Will Review Sites Destroy Organic Search?
November 29, 2010
Will Review Sites Destroy Organic Search?
This week, the New York Times put a nail in the coffin of organic search in their article about distressed consumers buying from ecommerce sites ranked highly in Google. At the center of the Timess criticism and commentary on how search engines work is the hundreds of consumer review sites around the web, such as GetSatisfaction, among others. One site in question, DecorMyEyes, created a policy for themselves of harassing and deliberately making mistakes with their customers Creating thousands of unhappy customers who were sure to go online and complain about their experience.
Many websites exist to pull together consumer reviews, including GetSatisfaction and the Better Business Bureau. These sites have tens of thousands of pages of user-generated content that helps them rank well in search engines. Unfortunately, people rarely spend the time and effort write to reviews on these sites from positive experiences, meaning that many review sites end up as collections of only the bad reviews.
The owner of DecorMyEyes, the focus of the Timess article, realized that he could harness that energy to create thousands of inbound links for his website, boosting him up in organic search rankings. GetSatisfaction has since printed a response to the article, noting that links out from their reviews are tagged with the nofollow article, meaning that search engine credit does not pass out from them to the site being reviewed. Either way, enough reviews and links exist on the web to catapult DecorMyEyes.com to the top of the search engine rankings. Because of these review sites and search engine’s current ranking methods DecorMyEyes was able to increase its traffic and customers by intentionally creating unhappy customers.
Marketing Takeaway
What is a good inbound marketer to do in the face of such overwhelming poor taste on the part of their competition? First, relax The New York Times article notes that DecorMyEyes has many issues with their business as a result of their customer policies. They are very troubled financially, and are constantly threatened with losing their authority to process transactions by MasterCard and Visa. It appears that they are spending almost as much time trying to keep the basic mechanics of their business running as they are actually selling their merchandise. This also will not work for any business that depends on repeat business None of their unhappy customers will ever come back for a second purchase.
The ultimate solution here will be part of Googles continuing strategy of adding reviews and editorial commentary to links in their search engine results. Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land wrote quite a bit about that yesterday, with examples. Google is doing their best to serve the best results their algorithm can show We wouldnt want them to take a direct editorial view and take a website out of the index because of negative reviews or comments Imagine what would happen to so many sites around politics, religion, and other controversial topics.
Ultimately, as a marketer, you should continue to build links in the smart ways that you have before, and collect testimonials from your best customers and their experiences. Publish those on your website, and place them strategically as content around your website. They will both encourage the people that you shared to share the links with their friends, and provide comfort to the website visitors considering your business.
CommentsPosted by Brian Whalley on Mon, Nov 29, 2010 @ 05:00 PM
Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HubSpot/~3/tTCctXwL-I0/Will-Review-Sites-Destroy-Organic-Search.aspx
Dell Inspiron Duo Tablet/Netbook Hybrid Has Arrived
November 29, 2010
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Anti-Fur Protesters Take Over DKNYs Facebook Page
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George W. Bush Talks “the Facebook” and the iPad [VIDEO]
November 29, 2010
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Anti-Fur Protesters Take Over DKNYs Facebook Page
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Don’t Look A Gift Horse In The Mouth
November 29, 2010
Written by Nick Lovegrove of limeyboy.com.
limeyboy.com has spent over a decade helping real estate agents get more from the web, whilst trying to insulate them from the really geeky parts. We help agents define their online brand through building real estate websites, integrated blogs and social networking strategies around them. We are dedicated to helping you find the web approachable and fun, and yet have no desire to turn you into a geek.
Website: http://www.limeyboy.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/limeyboy
Twitter: @limeyboyweb
Regardless how wonderful your website is, it is really pretty hard to get people coming to your site and even harder getting them to come back for more. When I say hard I mean really hard.
Is anybody out there? I have new content
Dont take this the wrong way, but no one, thats right no one, is going to make your real estate website their homepage, (so please stop asking me to place a link on your homepage to do this
You can get hits from showing up in online search, get a few hits from your offline mailings, but how do you get your websites new content back in front of your readership when its updated? I guess hope for more search results and do another mailing? Hope that people regularly trawl through the browsers bookmarks? (Does anyone still use bookmarks?)
Its true that your blog (you do have a blog right?) has an RSS feed, which (in theory) allows your content to be subscribable, but other than ones mother, has anyone ever done that? (She hasnt by the way). I would admit to being a fully signed up member of the geek fraternity, however, I have never subscribed to a blog by RSS. It just feels like too much commitment.
Subscribe by email is another option, but too many emails of the Time to clean your gutters variety and you have lost my interest/subscription. I am well aware of the state of my gutters thank you very much, the last thing I need is your emails clogging my email drainpipes!
So how does facebook fit into all of this? Well Facebook is one of the greatest gifts ever given to the website owner.
Why? Earlier I mentioned that no one, NO ONE, is going to make your site their homepage. So lets accept that fact. So if we assume that they are not turning on their computer to be greeted by your content, we can pretty much assume that many of your sites potential eyeballs are at facebook, every day. 500,000,000 users cant be wrong.
So how do we get our content in front of them now that we know where they are?
Simple. We build a business page, then post tantalizing snippets from our blog and site, each time we update it. If those users have Liked our page, they will receive our updates as we post them in their personal walls.
You are able to essentially syndicate your content onto the facebook walls of those who asked for it. Whats great about the facebook wall is that its not like receiving an email, which you have to proactively delete or interact with on some level, at facebook you just leave it there and click on it if its of interest, if its not you just leave it.
Each of your facebook posts will include a link to your latest content on your website or blog and in one click they are back on your site. This is truly amazing for the website owner. Its what we hoped RSS would be, but wasnt.
We are seeing that facebook is rapidly moving up the ranks of sources of leads for real estate websites.
Oh and by the way, this will cost you nothing!
In fact, in many ways it makes more sense to market your facebook business page url over your web address. Website hits are great but, how do you keep people coming back for more?
This is one of the oldest conundrums on the internet. Facebook may well be the answer we have been waiting for. Getting a website visit can be fleeting and sporadic. There is much more longevity in someone who liked your business page as the connectivity is ongoing.
And yet, we speak to so many real estate agents who are almost proud that they dont facebook. To which we respond, its not about you, the point is your buyers and sellers are!
Before you print your next set of business cards, think about adding your facebook business page to itabove your website!
Do you find facebook to be more effective than email?
Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheFutureOfRealEstateMarketing/~3/S2wKcfbxI0Y/
What Is a Landing Page and Why Should You Care
November 29, 2010
What Is a Landing Page and Why Should You Care
If you could do one thing to dramatically improve your marketing ROI today, it would be to use landing pages on your website.
What is a landing page?
A landing page is a website page that allows you to capture a visitor’s information through a lead form. A good landing page will be targeted to a particular stream of traffic – say from an email campaign advertising a particular whitepaper – and, because it is targeted, and because it has an interesting offer behind a lead capture form, you will convert a higher percentage of your website visitors into leads with which you can follow up.
Why are landing pages so critical?
Too many companies send their advertising, email, or social media traffic to their homepage. This is a huge missed opportunity. When you know a stream of targeted traffic will be coming to your website, you can increase the likelihood of converting that traffic into leads by using a targeted landing page.
For example, imagine you have a Google AdWords PPC ad running for one of your best keywords. Even if you advertise how great your company is (a boring offer for any company) and someone (amazingly) clicks through on that ad, do you want to send them to your homepage? When they land on your homepage, what are they supposed to do? What do you want them to do? Once you figure out what you want the visitor to do, make it easier for them to do just that. Send them to a landing page that prompts them to complete that action. You’ll see the effectiveness of your online marketing improve dramatically.
What makes a landing page most effective?
Ready to create your first landing page, or improve on a landing page you already have? Here are some of the most important elements to make sure your landing page is working hard for you:
- Limit Navigation. You’ve brought your targeted traffic to a page where they can take your desired action. Don’t distract them! Limit the number of exits from your landing page so that your visitors are focused on filling out your form. A key part of this is to hide your website navigation elements on landing pages.
- Deliver Value. First and foremost, if you have a valuable offer, your visitors will give up their contact information in exchange for your offer. Ask yourself ifyour is offer compelling to your audienceand make sure that your landing pages demonstrates that value.
Enable Sharing. Tap into a huge community of your best (and free!) marketers: your audience. Add share links to your landing page to encourage your website visitors to share your content to their audiences.- Keep it Short. The longer your landing page and form, the more friction you add to the lead conversion process. Keeping your lead form short and straightforward will increase your conversion rate.
Test, Test, Test. As many best practices as you may read about online, your landing page can always use more testing and improvement. Make sure you have a landing page creation tool that allows you to create and test many different landing pages to see what works best for your business.
Are you a landing page guru? Check out some of our advanced tips and data around landing page best practices on effective calls to action and the best/worst button text (hint: don’t use “Submit”).
If you’re working hard to drive traffic to your website, don’t make the mistake of not capturing that traffic as leads.
Webinar: 10 Tips For Increasing Your Lead Conversion Rate
CommentsPosted by Ellie Mirman on Mon, Nov 29, 2010 @ 07:00 AM
Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HubSpot/~3/duZr-bMNGAE/What-Is-a-Landing-Page-and-Why-Should-You-Care.aspx
Hacker Takes Responsibility for Wikileaks Takedown
November 29, 2010
The distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that took down Wikileaks as the site published secret U.S. embassy cables over the weekend could be the work of a single hacker, working for his own agenda.
The hacker, called the Jester (or th3j35t3r), describes himself as a hacktivist for good and posts the message TANGO DOWN after a successful attack, together with a link of the sites he takes down. The focus of his attacks, the Jester claims in his Twitter Bio, is obstructing the lines of communication for terrorists, sympathizers, fixers, facilitators, oppressive regimes and other general bad guys.
Recently, a couple of messages pointing to Wikileaks have appeared on Jesters Twitter account. The most recent of them read www.wikileaks.org TANGO DOWN for attempting to endanger the lives of our troops, other assets foreign relations #wikileaks #fail.
The Jesters intentions are explained in detail on his blog, in a post dating from September. In the post, the Jester describes the flaws of Wikileaks insurance policy which consisted of making available of an encrypted file, supposedly containing the secret documents that were leaked afterwards. The file is useless without a decryption key, which would be provided by Wikileaks in case someone takes the site down.
The Jester hints of having obtained some sensitive information about Wikileaks itself, but said he decided not to upload it on Wikileaks as he doesnt believe the information would see the light of day. He then provides an encrypted file of his own, claiming the information is contained within again, as insurance.
While it is entirely possible for one experienced and resourceful hacker to take down a site even a fairly large one by a DDoS attack on his own, its not easy to prove whether the Jester is really behind the attack and if he is whether he was working on his own or if he had help. Were sure the story will only give more fuel to the various rumors that are flying around the Wikileaks being taken down.
What do you think? Is the most recent attack on Wikileaks the deed of a single person, or is a larger, more powerful organization behind it? Please, share your opinion in the comments.
Article source: http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/9Lcwbn4xXYs/
This Morning’s Top 3 Stories in Tech, Business & Social Media
November 29, 2010
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Celebs to Go Silent on Twitter and Facebook for Charity
Article source: http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/pkln63GZBw8/
5 of the Best New User Experiences of 2010
November 28, 2010
As part of the ongoing Mashable Awards, were taking a closer look at each of the nomination categories. This is Best Website User Experience. Be sure to nominate your favorites and join us for the Gala in Las Vegas!
When it comes to user experience, designers and developers must do much more than present their users with a pretty face web page.
The user experience (UX) of a site or app involves much more than looks; the UX is something that lingers on after the user has left your site. It lies in ease of use, perceived value, whether desired goals were achieved and so much more. The user interface (UI) is only part of that larger experience, but it can contribute much to a users impression of the app.
In writing about the best web designs of 2010, form and function each played a large role in determining our choices. But when we think about user experience, function takes absolute precedence.
What sites and apps were the most interesting, the most useful, the most innovative of the past year? In this post, we examine five groundbreaking new UX/UIs from 2010 and discuss how each one expands our expectations of the user experience.
1. Quora
One of the earlier launches this year, Quora was a buzz-heavy private beta service in 2009. As a product of some of the best design minds at Facebook, the site was almost guaranteed to have an excellent UX from the start.
We love Quoras elegant interactions. It looks simple; it prompts instant and easy engagement; and it takes the hide-and-seek elements of a QA site away, leaving the user with a trove of relevant information at his or her fingertips.
Were not the only ones who love Quoras design. For a bit of meta navel-gazing, read this Quora QA on why people like Quoras design.
Initially, another thing that made Quoras UX so excellent was the quality of its membership. Have a question about Facebook? A Facebooker would likely answer it. Questions about venture capital? Here are some actual investors to talk to you. Marketing? Ad execs were on the site, too.
2. Hipmunk
One thing we loved about Hipmunk from the start is that it took a traditionally bad user experience airline flight search and made it into a good one.
This startup reimagined the most important element of online flight search: how results are displayed. It took a convoluted, multi-entry/multi-exit process and made it simple to behold and linear to walk through, creating a user experience that is far from the stress-inducing nightmare flight search once was.
The company has also hinted it will be turning its eyes toward other types of travel services soon, possibly hotel search. We cant wait.
To get the big picture, check out the video above, and the excellent interview blogger Robert Scoble conducted with Hipmunk co-founder Steve Huffman.
3. Seesmic Desktop 2
Seesmic launched a new iteration of its popular desktop app just a couple months ago. Dubbed Seesmic Desktop 2, the application also included an entire marketplace of plugins, making SD2 an all-in-one social media access point a great set of features for run-of-the-mill social media narcissists, as well as businesses that need more control and monitoring tools for their web efforts.
Seesmics Silverlight-built, Mac- and Windows-compatible product also came wrapped in a gorgeous and functional UI with elegant and subtle details, making it a joy to behold as well as a pleasure to use.
During some turbulent times for third-party applications, Seesmic founder Loic LeMeur proved his very salient point: If you make a great product, build in great functionality, and give users a great experience, you can still build a business on someone elses platform.
4. Flipboard
Flipboard launched this year as one of the first iPad apps that sought to reimagine social media for a new form factor.
The tablet gave designers and developers a chance to think about lean-back, glossy, high-end design experiences. Of course, magazines had a heyday; their content is already almost a perfect fit for the iPad. But when you think about social media content those messy, spaghetti-like, intertwining and overlapping feeds of drama, irrelevance and the occasional gem you begin to see what a challenge the makers of Flipboard had on their hands. Could social media be both beautiful and functional on a tablet?
Flipboard integrates personalized Twitter and Facebook feeds to build a social magazine for each user. In an initial review we called it gorgeous and a pleasure to use, and the app has continued to rack up the platitudes from social media junkies around the web. Its core value proposition is more than just its beautiful, mag-like design; it makes the experience of reading social feeds simpler, faster and better.
5. Roku
Without a doubt, 2010 has been the first big year for Internet-connected living room devices. Weve seen cool things in the past from PlayStation, Xbox and Boxee; however, 2010 brought something new: affordability and ease of entry.
Rokus set-top boxes start at just $60; already priced to win. Each model also comes with built-in WiFi and they are easy to install they practically set themselves up. They connect to some of the most popular Internet content providers, including Netflix, MLB.tv and now Hulu, as well.
The Roku UI is simple, clean, bright and intuitive; it reminds us of the more user-friendly gaming interfaces, like that of Nintendos Wii. Its a design language that says, Im not technical; Im fun. Very quickly, the design itself fades into the background and the content becomes all the user notices.
In a word, Rokus UX is amazing because it makes something that was supposed to be complicated and scary (bringing Internet content to the living room) inexpensive, easy and a pleasure to use.
What Are Your Picks?
Those are five of our favorite user experiences from 2010; wed love to know what impressed you this year. In the comments, tell us about the apps, devices and websites that youve loved using throughout 2010 or nominate them for a Mashable Award.
The Mashable Awards Gala at Cirque du Soleil Zumanity (Vegas)
In partnership with Cirque du Soleil, The Mashable Awards Gala event will bring together the winners and nominees, the Mashable community, partners, media, the marketing community, consumer electronics and technology brands and attendees from the 2011 International CES Convention to Las Vegas on Thursday, January 6, 2011. Together, we will celebrate the winners and the community of the Mashable Awards at the Cirque du Soleil Zumanity stage in the beautiful New York New York Hotel. The event will include acts and performances from our partner Cirque du Soleil Zumanity. In addition, there will be special guest presenters and appearances.
Date: Thursday, January 6th, 2011 (during International CES Convention week)
Time: 7:00 10:00 pm PT
Location: Cirque du Soleil Zumanity, New York New York Hotel, Las Vegas
Agenda: Networking, Open Bars, Acts, Surprises and the Mashable Awards Gala presentations
Socialize: Facebook, Foursquare, Meetup, Plancast, Twitter (Hashtag: #MashableAwards)
Sponsorships are available. Please contact sponsorships@mashable.com for more information.
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George W. Bush to Visit Facebook HQ for Live Video Q&A
November 28, 2010
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Celebs to Go Silent on Twitter and Facebook for Charity
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Homeland Security Seizes 70+ Websites for Copyright and Trademark Violations
November 28, 2010
The U.S. governments crackdown on file sharing and counterfeiting has taken a new and disturbing turn.
Yesterday, we reported that the Department of Homeland Securitys Immigration and Customs Enforcement office had seized Torrent-Finder.com, a site that linked to other sites that hosted and shared torrent files of copyrighted material. The news itself was not too unusual; what struck us as out of order was that the site had been shut down without the owner being notified and without a court conviction or, to our knowledge, any other legal proceedings.
At the time, we knew that several other websites had also been seized; however, today, we are hearing reports that as many as 77 different websites have been seized and shut down, all without any notification or warning to the owners.
As the owner of Torrent-Finder.com said, the sites were seized without any previous complaint or notice from any court While I was contacting GoDaddy I noticed the DNS had changed. Godaddy had no idea what was going on and until now they do not understand the situation, and they say it was totally from ICANN.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is seizing sites directly from ICANN because of complaints filed against them; the agency is not doing so under the auspices of the Digital Millenium Coptyright Act (DMCA) or a more recently introduced, so-called censorship bill, the Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act, or COICA, which was created specifically to address the issue of piracy.
While both of these acts have serious issues that many free-web advocates find disturbing, the implementation of either law might be better than no law at all.
Rather than using DMCA or COICA, the DHS has, as one spokesperson told The New York Times, executed court-ordered seizure warrants against a number of domain names.
So far, TorrentFreak is counting 77 domains seized. These URLs indicate that sites were used to peddle counterfeit goods as well as illegally shared media files.
What we cant debate is that the government has a right to enforce its own laws. If copyrights are being infringed upon and goods are being counterfeited, the government does have the authority to put a stop to those activities.
But when legislators have taken great pains to construct and pass laws that create procedures for dealing with these exact issues, it does seem a bit off that none of those procedures were used.
For example, COICA would create a blacklist of censored URLs. If infringement of copyright or the trafficking of counterfeited goods is central to the operation of the website, the Attorney General can ask a court to place that website on the blacklist.
The DHS is bypassing typical laws and procedures to quickly stamp out file-sharing and counterfeiting perhaps in time to thwart knock-off holiday shopping, we could speculate. We might also speculate that the reason for the rush job has something to do with the impending passage of COICA, which would create a longer process for closing these sites.
Speculations aside, this great haste is as confusing as it is perturbing; it doesnt sit well with the traditionally American sense of due process.
What do you make of these seizures? Do you think Homeland Security is right to close these sites, specifically in this manner? Let us know your opinions in the comments.
Image courtesy of FlickrFlickr, daphid.
Article source: http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/VpiXZ6GsEeY/
