Great Link Building Ideas For Charities

A few years back my parents became heavily involved in a Kenyan Orphanage. Through some contacts they helped raise the funds for the build and have since carried on raising funds for the day to day costs and further developments. With talk of a website re-build on the cards I started to think about ways in which I could step in and get involved with some SEO work. None of this has been put into action yet, but the more I thought about it the more excited I became as the SEO opportunities here are huge. As I haven’t seen this subject talked about a great deal, I thought it could make for quite an interesting blog post.

For the purpose of this blog I’m going to leave the subject of how much to charge charities for SEO alone...that moral dilemma’s yours! However, for someone who’s looking to build up a portfolio, charity work could be a great opportunity to get your teeth stuck in, and help out at the same time.

Requesting Links From Associates

Networking is a central part of any charity, and in general most charities that prove successful in this area will end up with a good amount of associates. It’s also fairly likely that out of these associates, quite a few will have quite good authority on the web. Many charities team up with schools and government schemes so that means there’s a great chance of getting some really strong links from .edu and .gov domains. Most organisations that partner with a charity are usually quite proud of the fact, so gaining a link from them shouldn’t be a struggle. All good news for SEO!

Support With A Link

Giving a small contribution towards a charity has become a familiar tick box in ecommerce checkout systems. But what if ecommerce stores starting providing badges linking to their favourite charity? I think it would be much easier to team up with a successful online business if all you were asking was for them to send or provide customers with an embeddable badge instead of a % of profits or contribution at the checkout stage. For example:

“example.com is proud to support the cause of www.example2.com . Please help make a difference by simply embedding this link where possible”

If a website really got behind the idea, various types of embeddable content could be made available at the minimum intrusion to business. After all, if someone doesn’t want to link they don’t have to!

PR

Getting some great online PR when working with charities should be relatively easy to achieve. You’re never short of news-worthy stories (fund raising efforts, achievements etc) and the local press especially love to champion local causes. In my experience it is far easier to get a story run when it involves charity work, compared to a commercially linked story. Any online partners you have may also be willing to publish your latest news via their blogs and social media accounts, all creating links back to your website and raising your profile.

Social Media

Facebook groups/pages, twitter profiles and social bookmarking all provide an amazing platform on which to promote your fundraising efforts. If you happen to be organising a sponsored walk, run or sky-dive then social media can help you spread the word amongst your network and way beyond. As with PR, people seem a lot more willing and forward to share a link or post relating to a charity event or fundraising effort. I would start by setting up a Facebook page with all the relevant details and then encouraging everyone to spread it as best they can. Probably best to avoid the “unless this is sent to 10 friends, you will die by next Thursday” tactic.

Specialist Knowledge

Chances are that if your charity is based in specific area, you will probably start to develop quite a good understanding of different issues surrounding the work. This should give the option to contribute information and ideas to different stories, and quite often you’ll see charity leaders asked for quotes. This opens up quite a few possibilities to gain links within content from all manner of sources; great for improving on your high authority inbound links.

Some of these ideas may be basic link building techniques, but when put into the strategy for a charity the way in which you can easily spread yourself across seems really exciting.

Right, now I better actually go and start implementing these ideas...look forward to your comments.

Optimizing sites for TV

Just as mobile phones make your site accessible to people on the go, Google TV makes your site easily viewable to people lounging on their couch. Google TV is a platform that combines your current TV programming with the web and, before long, more apps. It’s the web you love, with the TV you love, all available on the sofa made for you. Woohoo!Because Google TV has a fully functioning web browser built in, users can easily visit your site from their TV. Current sites should already work, but you may want to provide your users with an enhanced TV experience -- what's called the “10-foot UI” (user interface). They'll be several feet away from the screen, not several inches away, and rather than a mouse on their desktop, they'll have a remote with a keyboard and a pointing device.For example, here’s YouTube for desktop users versus what we’re calling “YouTube Leanback” -- our site optimized for large screens:
YouTube desktop version on the left, YouTube Leanback on the right
See our Spotlight Gallery for more examples of TV-optimized sites.

What does "optimized for TV" mean?

It means that, for the user sitting on their couch, your site on their TV is an even more enjoyable experience:
Text is large enough to be viewable from the sofa-to-TV distance.
Site navigation can be performed through button arrows on the remote (a D-pad), rather than mouse/touchpad usage
Selectable elements provide a visual queue when selected (when you’re 10 feet away, it needs to be really, really obvious what selections are highlighted)
and more...
How can webmasters gain a general idea of their site’s appearance on TV?

First, remember that appearance alone doesn't incorporate whether your site can be easily navigated by TV users (i.e. users with a remote rather than a mouse). With that said, here’s a quick workaround to give you a ballpark idea of how your site looks on TV. (For more in-depth info, please see the “Design considerations” in our optimization guide.)
On a large monitor, make your window size 1920 x 1080.
In a browser, visit your site at full screen.
Zoom the browser to 1.5x the normal size. This is performed in different ways with different keyboards. For example, in Chrome if you press ctrl+ (press ctrl and + at the same time) twice, that’ll zoom the browser to nearly 1.5x the initial size.
Move back 3 x (the distance between you and the monitor).
Check out your site!And don’t forget, if you want to see your site with the real thing, Google TV enabled devices are now available in stores.

Understanding the User Mind Model

User mind models matter when it comes to keyword research. They matter when you write the copy for Meta Descriptions, PPC Ads, on-site content, link names, and link placement. They matter when you’re creating that next viral social media piece, and when you’re establishing that Twitter usage policy. They matter in every aspect of the online experience, so they should matter to you.
Football or Soccer? Windshield or Windscreen? Lunch bag or sack lunch? Soda or Pop? One word links or five word links? Lots of images on this page or none? Put supporting info in PDF files or actual web pages? Is this site the best to get an inbound link from or is that one, over there?
Are this site’s users patient Internet age types or are they older people who get frustrated trying to figure out what a “right-click” is? Are they 3rd year graduate students or rocket scientists? Do they spend all their time outdoors or are they couch potatoes?
Are this company’s ideal customers Twitter twits or Facebook fanatics? Are they conservative or liberal?
Beyond The Technical
No matter how skilled you might be at implementing a technically stellar SEO, PPC or Social Media strategy, if you don’t first put in the footwork to understand the unique way a site’s users think, or how they digest their information online, you’re going to fall short. Because of this reality, I always put in just as much time into understanding the user’s mind model as I do any other single aspect of the marketing process.
A whole book could be written on this one topic, so I’ll just cover the bases here, imploring you to take away from this article the concept that understanding the mind model of your users is a critical responsibility…
Marketing – Its A Team Sport
Okay so you’re the one who wears all the hats. Your team consists of your ego, your inner child, your codependent parent, your favorite high school teacher – you know – all the voices in your head… In that case, good luck. You’ll need it.
For the rest of us, we rely on and are typically required to, collaborate with others. Site owners. Graphic Designers. Engineers. Sales people, ad agency creative types. Marketing people….
If you’re like me and you do participate on an IRL (not inner mind) team, the more YOU understand the reasons it’s critical to understand the REAL user’s mind model, the more you’ll also want everyone else to understand why it’s so important to figure that out as well. And the more everyone on the team grasps this fundamental truth, the more effortless YOUR job will be as the search and/or social media marketer.
So one of the best suggestions I can make to you is take responsibility to learn about site users for the next site you’re working on. And include that information when you’re trying to get the designer to change that butt-ugly neon-glow “buy now” button, or for the video script writer to reconsider including that half naked woman, even though you’re just the online marketing hack…
Expand Your Mind
Don’t just rely on keyword research tools, or the site owner’s understanding of keywords. Don’t just think you’re the average user of the site. Don’t assume just because YOU think that video is perfect, and funny, that people with purchasing power capabilities do. Don’t assume the graphic designer’s artistic flair is going to cut it. Or the engineer’s neat new widget is really going to be of value…
Take the time to step into the customer/end client’s shoes. “If I were looking for this product, these services, how would I search for it?” How would I feel when I see THIS page, or have to use THIS widget? How would I react to that visual in the video? Or that persona on Twitter?
Before you try and think like that person, the best action you can take is to clear your mind of your own personal way of thinking about the product(s) or service(s) you’re going to need to get found or remembered for the right reasons. Because it’s all too easy to cloud our vision with our own previous thinking.
Routinely Step Outside Your Vision
Actually take the time to envision who the ideal target person is. What’s their life like? Are they wealthy, middle class or poor? What is their cultural background? What’s their education level?
What kind of things might they read in their spare time? Yes – that’s right – I actually think about that. And it’s why I have subscriptions to
• Popular Mechanics
• Readers Digest
• National Geographic Traveller
• Popular Science
• Entrepreneur Magazine
• Newsweek
And it’s why I don’t hesitate to read
• Cosmopolitan
• USA Today
• Wall Street Journal
• People
• Time
• Lady’s Home Journal
• Scientific American
I don’t stop there though. If I’ve got a client with a site that targets a market in a different realm, or a social media channel inside a niche market web presence, I’ll seek out and read a lot of material that’s geared toward that unique market. Whether it’s in the health, nutrition, financial, education, Gen-Y, retailing, manufacturing, retiree or whatever field it happens to be in.
Don’t Trust Existing Sources
When it comes to discovering keywords, a lot of people in our industry suggest (rightly so) to look at a site’s analytics to see which long tail and alternate phrases you might have an opportunity to put more emphasis on. Alternately they’ll tell you to look to see what the competition is doing (also rightly so). This is just as dangerous when evaluating a “voice” – whether it’s for site content, a social media campaign, or a company Twitter account.
Yet I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to realize that you need to consider these sources with extreme caution.
First, if you’re looking at analytics data on the site you’re working on, that’s going to be heavily skewed based on the quality of the previous optimization process. There could be dozens, hundreds, or thousands of keyword phrases not showing up there that by all rights are as good as, or even better than what you see.
Second, just because your competition is using certain phrases doesn’t mean they put in the right kind of footwork either. Imagine a world where all the sites are optimized for the wrong phrases? Oh sure – everyone’s probably getting traffic. But what if it’s only a small fraction of the real market?
And just because the Old Spice guy was a hit, do you really think that concept would work for an ad campaign for abortion rights or Catholic Charities?
Question Everything
If you’re doing SEO or PPC or even Social Media marketing, to get maximum results you absolutely need to at the very least, participate in the decision process. Whether it’s PPC specific landing pages, or content writing, or link labels, or anything that can impact the success of the rest of the SEO, PPC and Social Media effort, understanding the user mind model while they’re on the site itself or following that Twitter account, or connected to that Facebook fan page, is as crucial as it is when choosing keywords, writing PPC ad copy, or which social media channels need attention.
And when it comes to the user mind model, assume nothing.
Test Test Test
Assume that the only way to optimize a user’s experience on a site is to do A/B split testing with the entire look and feel of the site, with the length of content most pages have before splitting out additional content to new pages, whether those text links you’re embedding directly in the content are annoying to users, or helpful, whether having “customer service” be a tiny link in the footer is enough or having it be a primary navigation link actually communicates trustworthiness…
And if that’s the case, that page or section is yet one more opportunity to optimize a top level page that can be used to support other sections or pages…
Remember- just because YOU are used to “FAQ” pages, doesn’t mean granny is. Or that nun who only spends an hour a year online does…
For Social Media, do A/B tests with small groups or a limited set of users. Don’t just hope you’ve got it right and go full tilt on your first try.
Everything Relevant To On-Site
The more the SERP relates to the page, the more likely the user won’t abandon the site right away.
The more the landing page relates to the PPC ad, the more likely they’ll consider converting.
The more a landing page relates and seamlessly transitions a user after they come to the site from a social media link, the more you’ll keep them, and ultimately convert them.
The more the page relates to it’s keyword topic, the higher it will rank for short and long tail. The more closely a group of pages relates to each other within a funneled section, the stronger all of those pages are, and in turn, the stronger that entire section is from an SEO perspective.
The more the user experience becomes intuitive for THAT user mind model, the faster they’ll find what they’re looking for. The faster they find what they’re looking for, the more likely they’ll be motivated to convert to a member, lead or sale.
The more enticing the user experience (again – for THAT user mind model), the more all of these will be even further increased.
I can go on and on – but hopefully you’ve gotten the message by now.
The Bottom Line
As much as it would be dandy if everyone on the team cared as much about the user mind model as I do, sometimes I’m the only one who cares. Or understands why it’s so important to care. And just like me, you too may be the only one on the team who gets it. Don’t ignore the opportunity. Jump on it. When you do, everyone may initially balk, yet they’ll all eventually come around. Hopefully.

SEO 101: Defining the long tail

Just what is the long tail, in SEO?
I do lots of writing about SEO and keywords, and I throw all kinds of terms around. But sometimes I suddenly realize I don't define them. I'm building a glossary for The Fat Free Guide - one of the first terms I'm working on is the long tail.
Here's my shot at the short version:
The Long Tail
Specific, niche search phrases, usually more than 2 words in length, that offer a low competition, low search volume and high searcher intent.
Now, for a little more detail.
An example of the long tail in SEO
This example is from real data, with the terms and business changed.
Say you sell socks. You obviously would love to rank #1 for 'socks'. So you hire an SEO professional, and they go to work. After spending a ton of money, you still aren't ranking #1 for 'socks' - you're #3. That ain't bad.
So you look at your data, and sure enough, 'socks' is by far your biggest traffic generator:
Socks is your 'head' term. After that, there are hundreds of other phrases that generate little dribs and drabs of traffic. Examples might include:
'red wool socks''socks with cats on them''socks that knock my socks off'
At first, it seems like you should dismiss them. But when you add them all up, they're generating as much traffic as 'socks':
And they convert better, because the people searching on them know just what they want:
The end result is that all those long tail phrases actually generate more revenue:
Huh.
In this example, 'red wool socks' and the other lesser phrases are the long tail.
Long tail: It's opposite the head
SEOMOZ has collected some great data about the long tail, so I'll just summarize:
'Long tail' terms comprise 70% of all search queries;
The top 1000 terms searched only comprise 10% of all search queries.
The long tail is where it happens. No one long tail phrase will show up in an SEO's portfolio - getting a high ranking for 'socks that are blue with spots' is far less sexy than ranking #3 for 'socks'. But they do the work, because folks who search for them are more likely to buy/become leads, and because the vast majority of searches are long tail.
Long tail phrases are the blue collar workers of the search world. They make it happen. Ignore them and your whole internet marketing economy may fall apart.
I'm not saying you should ignore head terms. Just understand that they're only half the picture, at most.
Long tail optimization to-dos
If you want to capitalize on the long tail, look beyond rabid link grubbing and learn to optimize your pages. Optimized, relevant content is what gets long tail traction.
Also, learn to make your site 100% visible to search crawlers. Content can't be indexed if it never gets crawled, right? Most important, don't forget about the long tail in your pursuit of high rankings for high-traffic 'head' phrases. Your boss wants the head rankings. Your sales team wants the head rankings. But your business wants the long tail as well.

Sony’s Google TV-Powered Devices Have Arrived

Do you like this story?
Sony has unveiled its newest line of Internet ( )-enabled TVs, complete with the highly-anticipated Google TV software.
Sony’s new Internet HDTVs, unveiled earlier today at a press event in New York City, sport 1080p edge-lit LED screens, with the exception of the 24″ model. They come with four USB ports, four HDMI inputs and Wi-Fi capabilities. They are available in four sizes: 24″, 32″, 40″ and 46″. The 24″ model rings in at $599 while the 46″ will cost you a hefty $1,399.The big selling point of the new TVs is their inclusion of Google TV. The Internet TV software brings Hulu ( ), Twitter ( ), Netflix, YouTube ( ) and Pandora ( ) to your living room screen, not to mention search capabilities and a myriad of Android ( ) apps. Web surfing is powered by Google Chrome ( ), while apps are powered by the Android OS. It integrates the web with your existing cable or satellite TV by making it simple to search your TV shows and your favorite websites at the same time. The service was revealed earlier this year at Google I/O.

One of the more controversial parts of Sony’s new Google TV-enabled devices is the remote, though. It looks like a combination of a PlayStation 3 controller and a QWERTY keyboard, complete with dozens and dozens of buttons. In fact, Sony says some of the remote’s design elements are borrowed from the PS3. Some people may love the extra functionality, but others might be turned off by all of the buttons.
The new TVs become available this Saturday on SonyStyle.com and in Best Buy stores nationwide this Sunday, making this weekend the first indicator of whether consumers are demanding TVs that can also surf the web. Google desperately wants to dominate the living room screen and get people to use the web even more than they already do. Whether consumers will pony up the extra cash for Google TV devices is a question we’ll soon be able to answer.

Google Fixes Add URL Form 4 Days Later

Oct 6, 2010 at 8:05am ET by Anand murg

As I reported days ago, over the weekend the popular, but virtually useless, add URL form on Google did not work. Google posted a known issue on Saturday, October 2nd. Today, October 6th, I am finally hearing reports that the add URL form is now working again.
Google’s message that the add URL form was down read:

The form to submit URLs to add to our index at http://www.google.com/addurl is currently not available. Our engineers are aware of this issue and working to resolve it.

Keep in mind that Google generally discovers new URLs on its own. Also keep in mind that the use of this form does not affect crawling, indexing, or ranking of URLs that are already indexed.
There are a variety of ways to make sure that Google finds new URLs for your website: we have linked to some of our Help Center articles about this on our FAQ entry about crawling and indexing. Thank you for your patience.

As you can see, Google seriously downplayed the importance of this add URL form. Personally, I’ve heard Google imply time and time again that it is not of any real benefit to use the add URL form. Most SEOs know that getting crawled and discovered from an indexed site via a hyperlink is a better way of getting indexed and if you want to supplement that, use Google Sitemaps.
In any event, it took Google about four days to fix this bug – honestly, I am surprised they did it so fast. It is not a critical part of the Google search interface but I guess the dozens of complaints in the forums on a daily basis got to them.

Facebook New Implementing

Facebook is implementing changes every day to its interface. Like everything else, the leading social network has to keep up with times too to make sure it stays one step ahead of competition. On these lines, Facebook has now introduced upgraded Facebook photos which lets users upload high resolution pictures and at the same time allows you to tag these photos in bulk.

Photos in the past
We all agree that Facebook photos was not exactly the best feature on Facebook. Though it allowed you to share pictures with your friends, it was a time consuming process to upload photos and then tag them individually. All this effort just to show a photo thats has a resolution of only 720-pixels. This had to change and Facebook has done exactly that.

Photos now
So what does the new and improved Facebook photos have to offer? To begin with, You can now upload pictures with 2048-pixel resolution. Once you create a new album and upload all your photos for that album, instead of each picture opening in a new web page, photos and its tags and comments will load on top of a page making it much easier for the user. The new uploader works on Flash-based technology. Facebook, however, clarified that they will not be using facial-recognition but rather will be using a much simpler technology which will identify a person who has been tagged in multiple photos but will not link it to a Facebook profile.

Once uploaded, the photos can now be viewed in a much better and streamlined method. Whats more is that thanks to the higher resolution photos, friends can now take a 5×7 printout at 300DPI.

Features aside, what about security?It is great that Facebook is revamping its features to make it better and more user-friendly for Facebook users. But having said that, most users would prefer a security overhaul as compared to a change in features. With even Friend Requests having security issues, it is about time that Facebook made more changes on this front than on photos or Facebook chat. Do you agree?

Google TV’s Launch Is Imminent

Google TV’s launch is upon us. We’ve just received an invite from Logitech for the unveiling of “Logitech’s line of products for Google TV” next week in San Francisco and New York. That’s on top of the invite we received from Sony for the unveiling of the “World’s First Internet Television.”

According to the invite, Logitech CEO Jerry Quindlen will be revealing Logitech’s entire line of Google TV products. The company was announced as a hardware launch partner at Google I/O earlier this year.

We have played with at least one of Logitech’s Google TV devices: a companion box called the Logitech Revue. The box provides the hardware necessary to integrate Google TV with your cable or satellite. The rumored price of the box is $299, but we’re not buying it until that price comes out of the Logitech CEO’s mouth. In addition to the Revue box, Logitech is also apparently working on a variety of peripherals for Google TV, including keyboards and remotes.
While Logitech may be the first to get Google TV onto the market (it all depends on the exact date the Revue hits store shelves), Sony won’t be far behind; the company will unveil its line of HDTVs with Google TV integration on October 12 at a press event in New York. We’ll be at both events to cover everything that launches.

It looks like October is going to be Google TV’s month. The big question though is this: will consumers embrace Google TV with their wallets? We’re about to find out.