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How We Make the SwellPath Offices Green

Published April 22nd, 2013 SwellPath 11 Comments

We’re taking a break from talking about analytics, PPC, and SEO topics on the blog today, and sharing another subject we’re passionate about: how we incorporate green practices in our office. In honor of Earth Day we’ve compiled a list of how we make the SwellPath offices green. Since we’re based in Portland, we’re lucky to live and work in a city that encourages and incentivizes being green, and while our city provides unique support for eco-friendly initiatives, many of the practices we’ll detail in this post can be applied anywhere.

Eco-Friendly Commuting

Transit Passes for Employees

Over half the office commutes to work on mass transit every day, and we’ve made that easier by subsidizing transit passes for our employees that need them. By taking the bus, light rail, or the streetcar to and from work everyday, we’re helping cut down on the number of cars on the road, not to mention the hassle of parking downtown.

Biking to Work

Portland is indisputably a bike-friendly city. In fact, Bicycling Magazine named Portland America’s Most Bike-Friendly City in 2012. SwellPath employees take advantage of dedicated bike lanes, bike boxes at intersections, and tons of bike corrals around the city. Portland has definitely made it easy to get around on two wheels. We even have our weekly Whiteboard Wednesday lunches delivered by bike messenger.

Green Kitchen

Non-Disposable Dishes

The SwellPath office is stocked with non-disposable dishes and silverware to cut down on waste. Providing reusable items for food and beverages means they’ll be around for years to come, and we’ll save money by not having to buy plastic dishes and silverware every month. We also keep dish towels in the kitchen to cut down on paper towel usage.

Recycling (Almost Everything)

We’ve got a pretty sweet recycling set up in the office, and while it may take a few extra seconds to figure out where everything goes, it’s worth it in the long run. We have bins set up for recycling paper, metals, glass, and plastics. Our awesome Operations Coordinator provides great visual cheat sheets for us, which makes it easier to know where everything goes.

Compost

In addition to recycling we also have a composting bin in the kitchen. All of our food scraps and food-soiled paper go into the composter, in addition to the copious amounts of coffee grounds we go through each day.

Eco-Friendly Office Practices

Going Paperless

As a digital agency we basically live on the web, which means we’re not printing or using paper wastefully. Most of the time we’re sharing and editing documents online. Services like DropBox and Google Docs make it easy to go virtually paperless. Plus, we’re saving money by not having to refuel the office printer as often.

Adding Some Literal Green

We’re big fans of plants in the office. Every room at SwellPath houses some type of plant life. We’ve found they brighten up the office quite a bit and as an added benefit can provide a natural solution for cleaner indoor air. Check out this organization for more information on the benefits of adding plants to your office.

Conserving Energy

We try to be consistent about conserving energy in the office by turning lights off in rooms we’re not using and switching off our computers, wireless mice, and other electronics at night. These are quick actions that can go a long way to helping cut down on energy waste in the office.

Arm Yourself with Green Information

Education About Green Practices

When we started our new recycling and composting program, our Operations Coordinator who leads the green team at SwellPath gave us a presentation on the new practices and listed the information in our kitchen on the bulletin board. That education can extend to not just the workplace, but also to your practices at home as well.

Resources for Your City

If you’re in the city of Portland, this website has tons of great resources on it for making your office space or home green. Check with your local city government website to learn about recycling resources and how you can make your office more green.

Happy Earth Day!

New Tag Management Case Study Available

Published April 17th, 2013 News, SwellPath 4 Comments

When Google launched Tag Manager back in October, we were excited to be able to offer our clients a free tag management solution that is incredibly easy to implement and maintain. Google Tag Manager offers a number of built-in benefits. In addition to being scalable and extensible, GTM integrates easily with Google Analytics, and is customizable to the needs of each business.

One of the first clients we worked with on tag management was Jive. Jive was using over ten different advertising and marketing automation scripts for measuring conversion including Google Analytics, display, remarketing, and retargeting networks, audience measurement scripts, and social sharing tools. SwellPath’s challenge was to transition all the disparate tracking tools into one system, Google Tag Manager.

You can read the full story in our Tag Management Case Study online, or download the case study to print or share.

Are you considering tag management? If you’re wondering whether or not a tag management system is something you need, call or email us today. Or you can download our Tag Management Checklist to see if you can benefit from Google Tag Manager.

Introducing the First Ever SwellPath Presents

Published April 15th, 2013 Events, SwellPath 4 Comments

The SwellPath team is incredibly excited to announce the first ever SwellPath Presents talk. With the SwellPath Presents series, we’ll be sharing insights, resources, and industry knowledge on topics ranging from analytics, SEO, PPC, and more.

Find the details of our first event below, and keep checking back for more information on upcoming SwellPath Presents talks. See you there!

Responsive Design, Mobile SEO, and the Future of Search Marketing.

The modern web is multi-platform. Brands interested in providing site experiences that delight customers need to have sites that display flawlessly and are highly useful on desktops, phones, and tablets; experienced digital marketers know this, savvy users know this, and the web’s leading search engines know this. As we blaze through 2013, your mobile experience plays more and more into how your website performs in mobile search. Don’t be left behind and relegated to the bottom of the search results for your valuable keywords. Make sure that search engines rank your site where it belongs so your mobile audience can find you at the important stages of their journeys. In the first ever SwellPath Presents, our Senior SEO Analyst, Mike Arnesen, will teach why mobile SEO is more important than ever, dive into the different takes on mobile SEO, and outline how you can build a mobile experience that is nothing less than SEO perfection.

When: Wednesday, May 8 | 5:15 for refreshments | 5:30 presentation beings

Where: Living Room Theaters | 341 SW 10th Ave, Portland, OR 97205

Space for the event is limited. Please register and RSVP for the talk here: http://swellpathpresents.eventbrite.com/

SwellPath Upcoming April Speaking Engagements

Published April 4th, 2013 Analytics, Authorship & AuthorRank, SwellPath 8 Comments

We’re out and about again, hitting the town (and the web) to share some of our SwellPath knowledge.

SwellPath and Google Analytics

First up, SwellPath’s CEO Adam Ware will be speaking at the latest Portland Google Analytics User Group meetup on Thursday, April 11 at the ISITE Design office. He’ll be covering the topic “Measure Customers and Content – Not Visitors and Page Views.”

Time: Thursday April 11 | 5:15 PM for networking, 5:45 PM for presentations

Address: ISITE Design, 2030 NW Pettygrove St. Portland, OR

The event is free to attend and you can RSVP on the Portland Google Analytics User Group meetup site.

SwellPath on SEOmoz

For those not in the Portland area, you can catch our Senior SEO Analyst, Mike Arnesen sharing his insights on Google AuthorRank in a Mozinar over on SEOmoz. Catch his session on “Advanced AuthorRank: 25 Tactics for the Individual to the Enterprise Level” on Tuesday, April 16 at 10:30 AM PDT.

The session will cover specific tactics that you can use to boost your AuthorRank as an individual agent, help enterprise-level sites benefit from AuthorRank, sell the idea into your clients and/or bosses, and creative use-cases from the trenches at SwellPath. If you’re unfamiliar with Google Authorship, you can brush up on the subject with Mike’s original post on the SEOmoz blog.

Don’t miss out. Register for the Mozinar today!

SearchFest 2013 Food Guide

Published February 19th, 2013 Events, Industry, Reviews, SwellPath No Comments

SearchFest is this Friday and it’s guaranteed to be an amazing time for everyone who attends (just check out the speaker line up and you’ll see what I mean). On top of that, there are fantastic networking opportunities all day long and the chance to explore the unforgettable city that we (at SwellPath) call home. Even better, Portland is a foodie’s dreamland, but there are so many options that it’s a bit overwhelming. Well, we all got together and came up with our top recommendations for places to grab food that are within walking distance of SearchFest. We’ve broken out our food and drink recommendations into four categories. Click to skip to any of them.

Coffee
Lunch
Dinner
After Hours & Drinks

If it’s your first, second, or third time visiting the city and you want a few tried and true eating options to choose from while you’re here, check out this food guide and download the PDF version to your phone.

Coffee

You could say coffee is the common thread that brings 99% of inbound marketers together. Whether you’re looking to get your buzz on before the big event or sit down to talk shop with a new/old industry friend, Portland has you covered for coffee! Back to the top

Photo Credit: Oregon Live

Stumptown Coffee

Stumptown is arguably the iconic coffee brand in Portland. If you’re a coffee lover in town for SearchFest, you better not miss Stumptown. The closest location to the Governor is only two blocks away, right next to the Ace Hotel. If you visit that location, make sure to grab a seat in the Ace Hotel’s lobby on some of the most comfortable couches in town. Definitely pass on Starbucks and hit up Stumptown if you need a warm drink before the conference starts. At a place with such a widespread reputation for being awesome at roasting and brewing, you’d expect Stumptown to have some serious coffee geeks. You’d be right: these guys love coffee. If you need proof, watch this amazing video. Bonus for vegan or dairy-free folks, they’ll usually have some vegan treats up at the counter.

Approximate Walk Time from SearchFest: 3 minutes

Address (click for directions): 1026 SW Stark St Portland, OR 97205

URL: http://stumptowncoffee.com/

Photo Credit: Alex Grauch

Courier Coffee

Sure, Stumptown is the big name in coffee in Portland, but if you’re looking for a solid small roaster, check out Courier. The location may be small, but you can expect knowledgeable and passionate baristas who can serve you up a fantastic cup of coffee grown in diverse regions across the globe. If you check out their Google+ Local reviews, you’ll notice that common threads are fantastic customer service, great atmosphere, and, of course, amazing coffee.

Address: 923 SW Oak St, Portland, OR 97205

URL: http://www.couriercoffeeroasters.com/

Approximate Walk Time from SearchFest: 5 minutes

Photo Credit: Sprudge.com

Case Study Coffee

You’ve probably never heard of Case Study Coffee if you’re not a local, but they’re definitely worth checking out. We’d recommend checking out their espresso drinks, pour-over coffee, and seasonal/special drinks with homemade syrups (e.g. hot drinking chocolate with a fat toasted marshmallow). Case Study has just opened a new location in downtown Portland that’s just a quick walk from SearchFest. Don’t bother looking it up on Google, it’s not there. Don’t bother checking Case Study’s website, it’s just a single image (SEO shudder). Trust us though; it’s worth stepping into the unknown if you’re up for an adventure.

Address: 801 SW 10th Ave Portland, OR 97205

URL: http://www.casestudycoffee.com/

Approximate Walk Time from SearchFest: 3 minutes

Lunch

Lunch is included with your SearchFest ticket, but if you want to head out, get some fresh air, and make lunch more of an adventure, check out our top picks for lunch spots. Back to the top

Photo Credit: RandomAndKeila.com

Food Carts

No visit to PDX would be complete without a visit to a food cart! There are so many great options when it comes to food carts that it’s almost impossible to list all of our favorites. When you’re at SearchFest, a the closest pod is at 10th and Alder, north side of Alder. A few you might want to check out include:

Nong’s Khao Man Gai – Simple comfort food. Consider the chicken and rice.
Savor Soup House – Excellent soups and sandwiches. Vegan options available.

Address: SW 10th and Alder

Approximate Walk Time from SearchFest: 1 minute

Photo Credit: UrbanWorks

Little Big Burger

LBB is one of SwellPath’s favorites (it’s right by our office) that is definitely worth a taste. We’d say the burgers are the highlight (especially when you add bacon), but the truffle oil french fries (along with the fry sauce) can almost stand on their own. It’s a quick walk from the SearchFest venue, but you can also hop on the Streetcar and get off two stops down for a quick trip.

Address: 122 NW 10th Ave Portland, OR 97209

URL: http://littlebigburger.com/

Approximate Walk Time from SearchFest: 5 minutes

Photo Credit: Kale’s Facebook Page

Kale

We can tell you why this spot is awesome in three easy words: Japanese Style Curry. Everyone who visits Kale seems to agree that the owner is extremely friendly and passionate about Japanese cuisine. If you aren’t familiar with Japanese comfort food, this is an excellent first experience. Try adding egg to your curry.

Address: 900 SW Morrison St Portland, OR 97205

URL: http://www.kalepdx.com/

Approximate Walk Time from SearchFest: 2 minutes

Photo Credit: Trip Advisor

Prasad

Prasad, housed in the same place as Yoga Pearl, is the neighborhood’s go-to for delicious vegan, gluten-free, and raw offerings. It’s a paradise of soups, greens preparations, wraps, and smoothies, all of them nutritious enough to incite a sudden and palpable “healthy feeling.” If you’re looking for something light and healthy, this is definitely the place to go during the lunch break at SearchFest.

Address: 925 NW Davis St, Portland, OR 97209

URL: http://prasadcuisine.squarespace.com/

Approximate Walk Time from SearchFest: 7 minutes

Dinner

It’s impossible to get through SearchFest without working up a big appetite. Check out a few of our favorite dinner locations and get some great food with industry peeps or just let all the great information soak in. Back to the top

Photo Credit: PortlandFoodJournal

Andina

How about some delicious Peruvian food? If you want to head out with a group after the closing keynote at SearchFest, take a nice evening walk (or hop on the street car) and head to Andina. It’s tapas style, so it’s super fun to share with a group. If you do go, make sure to try the crab stuffed avocado.

Address: 1314 NW Glisan St Portland, OR 97209

URL: http://www.andinarestaurant.com/

Approximate Walk Time from SearchFest: 10 minutes

Photo Credit: TheDrinkNation

The Original

Hit up this 50s-style dinner for a swingin’ dinner or, if you’re planning to be out all night, their special late night “really early breakfast” menu. Be warned though, during our research, we found out that SEMpdx’s Todd Mintz didn’t like it. ;-)

Address: 300 SW 6th Ave, Portland, OR 97204

URL: http://originaldinerant.com/

Approximate Walk Time from SearchFest:

Photo Credit: Burnside Brewing

Burnside Brewing

This one is a bit of a journey but worth it if you have a ride or are down with public transportation. Burnside Brewing is known around the office for great beers and a low-key atmosphere. However, what makes this place worth it is their “crazy ridiculous burger”. This masterpiece, originally created for the Brewer’s Burger Brawl, is not only available on Fridays and Saturdays. Good thing SearchFest is on a Friday!

Address: 701 E Burnside St, Portland, OR

URL: http://www.burnsidebrewco.com/

Approximate Walk Time from SearchFest: 28 minutes

Photo Credit: Road to Beerdom

Deschutes Brewery

Deschutes is a popular one, but with lots of seating, good beers, and something on the menu to satisfy anyone’s taste, this place is a surefire success. We also may or may not have had a hand in laying the SEO foundation for their current website. There’s plenty of great stuff on the menu and vegan/vegetarian options available. Try the sweet potato fries!

Address: 210 NW 11th Ave, Portland, OR 97209

URL: http://www.deschutesbrewery.com/

Approximate Walk Time from SearchFest: 6 minutes

Photo Credit: By The Tun

Tasty n Alder

Tasty n Alder is the third installment in John Gorham’s epic restaurant trilogy. Gorham is also the owner of two of the city’s most popular restaurants, Toro Bravo and Tasty N Sons. The brand new Tasty is having in a soft opening during February, and you can get in on the action between 5:30pm and 11pm each night. The restaurant sports window seat views of Portland’s historic First Presbyterian Church and already has a reputation for impeccable customer service and great atmosphere. Reviewers on Yelp have said this place warrants its own skit in a Portlandia episode and we’re inclined to agree.

Address: 580 SW 12th Ave Portland, OR 97205

URL: http://tastyntasty.com/alder/

Approximate Walk Time from SearchFest: 2 minutes

After Hours & Drinks

For some people, the after parties are half of the reason to attend an industry conference! After taking in a full day of back-to-back sessions, go and let loose a little at a few of our top picks of places to have SearchFest fun after hours. Back to the top

Photo Credit: SEMpdx

The Official SearchFest After Party

Before you head anywhere else, you need to head to the official after party for SearchFest! With attendee-only access, this is the perfect opportunity to get in some serious networking after the big event and also enjoy great stuff like hosted draft beer, wine, and soda, appetizers, and a photobooth. The shindig starts at 7pm. Be there. We’re particularly excited for the possibility of Marty Weintraub leading a SEMpdx Harlem Shake.

Address: 28 NW 4th Ave Portland, OR 97209

URL: http://www.sempdx.org/searchfest/searchfest-2013-after-party/

Approximate Walk Time from SearchFest: 12 minutes

Photo Credit: The Beer Drifter

Ground Kontrol Classic Arcade/Barcade

Looking to have fun like a kid but still party like an adult? Look no further than Ground Kontrol. This full on barcade is a blast, with classic games from Pac Man and Paperboy, to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (you know the one) and the original Mario Bros.

Address: 511 NW Couch St Portland, OR 97209

URL: http://groundkontrol.com/

Approximate Walk Time from SearchFest: 10 minutes

Photo Credit: The Drink Nation

Bailey’s Taproom

Baileys is a great bet for grabbing drinks with your new SearchFest buddies after hours. They have a great selection of craft beer and board games, which progressively get more fun over time (for some reason).

Address: 213 SW Broadway, Portland, OR 97205

URL: http://www.baileystaproom.com/

Approximate Walk Time from SearchFest: 7 minutes

Leveraging Pinterest for eCommerce & Adding SEO Value

Published October 23rd, 2012 Advertising, Ecommerce, SEO, Social Media, SwellPath 15 Comments

As the fastest site ever to gain 10 million users, Pinterest took the social sphere by storm. While there are many resources (including tons of awesome infographics), which illustrate site statistics and user demographics, there isn’t too much out there on how brands can utilize Pinterest for eCommerce. With the holidays right around the corner, it’s time for your brand to start using this ultra-powerful platform to drive sales.

Before you commit your brand to the platform, it’s important to determine if your brand is right for Pinterest.

Does your brand satisfy these factors?

Is Your Brand Pinterest Perfect?

Once you’ve determined that your brand is a good fit, you might ask what’s the value; is it worth my time?

There’s a great article on Search Engine Watch written by Miranda Miller titled “5 Pinterest User Insights Marketers Can Use to Drive Sales”. In this article, Miranda points out that when compared to other social sites, Pinterest users are less likely to convert, BUT when they do, they tend to spend more.

Let’s look at a few examples from clients of ours here at SwellPath…

As illustrated from the examples above, average order value from Pinterest referrals is much greater than those from Facebook.

Now that we’ve seen what’s possible, let’s talk about some ways to leverage the platform for eCommerce and add SEO value to your account and pins.

THE BASICS WITH A SPRINKLE OF SEO

First, make sure the description on your Pinterest profile is completely filled out. Include a high quality image of your brand logo, link your company website and your Twitter and Facebook accounts, if applicable.

In the ‘About’ section, include a thorough description of your offering and brand. Just like page meta descriptions, your profile description on Pinterest can contribute to the keyword-relevancy of your profile. Optimizing your Pinterest description will also ensure that the SEO authority passed back to your website has keyword value attached to it.

When creating pin boards, use descriptive keyword-focused titles. It never hurts to make them catchy and fun too. Whole Foods- Austin does a great job creating fun pin board titles.

Now that you have your account all set up, you can start pinning items or products to your categorized boards. This is probably one of the most crucial steps for SEO value. Ensure you’re including product keywords that describe the product and its features/benefits. The inclusion of keywords ensures that your pinned products and boards can be found through internal and external searches. However, optimization of these areas should always be a compromise between SEO and a friendly, personal messaging style. Always remember that you’re on a social network where people want to experience things that are fun and creative.

If you plan on pushing pins to Twitter it can be useful to include hashtags. Hashtags are also helpful to add a category to a pin such as #holiday, #recipes, or #craft. This helps users find your pins easier. Here’s a great example from Nordstrom.

Always use high quality and attractive photos. Pinterest is a visual platform before anything else. Make sure the images you’re pinning are high-res and accurately illustrate the product. Also, remember that Pinterest resizes thumbnails to 192 pixels wide, so detail might be lost when they’re thrown in the feed.

Finally, don’t forget to add a “Follow Us On Pinterest” button to your company website and social networking profiles. Also be sure add “Pin It” buttons on product pages. You can find the code to embed here.

SO WHAT ABOUT ECOMMERCE?

One of the best, and most underutilized Pinterest features is the price banner. To add a banner on your pined product stating the price, simply add the dollar sign ($) with the price in the product description. It’s really that easy.

Once you add the price banner, Pinterest automatically adds your pin to “Gifts” feed and inserts it into the correct pricing category.

Pinterest can be a great resource to drive traffic to your site, which can ultimately lead to sales. One of the best ways to bring people to your site via Pinterest is to hold a contest or sweepstakes. There are many ways to execute a Pinterest contest. I won’t go in to the specifics here, but check out this great pin board full various ways to conduct contents or promotions on Pinterest.

So, why should you run a contest on Pinterest?

First and foremost, this is a super low cost (if any cost at all) way to engage with your customers.

Pinterest is also a valuable resource for collecting customer and product insights. As users follow you to participate, create boards, comment, and re-pin your products you’re collecting priceless customer information and feedback.

Many “pin it to win it” type contests have a value-added factor. In this type of contest users pin images of your products to a board made specifically for the contest. Pictures of your products are now circling the world of Pinterst and getting repined and repined, with no effort on your part.

PINTEREST TOOLS

There’s lots of Pinterest tools out there to help you measure the value of your pins and also you help you identify influencers. Here are a few to look into.

Pinerly: Pinerly aids in marketing your visual content across the web. Their “dashboard” provides Pinterest measurement and optimization.
Pintics: Pintics is a Pinterest analytics tool that highlights the best-performing pins.
PinPuff: Measures “pin worth” and places a monetary value on your pins. PinPuff assigns an influence (pinfluence) score, similar to Klout. Your pinfluence is measured by your popularity, influence, and reach on Pinterest.

FINAL THOUGHTS

While Pinterest has the power to drive high-value referral traffic, it’s critical to remember that above all else, Pinterest is about customer engagement.

There’s nothing more annoying than a brand aggressively pushing their products when you’re looking for craft ideas or a great dinner recipe. Be sure to interact with other Pinners in a natural and conversational manner. Brands can successfully converse with pinners by:

Pinning thematically relevant images from other Pinterest users as opposed to only pinning your own images
Leaving comments on other user’s pins, “liking” other user’s pins, when appropriate
Using the mention feature to mention other Pinterest users in comments (e.g., “Hi @FancyPants10, thanks for pinning!”)
Following other users or brands that pin items in a similar product category

Winning the Bigger Business Pitch by Increasing Your “Know How”

Published October 19th, 2012 Advertising, Events, Industry, SwellPath 4 Comments

As part of our Jumpstart campaign, here’s some quick pointers for increasing your “Know-How” for a big pitch by effectively using partners.

Today, we talk about “know how”. Winning the pitch might mean brining in some more “Know How”. When you’re trying to land the bigger business, sometimes your potential new client or customer is asking for a whole lot more than what your company can currently deliver. While some companies bow out and stick to safer waters, the bold venture forth and take risks. Meeting this challenge will often times mean enlisting help from outside of your firm. By partnering with those who will round out your current service offering, you will bring the expertise and experience needed to win, and then execute, on the bigger jobs, thus leading to great work and even greater rewards.

Here are 4 tips to ensure that you are making the smartest decision when finding partners to brave those uncharted waters with.

1. Knowing what you are NOT good at.

It’s hard to admit that you don’t know something. It takes a level of maturity and personal insight to freely admit you’re not really qualified to take on certain business. After some reflection, take that list of services you don’t do well, but can compliment your work and go find the best providers in those areas. Having your weaknesses covered by your partner’s strength will enable you to focus on what you’re good at, and be confident during the pitch. Confidence, clients love confidence.

2. Don’t wait till the last minute.

If that big pitch is a week away and you currently don’t have relationships with potential partners, you have already lost. Creating a network of contacts with partners prior to any pitch opportunity is essential. This is tangential to tip #1; always be seeking out and networking with potential partners. If it’s possible, work on some smaller opportunities with them to build trust, so when that big whale client comes along, you can both execute brilliantly.

3. Set boundaries.

Once you have found a partner, you will need to set boundaries for each firm in the beginning. All members of your new team should know in black & white terms what they are responsible for and also what they are not allowed to touch. This will combat most trust issues, allowing all parties to focus on their specific work and preparation for the pitch, without worrying about getting stabbed in the back on a grey area that was open to interpretation.

4. Respect

They key to any well-functioning team is respect for one another. If you are respecting your partner and the feeling is mutual, your pitch will be great and all of the partners business will grow because of it. Remember, in the end you are partnering with another firm, they are an extension of your company now, and when one does great, all parties will see the rewards.

Crafting your best pitch and winning the big business requires guts and “know how”. Go out there and find a partner you can trust and get some BIG wins.

Ready to put these tips to use? If you are a business owner in need of a JumpStart, submit your best pitch by October 26, 2012, for your chance to win $100,000 in agency services. Check out JumpStart for details.

Good luck! And Happy Pitching!

Like this post? Follow Charles Voloshin on Google+

Takeaways From My First Month in SEO

Published August 27th, 2012 SEO, SwellPath 15 Comments

No follow, 301 redirect, anchor text, SERP, long-tail keywords, meta data…

Before my entrance into the search marketing industry I saw the world of SEO as a foreign language. A complex enigma that was used by a sophisticated species of coders and web geeks in a land far, far away. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one with this removed perception of what SEO is and how it works. From afar, it can seem very overwhelming. Almost as though it’s the closest version of the Matrix where we are in an ongoing battle of man against machine. We, as humans created the ever-changing algorithms that we are constantly trying to adapt to and align with.

In my first month as a Search Marketer, I’ve learned that it’s not so complex and scary and that Agent Smith isn’t peering out of his dark tinted shades making sure you don’t crack the code. I’ve learned that it’s a matter of good research and analysis, relevant content, and consistency between page attributes. And that, just like everything else, the more you expose yourself to the appropriate steps, language and strategies, the more it makes sense. Here, I’d like to share a few things I’ve learned my first month as a Search Marketer.

It’s difficult writing 150 character meta descriptions without using abbreviations

Having a max character count is much easier when you’re able to use abbreviations, slag and just downright awful word cuts. If you’re in the SEO world you probably know that meta descriptions should be around 150 characters. Aiming for that magic number without abbreviations means you just have to be a lot more creative.

Don’t be hasty with your keyword research, it will pay off in latter steps

Keyword research is the first, and one of the most important steps in the SEO process. Yes, it can be time consuming and redundant but it pays off as you move forward with concluding steps. Doing a thorough job, looking at every page on the site at hand, analyzing their competitor’s use of keywords, etc., will ensure that you’re targeting the right keywords- it can also bring new keyword opportunities to the forefront. There are a lot of resources out there that can save time too, like keyword tools and phrase-building sites (such as mergewords.com). These are both great to bulk up that list but be sure that you are still using keywords that are relevant to the site at hand.

If you think social is becoming more & more obsolete, you couldn’t be more wrong

After the Facebook IPO fail, many people out there seem to think that social sites have past their prime and are on the way out.

The folks at Google obviously disagree and to prove it, they’ve added social shares into their search algorithm for (at least) logged in searchers and potentially as a Panda quality factor. This means that social signals from Facebook, Twitter and Google+ now correlate with higher rankings in Google’s index.

Think semantically

The ability to think semantically is a crucial part of being a successful search marketer. Semantic keyword research involves thinking about what people actually mean when they type in a certain keyword. For instance, if a user types in tree planting, what are they really hoping to find? Some options could be:

How to plant a tree
Organizations that plant trees
Tree planting ceremonies or events
Tree planting permits/ zoning
Volunteering opportunities to plant trees

Exploring all the possible meanings will help you to identify the right keywords based on the users intent.

You might not like creepy crawlers but be spider friendly

Google loves Google+ and wants to make you use it

Google works hard to make the web a more enjoyable place for users. Most of what they do is focused on improving the overall search experience. Sometimes though, Google fails (Orkut). If we’ve learned anything about Google, it’s that they’re resilient and Google+ emerged from their buoyancy. To avoid another flop, they’ve intergraded services such as Google Places, now Google+ Local, and encourage authorship with author rich snippets to improve ranking of blog posts. Google will never be the next Facebook, but it’s ok Google, we love you just the way you are.

You’ve heard it a million times before but content really is king

Having fresh, engaging and sharable content is more important now than ever. One element here revolves around quality content, content that is engaging and people want to share, reply to, comment on, like, retweet, etc. The other is quantity, frequently updating and adding new fresh content that people come back time and time again for.

Flash sucks

‘nuff said.

Keywords aren’t gravy and you shouldn’t poor ‘em over your whole Thanksgiving dinner- use them strategically, quality over quantity

Keyword stuffing is an all-to-frequently used black hat tactic which involves “loading a webpage with keywords in an attempt to manipulate a site’s ranking” via Google’s Webmaster Tools.

Tactics such as these result in a negative user experience and Google and other search engines are getting increasingly better at finding keyword violators and penalizing their ranking. Avoid the shotgun approach and use 3-5 keywords which are relevant and appropriate to your sites content.

In conclusion…

My first month in SEO has been an eye-opening reality check and I’m sure glad I don’t have to choose between the red or the blue pill. There’s still so much to learn and I feel we’re just scratching the suface of what possible on the web.

Now, I’d like to open it up, what were your initial impressions of SEO?

Out with the Old, In with the New

Published January 13th, 2012 SwellPath 6 Comments

SwellPath Loves You Happy New Year everyone! Hope that 2011 ended well for all our friends, and that 2012 is off to a great start. 2011 was our third year of operation, and it was another one of fantastic growth, and plenty of learning. But we’re really excited about 2012 and where SwellPath is headed.

In 2012 we’re going to continue to focus on what we’ve done exceptionally well for 3 years – making marketing decision making as easy as possible for our clients. John and I launched the company with 3 clients at the beginning of 2009. All three of those clients are still with us – our attrition has been virtually non-existent! That’s because our clients lean on SwellPath for their most important marketing decisions. We inform, support, and facilitate those decisions in ways none of their tools or partners can. We’re going to keep doing that in 2012, and we’re going to find ways to make it better, faster, and ultimately easier for our clients.

Charts and graphs and numbers are great – data should drive decisions. But behind all those things, there ultimately had to be human design. We’ve got an outstanding team here at SwellPath. We added some awesome folks in 2011 (Charles, Dan, Christian, and Danish), and we plan on adding more in 2012. What makes startups fun is the tightness of the relationships that are developed – everything is small and close together. We’re psyched to add more people to the SwellPath team, and develop those relationships. We’re also excited to develop relationships with more clients and partners, and we think we’ll have a lot more of those by the end of 2012.

So that’s a bunch of high-level talk – besides what we’ve always done, anything different? Yes! We’ll have some big announcements this year, so keep your eyes and ears open. We’ve found ways to help way more marketers – we think the “old” way of tackling digital marketing analysis is out – we’re the new.

Finally, what’s with the baby picture? For the first 3 months of 2012, our rockstar Katie Sachse won’t be in the office. Baby Olive was born on 12/31 just before we started 2012. Katie was employee #1 at SwellPath 3 years ago; I still am not used to her not being around. The picture of baby Olive personally reminds me of some things that are important to keep in mind when running a startup. Enjoy it.