Most people are pretty happy when they take a look at their web site traffic and see a large share of traffic coming to their site from the search engines. The natural reaction to these numbers are "Isn't this great? Look at all these new prospects who are finding me on the web!" But in many cases, these assumptions about who's finding your site via search may be completely wrong. But, before I go into ideas about how you can improve your search results, let's take a look at how people use search today. How do people search? It all begins with a need or interest. Something inspires a person to search for a certain topic. So let's use a hypothetical example of person considering buying a new camera. Typically when you start searching you begin with a pretty broad search...type "camera" into Google (65.9% of searches happen on Google according to ComScore, Dec 2011).  And the results page brings up a bunch of links for places where you can buy cameras, some photos of cameras, links to manufacturer's sites, etc. Great...but you're not even sure what you're looking for yet. So you go back to the top of the page and start adding... Read more

Technology, innovation and adoption are happening faster than ever before. A trip to the mall is a good reminder of how quickly iPods and MP3 players eliminated the CD and stores like Sam Goody. Tablets are the next big technology trend and will likely eliminate personal computers sooner rather than later. The iPad adoption rate was the fastest in history; quickly surpassing the time it took us to move from VHS to DVD. But new technologies are becoming so much more than just digital trends; they’re lifestyle trends that have merged with our everyday existence at a fast speed. I learned as a little girl that having good manners meant always sharing my toys, but Facebook, Twitter and all things social have revolutionized our thoughts on sharing. Instead of sharing toys or devices, we now share all the details of our lives. Posts on Twitter, an entire timeline on Facebook, circles of random acquaintances on Google+, all of our eclectic music choices broadcasted by Spotify--you name it, we are sharing it. The proof is in social aggregators like Hootsuite that let you monitor your entire digital persona in a single dashboard. And it’s not just the details of our personal lives... Read more

Identifying topical influencers has been a key to driving awareness and activation for many socially progressive brands over the past few years. One of the measurement variables many brands have come to rely on is Klout. Much has been written about Klout since it's founding in 2008. Some praise & swear by the service, others question the validity of the score and ability to "game" the system. Regardless, users work each day to increase their Klout score and brands are eager to reward those indiviuduals. At it's core, Klout provides social media analytics to measure a user's influence across their social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linkedin, Foursquare, and many more and assigns a score to the user. This daily score is meant to reflect the influence that individual has to drive action in social networks. Currently, Klout boasts over 100 million profiles, 2.7 billion+ pieces of content & connections analyzed daily and 5,000+ partners & developers with over 45 billion+ API calls. From a brand perspective, there are multiple ways to leverage this data and audience to drive action. From the Klout Perks program, to leveraging Klout's API to the upcoming Klout brand pages. Klout Perks - The most visible brand programs associated... Read more

Google first introduced its social network, Google+, in June 2011. Just six months later it reportedly had 62 million users and is on track for 400 million users by the end of 2012. That will be half of Facebook’s total current user base in a fraction of the time, and double Twitter’s! Just recently, Google announced Search, plus Your World, which is Google+ content appearing with traditional organic search results. This is proof that the lines between social networking, social media and SEO are indeed thinning and that social networking and social signals are becoming more important to the practice of SEO. Google+ is a social networking force to be reckoned with and it is forcing marketers’ hands. I guarantee you that Google+ is not a fad. It is here to stay. So why is it important to incorporate Google+ into your web presence, how do you do it, and how will it positively impact your organic search strategy? With the introduction of Search, plus Your World, when your prospects search in Google for the keywords you want to be found for, relevant results will be returned in that searcher’s “Personal Results” from their “Google+ Circles”, as well as related “People and Pages from... Read more