The Vizion Search Engine Optimization Blog
- 2007Apr20420 at VIZION Headquarters
It’s been a fairly disappointing 420, so far. Nobody’s acting crazy insane, stuffing their faces with brownies, or jumping out of windows. Mark’s gearing up for a pitch this afternoon, so we don’t want to distract him… lots of calisthenics and yoga-like stretching going on inside his office, to be sure.
In the meantime, we’re doing brief edits to the site copy so we can launch the VIZION redesign within the next few weeks. The creative team is having a grand ol’ time with multiple design projects while the rest of us chime in on scoping out the information architecture for the new site.
Actual site content may take us several stages since we’re focused on our clients.
More updates as they happen.
- 2007Apr19Top SEO Companies
It’s time that this practice comes to an end. TopSEOs.com does not rank the “Top SEO Companies”. They rank companies which have paid for the privilege to be ranked.
First, I should provide a little history.
Prior to forming VIZION Interactive, I served as the President and EVP of Sales and Marketing for Zunch Communications. It was during my tenure at Zunch that we began several marketing campaigns. One of these campaigns was with TopSEOs.com.
I should tell you, advertising with TopSEOs.com works. We received a sizable amount of traffic, and having an “unbiased 3rd party” say that you’re the “top” SEO company doesn’t hurt with closing ratios. TopSEOs.com, however, is not an unbiased 3rd party.
TopSEOs.com will say that they have Evaluation Criteria. I can tell you from my personal experience at Zunch that no one contacted our clients to see if we provided SEO for them, much less to ask them if we were doing a good job.
After starting VIZION Interactive, I was called by a sales rep from TopSEOs.com to see when I might begin advertising with them, once again. I was told how much that I would need to pay to be in their rankings. [...]
- 2007Apr13New Vizion Website Design on the Way!
We’re all excited. The deeply beloved VIZION purple has served its purpose, and now must go the way of the dodo (i.e. extinction). Stefan has come up with something we really like. We’re likely to do this in stages, but we’re all so excited about having a different design that we’re doing our best to get it out ASAP. Of course, clients come first, so we’ll see how it goes.
- 2007Apr6Top 4 Ways to Choose an SEO Company
Search Engine Optimization, otherwise known as SEO, is still a largely unfamiliar term among business owners and executives. Internet marketing is still a mystery many companies fear to approach. It seems so different and unpredictable until you’ve spent a little time adjusting to the space. But once you’re drenched in Internet lingo and applications, you find yourself willing to step into the world of search marketing. And just as you decide to make the plunge, you find yourself immediately facing another dilemma: How do you choose an SEO company? Here are the 4 most common ways people select an SEO firm.
word of mouth
advertisement
searching Google or Yahoo
attending an SEM conferenceLet’s take a quick look at each one:
1. Word of Mouth – If you’re a small to medium sized business and you’ve never heard anyone else talk about SEO, chances are that word of mouth won’t apply to you. You could, of course, call up your top ten favorite executives or decision makers in other businesses and ask them if they’ve used an SEO they’d recommend. Depending on your vertical, you might not find anyone with a recommendation. If your business thrives on internet sales or lead generation, you’re much more likely [...]
- 2007Mar28Avoid Road Rage: Podcast Your Commute
Having worked from my home office these past two years, I panicked for a solid three minutes when I realized that tomorrow I join the nation’s least favorite pastime: commuting. If there were a way to have the pleasure of the team’s company without the commute, trust me, I’d be all over it. As it stands, I’ll be frequenting our office in Las Colinas (North Irving).
Imagine adding a two hour drive to your schedule every day after blissfully avoiding it for two years! Exactly. Reality check times ten. But it’s not the drive that’s so horrible. It’s the wasted time. It’s having to be conscious for the whole drive. What can you do? The only things remotely safe to do while driving are 1) talk and 2) listen. You can do both on the phone, if you have that much to say on a daily basis and you can reach someone worth talking to. You can talk into a hand-held microphone and record your thoughts for your new book, business proposal, grocery list, etc. You can listen to the radio, but how many days in a row do you really want to hear the same songs? There’s talk radio, but [...]
- 2007Mar21The Thin Line Between PR and Search
As Lee Odden mentioned the other day, there is a thin line between public relations and search engine optimization. Some people may try to wax eloquent on the diverse and multiple ways in which SEO and PR can benefit each other or work hand in hand. To make such claims is to muddy the waters unnecessarily.
Online PR and SEO fit hand in hand because at various stages of each they are one and the same. But before I get a bunch of emails from bellyaching professionals in a huffy mess, let me clarify. Online reputation management is a component of public relations. Some may say they are one and the same when, in fact, they can be easily distinguished from each other. “Reputation management” as a term is more accurately used to describe the attempt to monitor and respond to negative press and attention. “Public Relations” encompasses both reputation management and press releases, interviews with the press, making public statements and retractions, and all things involving interaction between company and media.
Online Reputation Management (ORM) is a term I like to use to [...]
- 2007Mar20Does Your Copywriter Know Your Business?
I know from experience that one of the most difficult service negotiations in Internet marketing involves copywriting. As the business owner, marketing manager, or company representative, you have insider’s viewpoint of your industry, your products and services, and your company. You know all the jargon – the industry slang. You know exactly what that doohickey does and why, yet you want someone else to put it into written words.
That’s completely understandable. Some extremely successful entrepreneurs are total concept people. They’re visionaries, with little time to focus on the details of marketing, public relations, and search engine optimization. A successful team relies upon each member for their strengths, and at times looks outside the nest for skill sets which aren’t as prevalent within the company.
Enter the contract or freelance copywriter. Whether your copywriter is independent or works for a marketing firm like VIZION, your biggest challenge will be communicating what story you want the copywriter to tell and how you want him or her to tell it.
There are a dozen voices your copywriter could use. But which should he use? Do you want your copy to sound scientific, advertisement-ish, simple professional, humorous, common and approachable, artsy, southern, educated or uneducated? You [...]
- 2007Feb27Insert Name Here – The Importance of Online Reputation Management – Part One
Online Reputation Management – It’s been at the forefront of the SEO community lately with the Dave Pasternack SEO Contest, the Jason Calacanis incident, and to a lesser extent Scott Karp’s questions about SEO.
On a personal level, I don’t think it is too cool to try and rank for someone’s name and wouldn’t maliciously do it myself, but most of these instances could have been avoided. I don’t feel bad at all for Dave Pasternack of Did-It, after all he did stir the pot. I do however feel bad for the real Dave Pasternack. And this Dave Pasternack, too. As far as Jason — I think he knows what he is doing and can handle himself. With Scott Karp, his scrape with the SEO community was definitely more low-key and he managed to turn it into some goodwill and probably some friendships within the SEO community he could turn to for help. Where he messed up was quickly forgetting most of that when he saw that a particular SEO forum thread was ranking for his name.
I was going to title this post, “Why You Don’t Mess With The SEO Industry,” [...]
- 2006Dec22Social Media Phenomenon: MySpace Game Theory
By now, the only people who aren’t familiar with social networking giant MySpace are the elderly, the homeless, and the technologically pure (the best way to avoid global connection is to avoid technology altogether). Despite global awareness of the monster website, I know many people still refusing to join the rank and file of MySpacers. Is it geared toward teenagers and young 20s? Of course. They know who spends the most time socializing online. Can it be turned into a sick virtual repeat of high school popularity contests? Sure, but then Digg does pretty much the same thing in its own way.
Look beyond the pre-teen facade and understand that MySpace is THE place to be to connect with people around the world. It is the place to be because it has the user base. When 141.5 million profiles are registered on a website, it goes without saying that this is the most obvious virtual place to meet.
It’s like this television special I saw the other night on Game Theory. A handful of people were selected for to test Game Theory out. They were divided into couples. The television show representatives dropped these couples off in different places within Washington D.C. [...]
- 2006Nov29Another One Bites The Dust
For more than a month, the Dmoz editor section has been down. Now, Microsoft Small Business Directory is closing its doors. While it’s hardly news to anyone that follows the search marketing space that the heyday of the directory is over, it is certainly interesting that these particular directories have ended up here.
It’s no secret that the search engines are constantly trying to determine which sites to trust and which links are trustworthy. Part of determining which sites to trust involves the sites that link to them. Dmoz, SBD, Business.com and the Yahoo Directory have all been thought to garner some of that trust based on the editorial control they exert over the sites appearing in their directories.
The search engines clearly need some editorial assistance within their algorithms for text link analysis. I can’t imagine the engines ever getting so advanced that they can analyze all links without some manner of human assistance, even if the human assistance is a bit imperfect. You’ll always be able to buy links under the radar if you know what to look for and stay away from known link sellers and buyers.
So what’s the deal? If editorial control in links [...]
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