Social Media Marketing vs. Viral Marketing. Creating profiles on Web 2.0 sites vs. Linkerati – Targeted Content, Building friends & relationships in blogoshphers vs. Digg etc. SMM can rule the SERPS, control the brank, get link love, show the community you are a participant, traffic, influence traditional media.

Top Social Media Sites:
You Tube
Wikipedia
Yahoo Answers
Yelp
Linked-In
Flickr
Craigslist (Best of)
Facebook
Amazon
Myspace
Technorati
Judy’s Book
Newsvine
Twitter
City Search
Wikihow

Top Viral Marketing Sites
Digg
Reddit
Stumbleupon
Delicious
Netscape
Techcrunch
Newsvine
Boing Boing
Fark
Engaget
Techmeme
Lifehacker
Yahoo Picks

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“There are very smart people out there who will figure out how to game it,” he said.

Depending on recommendations can be risky because the site can’t account for how smart users are, said Scott Hendison, another Portland Internet consultant specializing in search engine marketing and optimization — the practice of getting one group’s site to come up higher in search results than another.”

Read the full article

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“People assume Portland is small,” said Lewis, president of Anvil Media Inc. “We’re in the Northwest. We fish. It rains. We couldn’t possibly be industry leaders. They forget about Intel and Nike. They see this little town with one skyscraper.”

Read the article

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I just want to let everyone know that I, Todd Mintz, (along with Scott Hendison & a couple folks from Anvil Media) will be attending SMX Seattle on June 4 & 5. I’m reasonably sure that I’ll be 100% organic each day, so look for me there. I’ll post my updates on this blog for the people that aren’t able to make it.

SEMpdx is able to offer a free networking pass for people who can’t attend the full conference. It includes:

Access to the Networking hall to meet with our Premier Sponsors — Bruce Clay, Marchex, Microsoft, Google and Yahoo! — and all the other exhibitors. See the Network page for the complete list.
Access to all SMX Advanced networking events, including SMX Bash sponsored by Microsoft June 3, the SMX Reception sponsored by Yahoo!, and SMX After Dark: Google Dance Northwest!

Click this link and use the promo code SEMpdxa07 when checking out. The same promo code will also get you $75 off your conference ticket.

I do want to meet all the SEMpdx blog readers that are going to be in attendence. So that you know what I look like, I’m attaching a recent photo of myself:

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Click To Play

PORTLAND, Ore. (March, 8, 2007) Search Engine Marketing Professionals of Portland (SEMpdx) held SearchFest 07, the Northwest’s largest conference dedicated to search engine marketing (SEM). The full-day conference featured multiple learning tracks, workshops and expert panels to help businesses leverage SEM to increase awareness and revenue. The conference took place March 7, 2007 at the World Forestry Center in Portland, Oregon. This video is a small preview for the upcoming release of the session content video that is being produced. For more information on how you can obtain the full video, go to https://www.sempdx.org

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Stan can help you plan, architect, design, implement your search engine strategy and monitor and improve results. He is putting what he has learned on his new website, Search Engine Marketing Today which includes SEO articles and a forum on which you can ask questions.

1) Tell me about Straight-On Consulting. What is a typical client engagement for you?
A prospect calls Straight-On and tells us that he/she has been referred to us or found our site via search engines. They launched their new site but are not getting high placement of the organic search engines or much traffic. The want us to optimize it for high placement on the search engines.

In many cases their sites are woefully unprepared to succeed in the search engine wars. This includes on-site issues like inadequate content, poor choice of keywords, ineffective optimization, and off-site issues like few incoming links. We start by developing a mutual understanding of high-level issues like branding, positioning, messages, and goals. Then we structure the Website to support them. We develop a multi-page strategy for delivering important, keyword-laden messages in the concentrated form noticed by search engines and understood by people.

We build a good technical foundation for search engine optimization dealing with site maps, links, link names, image ALT tags, heads, and on-page visible text. Online keyword research is done to choose the phrases most likely to achieve high position, draw as many targeted visitors as possible, and compel them to act.

Then we use our experience to author visible and invisible content. We test pages with professional search engine optimization software to verify that it is likely to do well with search engines. We take before and after “pictures” of site traffic, and search engine results position.

We regularly achieve high position on search engines for the terms we use in optimization, increase traffic, and help our clients achieve business goals for their sites.

2) In a typical campaign, do you tend to focus more on on-page factors or off-page factors (e.g. linkbuilding).
Both on-page factors and off-page factors are very important in achieving high position and traffic, but we learn towards emphasizing on-page factors. We also stress the importance of including content or tools on the site which merit incoming links, and will draw them. While we don’t do many link-building campaigns, we advise our clients to seek links from high-quality sites which relate to their site, stressing the importance of blogs, forums, business partners, and directories. We are always open to working with other professionals who specialize in link building.

3) How can a small business compete online against bigger, better funded competitors?
A small company can be smart about using search engine optimization, good Web design, and other internet resources to their advantage. They can turn the simplicity of their business into an advantage by focusing on simple, clear, and strong messages that can win with search engines and with customers. They can get more bang for their marketing bucks by working with a company like Straight-On.

Straight-On competes by sticking to our core competency, which is search engine optimization for data-driven sites, content management systems, ecommerce systems and ordinary HTML information Websites. Even if a project is not huge, our clients know that their business means a lot to us and we will work hard for them. We don’t have to feed a full time staff, but through associates, we bring all of the talent necessary for success, at a reasonable price, and have stood behind our work for over a decade.

The post SEMpdx Board Member Mini-Interview: Stanford Davis of Straight-On Consulting appeared first on SEMpdx.

1) Tell me about Anvil Media. What is a typical client engagement for you?

Anvil Media is a full-service search engine marketing agency that specializes in both paid (PPC) and organic (SEO) marketing services. Although we were founded in 2000, we started hiring employees in 2004 and are now one of Oregonâ€s largest SEM agencies. With 50 clients at any given time, we have a mix of ongoing and project-based work. While a standard SEM engagement includes ongoing management of SEO and PPC programs, we do have clients that benefit from the more cost-effective SEM consulting projects. Both special projects and ongoing clients appreciate our social media optimization, online reputation management and SEO PR service offerings, which weâ€ve been refining over the past few years.

2) What is the best way for somebody to learn Search Marketing?

When I jumped into the world of Internet marketing in 1996, there were very few newsletter or Web site resources, let alone books or classes. I was a self-taught SEM professional, but weâ€ve been able to develop a training regiment for new hires that lack the necessary SEM experience. Short of talking your way into an SEM agency with no experience, I recommend taking a gradual approach to learning. Start with the free resources like Web sites, newsletters and forums. Move up to books and seminars, then graduate to full coursework. A few of my favorite resources include: clickz.com, dmnews.com, seomoz.org, sempdx.org, sempo.org, searchengineland.com and searchenginewatch.com.

3) How do you define a successful Search Engine Marketing Campaign?

Speaking in generalities, a successful SEM campaign meets the desired objective (awareness, leads or sales are common with our clients). A truly successful campaign integrates existing knowledge, best practices and marketing programs (i.e. press releases, direct mail and advertising campaigns). Based on our experience, the clients with the most successful campaigns simply follow our advice. They ensure our recommendations are implemented from stem to stern, including initial keyword selection, key messages and offers in ad copy, landing page and Web site design and most importantly, conversion tracking. I personally wouldnâ€t be happy with less than a 400% ROI on any SEM campaign, although weâ€ve seen 6x that return for some clients.

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I am the Director of Internet Marketing Strategies, so my role is to develop strategies for these businesses to succeed online. Some are large companies with full-blown marketing plans and budgets. Others are one location glass shops with very little budget or forward looking strategy development. Its my goal to build success for each, and find ways to overcome the challenges that each faces in their respective markets.

In other words, I research, develop, and implement online marketing plans, and integrate them with current offline marketing strategies and business models.

2) What is the business case for search engine marketing?

Other than a few large companies, the glass industry has been slow to adopt the Internet as an effective marketing medium. The business case here is not just for SEM, but for Internet Business Management in general; to get the (mostly privately owned) glass companies to embrace the Internet and use it effectively to increase their respective market share.

3) When a business owner outsources SEM, how much oversight should he/she maintain over the SEM process?
If the SEM consultant is worth the cost, the business owner should need to give very little oversight. That’s not to say they shouldn’t be involved. It’s important for principles to be involved to ensure everyone is going down the right path.

That said though, a good SEM/SEO/Internet Marketer…should have a total handle on the company’s online business. they should be able to proactively see problems, find solutions, and consistently drive online success.

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1) Tell me about Amplify Interactive. What is a typical client engagement for you?
Amplify Interactive is 3 people strong, soon to be 4. I operated as a solo SEO consultant & sub-contractor for 3 years until 2006 when I decided that it was time to grow the business or move on to the next thing. Itâ€s fun to work for yourself and work in your PJâ€s all day – but I realized that I really missed working with people. Our typical client engagements tend to be full site optimization, link development & pay-per-click campaigns. We like to work with clients who see the value of an integrated approach and who see the value of content & links when it comes to the success of their site. In addition to straight ahead keyword research and SEO recommendations, our approach involves everything from competitor benchmarking, auditing sites for SEO and marketability, analytics analysis and developing content recommendations. Itâ€s important for us to be able to work with a client who can act on that kind of strategic thinking. Over the last year or so, Iâ€ve noticed that we seem to be getting in the door through pay-per-click fix-it projects that turn into larger engagements. Meaning, I get a phone call from someone who has tried to do a PPC campaign because they want to get more search traffic but they are unsuccessful and realize that itâ€s more complex than they thought it was. We help them put together a strategic paid search campaign, and use the process and results as an opportunity to demonstrate the power of search and how working with a partner like Amplify Interactive improves their chances of success.

2) How can a business owner searching for SEM services evaluate the quality of potential vendors?
I think that fit and philosophy is a big part of the equation for success, and I encourage business owners to ask questions about how the SEM works, and why they do things the way that they do. Itâ€s important for business owners to realize that in order to change the results for their site – their site will have to change. Any SEM vendor who isnâ€t going to help you improve your site should be shown the door. I always advise people to spend a little time getting educated so they can really assess their needs, to ask peers for referrals, to speak to at least 3 different vendors and to get references. Get started by checking out an organization like SEMpdx or SEMPO to find resources, materials, educational events, etc.

3) How best can search engine rankings be maintained during and after a website redesign?
As SEOâ€s we all know about the impact of changing content, maintaining directory & page names and using 301 redirects etc. Technically speaking – itâ€s not so difficult as long as all the stakeholders involved know about these things and take steps to minimize the impact. However, I think success here has a lot more to do with using common sense in conjunction with analytics to understand what a siteâ€s visitors find important and why. In doing a good job in preserving this valuable content, and using the redesign as an opportunity to improve information architecture and usability youâ€ve set the foundation for improvement on previous successes.

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