 2012

Each year, I deeply review the Rankings Factors Report put out by David Mihm Web Design.

Well, it’s out again, and if you want to dive deeper into what’s working to help (or hurt) your website rankings, especially if you have a Local target market, check out the Ranking Factors Report.

This week we’re also suffering a lot of confusion in the Online local space with Google’s announcement of something called “Local” when you are in Google Plus. From what I can tell, they are just showing people Google Places type results inside Google Plus. It’s very different than a Google Places “Page” for Business, which can also be marked as “Local” under the category.

If you really want, you might want your business to have a Google Plus “Page”. and you might even want to set it up as a “local” type business…. but this isn’t the same as going to Google.com/places and claiming / editing your business info.

The Google Places listing is even more important now, as Google + is starting to show it.

Finally, I’m hearing rumblings of how Youtube terms of service don’t want businesses to post videos (like Ads) to Youtube… Yet Google Places encourages a business to link up to 5 YouTube videos in the account. Will we stop seeing Videos in Search results? Will we see the “add a video” feature removed from Google Places? I think it’s all too early to tell.

As I make any sense of it, I’ll post my thoughts on my here on my blog at www.andycommons.com.

Search Engine Optimization

A great post on Link Building

Post author By Andy Commons
Post date April 25, 2012

In all my years of doing SEO, I’ve seen link building articles come and go.
And while this one may someday be dated as well, I’m very impressed with the ideas here. Most of them are the kind that will stand the test of time.

I’m often telling my clients how important link building is to their rankings.

Yes, it’s lots of work. It would fall under the “work on your business, not in your business” list.

http://pointblankseo.com/link-building-strategies

As for me, I think my favorites are:
– Blogging with keyword rich links to other pages of your site.
– Research the links of your competitors and see if you can get them for your site too
– Get listed in Business Directories (I tend to favor Best of the web)
– Fixing broken links on your site. (just good to do anyway)

So, give this a read, and let me know if you can find one or two that you’ll take on in the next week. Just leave it in a comment here on this post.

Oh, and to walk the talk, here’s a link to my Missoula SEO page. 🙂

Misc. News Random Thoughts

Google Drops Plus sign from Search Operators

Post author By Andy Commons
Post date October 24, 2011
1 Comment on Google Drops Plus sign from Search Operators

Back when Google announced Google Plus, I laughed that the search engine giant named their new social networking platform something that their users can’t even search for, since the plus sign [+] is used as a way to define a search string. This meant when you tried to search for [Google +] in Google, you might not actually find “Google Plus”.

Well, they announced that they will fix that problem, by actually dropping the use of the plus sign as a search operator.

Before, you could search for something like
relocation +missoula
and you’d get results that were about relocation, but only those with Missoula in the results.

Now, when I do that search it tells me:

The + operator has been replaced.
To search for an exact word or phrase, use double quotation marks: relocation “missoula”

I guess this works the same, but to me it seems slightly different. I always felt the plus sign meant “show me ONLY those results with that word in the results”, while Quotes meant “Show me these two words together, as in “firstname lastname”. While I suspect the latter still works the same way, which is good, since Google our own names is something I’m sure we all love to do. One guy even made it into a Documentary called “Google Me“.

I have a lot of Google Alerts set up that use the plus sign. But I guess I have to spend some time changing those now since Google had to change this core part of search… Do you think it’s because they want people to find Google Plus?

What if every time we use the plus sign in a search from here on out, they just show us Google Plus as the top result.

Well, they make the rules…
So if you’d like to get better results from your searches, I recommend you spend a few minutes studying up on the various tricks you can use in your search queries.

Enjoy…

-Andy

Random Thoughts

Presentation on Internet Marketing

Post author By Andy Commons
Post date October 20, 2011

I’m pleased to have given a presentation last night on Internet Marketing to the Missoula Building Industry Association.

For those who want to view it, I’m posting it below.

Internet Marketing Presentation

-Andy