Art Science Web is happy to be working with AWDtuning in Flowermound, TX giving them some SEO love. Myself being a Subaru WRX enthusiast (ok lets say fanatic), I spend a lot of time working on my car and thinking of how much more horsepower I can put down. Being new to the Dallas area, I was looking for a local tuner/subaru specialty shop and found AWDtuning. AWDtuning provides custom ecu tuning and servicing specializing in Subaru’s ranging from general maintenance to full blown custom engine and transmission builds. They have a mustang dyno which measures your horsepower and torque and allows them to fin tune your cars internal computer to get more out of it.

We’re always looking to help out small businesses and especially since Subaru runs deep in my veins, this was a natural and very exciting opportunity.

They started talking about what she does and how she is the Marketing Director for Art Science Web and that initial conversation turned into our first client in Dallas since we relocated from NYC. Mr. Romano is involved in the Trinity Groves project which is at the foot of the new Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. Our first meeting with our client was at their offices in which I noticed right away all of the really cool Shepard Fairey murals that were on the side of their building and surrounding buildings. I’ve been a fan of Shepard Fairey early on. Myself being an ex-graffitti artist, I can really appreciate his artwork on which the scale he produces.

I got a really good vibe that this new project and area in West Dallas will certainly be a cool and artistic destination which I’m eagerly awaiting to be completed. Trinity Groves is set to have many different restaurants and specialty food shops. Myself growing up in NYC, it’s nice to see a place that will have a great selection of food and things to do which reminds me of the Chelsea Market and Pike Place Market (Two of my favorite spots).

I’ve had a few lengthy conversations about SEO over the last few weeks with business owners who have some idea what SEO is, but don’t know the intricacies of what’s involved. This topic is especially important when justifying the cost associated with SEO services. This blog post is aimed to educate business owners on the subtleties and difficulties involved with a solid and legitimate SEO strategy.

If you want your website to be #1 in Google organic search (which most business owners want and think is easy to achieve), you need to understand a few simple ranking factors of how your site gets there; and it’s not easy.

SEO is a popularity game. It used to be acquiring quality links, and having the right targeted keywords present within your websites content, but now it’s more about your social reach (Social SEO). What other way can search engines deem your website trustworthy than to have lots of users backing up what you say by giving you the thumbs up approval on the social graph. What users say about you, and how many users are talking about you is the end goal to having a successful SEO and social campaign.

You’ve heard of American Idol right? Well let’s just say American Idol is like Google organic search. American Idol is seeking out the best and most talented singing contestants and will reward them with a recording contract. Google is seeking out quality websites relevant to their topics and will reward them by ranking them high (numero uno).

Both American Idol and Google need some help in determining who wins. American Idol needs the public to cast votes for the contestant they feel has the most talent or is the most likable. Google also needs some help by identifying what sites may be linking to a particular site (links are like votes). But the public does not have all the power in deciding who wins. Google’s algorithm takes into account hundreds of variables that qualifies your site to rank in the top 3 organic positions. The same happens on American Idol. The Judges have influence over the contestants, which can influence how the public votes.

Top Factors for Social SEO Success:

1. Participation – Add your business to every and any new social network, app or site. Exposure and being a first adopter or participator is key. There are new sites popping up everyday. It’s a bit like the lottery, you have to be in it to win it.

Here’s a few sites that have great Social SEO potential that we recommend you create a profile with.

Google +
Facebook
Twitter
Quora
Klout
Hunch
Pinterest

2. Frequency of Updates – Not only is it difficult to create and manage dozens of social profiles, you need to keep them updated constantly. Having out of date information, or consistent optimized profiles is necessary in getting the most SEO value.

3. Giving Value to Your Users  - There are many websites online, I would say way too many that don’t provide value. Even if your site doesn’t get the traffic you’d like to get, don’t let that discourage you. Keep providing content in your own unique voice and you’ll eventually reach the tipping point where you’ll build a following.

If all of this is just too much for you to handle on your own, there are many agencies and companies (such as ours) that will assist you in either consulting with you on your social SEO campaign, or can completely manage it for you.

For those of you who don’t know who Basquait is, he was a Brooklyn, born Artist. He started out as a graffiti artist and then went on to create some of the most interesting pieces of art (at least it was interesting to me) of NYC artists. I always associated his artwork with the torn wallpapered walls and doors of NYC. The little doorways in Soho that are plastered with artwork and peeling away to show different layers of artwork or advertisement underneath that it all becomes one piece of collaborative art.

My favorite piece is the one above “Bird on Money”. To me it has a chaotic yet calming feeling. The bird is standing strong amongst the chaos indecisive of choosing violence over peace. It’s very close to the sentiment currently with the occupy movement. No matter how you personally interpret his work, there’s no denying his style is a direct relfection of NYC.

OMG, seriously. This video gave me goosebumps. This is just the type of question I’ve been thinking about. Life and reality and how one person can have such an affect in our everyday lives and make such an impact on millions of people. Changing user behavior on a mass scale all because of an idea. So powerful. If you think about it, the concept is so clear, easy and simple.

We tend to think that some things are just impossible by nature. That we as marketing professionals have to play by a set of rules thats already been mapped out for us. Screw that. Too many of us tend to accept “what is” for what is “to be”. It doesn’t have to be that way. I guess I’m just very passionate about pushing things forward and asking for more. Opportunities are endless and there is an infinite number of outcomes and possibilities that mimic those of the universe we live in. So apply that way of thinking to everyday life. Start simple and grow it into a powerful idea that becomes bigger than you.

Steve Jobs may have been tough to work with and had tunnel vision, but sometimes having the blinders on is a good thing. Forget what is challenging you and just continue on. If you have a genuine interest in helping others than nothing can steer you off course.

Here’s the quote from Steve Jobs:

“Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.

Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.”

Have you ever thought about how reality and consciousness plays into the psychology of marketing? One topic that really interests me is life, reality and consciousness, and a book I’ve recently read that I have become semi-obsessed with is Biocentrism by Dr. Robert Lanza. I’ve always been intrigued by life, the cosmos and consciousness but I’ve always sought out for a deeper meaning of what life really is. Fundamentally reality is only able to exist because of our consciousness. We create our own reality and participate in a collective consciousness between us all and the universe.

Dr. Lanza’s book explains that there are six principles of biocentrism. The first principle will give you some insight on how interesting this book is.

“First Principle of Biocentrism: What we perceive as reality is a process that involves our consciousness. An external reality, if it existed, would–by definition–have to exist in space. But this is meaningless, because space and time are not absolute realities but rather tools of the human and animal mind. ”

Wow. I read that and was sold and finished the book as quickly as I could. (I plan on re-reading it again to try and memorize certain passages).

Now, lets turn that first principle into a statement that can be translated into a form of web marketing:

“What we perceive as marketing is a process that involves our consciousness.”

What this means is what we see that attracts us from a marketing sense is directly connected to our consciousness. Something is triggered in our soul that resonates with us and attracts us to a product. That “connection” is what marketers are always after between the consumer and product. You know that one thing that makes us say “Oh cool!” and feel all warm inside when we use our favorite product or stumble on some new store or restaurant. That magical moment is hard wired into us in a way we have yet to understand. If we knew what it was, every product would be successful. Yet there is always one magical product that is the holy grail or “wants” such as the iPhone or iPad. Something that we don’t know that we want, but find a way to need it and adapt it into our everyday lives.

Can you imagine if you could harness that power and turn one tenth of that into your local business? It would be a tremendous feat. If we can find a quality within us that resonates with others and apply that quality to help others through our business, that would give us that magical product. The one that feels good to give out and truly benefits the consumer and business.

Great Presentation = Great Presenter

How many meetings have you sat through or conferences have you attended where you were only left to say “Ugh, what a waste of time!”

Part of the reason that we may not remember anything from a presentation is the information presented was in Ben Stein’s boring tonality. So, instead of skipping out on class, like Ferris Bueller, watch someone like Wendy Clark who actually inspires an audience. I actually didn’t look at my watch during her entire presentation!

Think back to your days in school, whether it be grade school or college, and what actually had kept your attention in those arduous 45 minutes before the bell rang.  If my teacher was enthusiastic and got me to engage with their content, I know that I would absorb the information presented to me. The better the teacher/presenter the better the experience I had with the material and left with a sense of accomplishment.

To Get Started On Your Next Presentation

Remember these 5 tips when thinking about your next presentation (there are more great tips but I think these will help you get started).

1. Be a storyteller: storytelling is the oldest form of communication. If you are not excited about the story you are about to share with your audience, than you shouldn’t be presenting.
2. Do not read off your slides – there really should never be enough words on a slide to make a sentence.
3. Use images that catch a person’s interest (drawing that you drew by hand, historical picture of moments in history etc.) that relate to your presentation, so you can tell your story.
4. If you are going to regurgitate information, tell it from your perspective. Everyone knows what mobile phones do – perhaps share a screenshot from your phone with your experience about how important it is to be mobile, especially when shopping for your mom.
5. Be yourself – how many times have you seen someone you know get up on a stage and just freeze or almost become robotic? Speak to people as you would naturally in a social setting.

I love a good story and having someone tell it in just the right way, brings my experience to another level. Although cliche, “practice makes perfect”. It’s about finding your own rhythm and what works for you.

User Engagement is SEO

For those of you who may be new to SEO, but generally know a little bit about the process, I wanted to give you an overview of my feelings towards the state of search engine optimization. This may sound crazy but SEO has become much less keyword driven in it’s classic sense. At this point, if you don’t have basic targeted keywords present on your website, then you’d better source out anything web related to the pro’s. Fundamental keywords in your content is a given, all the major engines know this. There are some specific technical aspects of SEO such as linking structure, xml sitemaps and “robots disallows” which work wonders for containing the crawl-ability of juicy content. That stuff is still very relevant, but we’re quickly moving towards user-engagment-optimization as a main ranking factor for search engines. What the heck am I talking about? Have I lost it?* Are you following still?

What Are Users Looking For?

Users for the most part are looking for answers, duh! Either what type of headphones to buy, or where to order pizza in their neighborhood.

Most users fit into one of these four groups:

1. Seeking answers to questions.

2. Mindless entertainment.

3. Specific research.

4. To shop.

5. And in attempt to keep things honest, Porn. (We’re not going to go there).

Each group can be broken down to reflect certain query types. But the one thing all of these groups have in common is that the majority of these search queries are question based. We should all know that. Knowing your website visitors is crucial to understanding what they want and how you can keep them engaged. Providing certain content that is answer based to your users as soon as they arrive to your website is the first step. You can find this out by logging into Google Analytics, go to Traffic Sources/Keywords (make sure to choose non-paid) and start digging around to see what keywords users are entering into Google to get to your site. Then provide your users with the type of information they are seeking that is highlighted and easy to find on your site.

What Are Search Engines Looking For?

Search engines look for specific signals that tell them if the user is satisfied with the content of your website from the search query they entered. Things like time on page, pages per visit and bounce rate are pretty big factors. Factors in which search engines judge your site and then rank your site accordingly in the search engine results. To date, theres not really a way to game the system by getting users to stay on the page and engage with the site. I would say this is a great ranking factor because it does sift out the spam sites pretty well, even if Google is taking their time penalizing them.

You may not have noticed this, but when you conduct a search in Google, then proceed to the site, but then click the back button to return to the results page you get the text (thats in the screenshot above) below the result you clicked on that says “Not Helpful? You can block www.—.com results when you’re signed into search”. What this does is that when the user is signed into a Google account, they will no longer see this result because it was not useful to them. Now not only does the user not see the result, but that is a clear signal to Google that this website should not be a top result because it does not provide the user what they are looking for. Think about if this happens with thousands of users. Obviously the website will throw a red flag and will be de-ranked.

How to Keep Your Website Visitors Engaged

Thats the golden question. What is it that you provide which resonates with your visitors and how do you keep them on your website longer? Your website visitors want to feel connected, apart of something thats bigger than them. Thats why we’re all obsessed with social networks. They want to be the first to share with their peers and be their own information resources which they can re-distribute your content to their networks of friends. Thats where you want to be. You can achieve this on a smaller scale by letting them know you’re listening if they’re on your site.

You can keep your visitors engaged by starting with these steps:

1. Make it super easy for the user to contact you in many different channels (email, phone, Twitter, Facebook, Google +).

2. Create specific lead captures that are tailored for certain pages/interests.

3. Add a comments section such as disqus to areas of the site that may be get stale which will incite discussion.

4. Have clear and contrasting calls to action that tell your website visitors what to do next.

In the end, you need to look at the big picture and simplify it down to a couple of steps. Your message gets diluted with too many steps and users won’t be as likely to engage if they become confused or overwhelmed. So always keep it simple.

*Feel free to email me and tell me I’ve lost it

In an attempt to keep the blog a little different I wanted to let all of you know why I think Jersey City, NJ in particular the Paulus Hook neighborhood is awesome. My fiancé Suzanne and I live in Paulus Hook, Jersey City directly behind the Colgate Clock. Here’s my top 5 reasons why Paulus Hook rules.

1. It’s Affordable

Although in the last few years rent in Paulus Hook has increased, but still is relatively low compared to NYC rent. You get much more value for your dollar here, not to mention many apartment buildings include free parking! Score, you get to have a car and not have to alternate side park.

2. It’s Not Crowded

Unlike NYC, you can walk on the sidewalks and not bump shoulders with people every few feet. Paulus Hook does have a big financial center, and during lunch there is some hustle and bustle but nothing like NYC. After 5pm things die down and become pretty quiet.

3. It’s Very Dog Friendly

We have two awesome Lhasa Apso’s. They’re pretty cute, goofy and pretty entertaining. We’re fortunate enough to have a dog run right in front of our building, but there is also Van Vorst Dog Run and not official because you’ll probably get a ticket for a dog on a leash, but there’s a small strip of Liberty State Park on Washington and Dudley that always has an abundance of dogs.

4. Great Restaurants and Bars

Disclaimer – I’m born and raised in Brooklyn, NY home of the best Pizza in the world. I’m more of a local pizzeria guy than snooty gourmet pizza, but Paulus Hook Brick Oven Pizza is off the “Hook” lol, and rivals any Brooklyn Pizzeria. Our favorite Turkish restaurant Rumi is two blocks form us, where I eat Manti until I’m stuffed. Our Favorite bar Harborside Casino, which is neither harbor side or a casino plays great music, has a decent selection of draft beers (Harpoon IPA is my fav) and has great wings and burgers.

5. It’s 10 minutes from Manhattan

Growing up in NYC, I have earned the right to dis Manhattan. It’s a necessary evil, and has transformed into something that is very different from what I remember growing up. I’ve lived there once and it was great… but only once and never again. Commuting options, we have two great ways to get into Manhattan. One is the PATH train which confused the crap out of me the first time I took it, but quickly realized how simple it is. It operates back and fourth from Newark to Hoboken and to NYC in an “H” pattern. Take the PATH and look at the map on the train, you’ll know what I’m saying. The other commute is by the NY Waterway Ferry. It’s expensive, but you literally get to NYC in about 8 minutes on the water. Generally it’s not very crowded and it a nice relaxing way to get to work.

You should really take a trip out and roam around Paulus Hook, it’s pretty cool. And unlike some of my Brooklyn Friends who act like I live in the Ozark’s now or something, it’s not very far at all.

Keeping Your Content Fresh is a Must!

On October 30th, Google confirmed that it had updated their organic search algorithm to account for new/fresh content (The Google freshness algorithm update). This means that Google will use content freshness as a definite ranking factor. Google says the change will impact about 35% of searches and will be most apparent in recent events and news, regular occurring events and things that update frequently. We all know that having fresh and current content on your website is best for your users and the web & SEO but even more so now that Google is making an official statement like this.

How Can a Small Business Like Yours Benefit?

You may be saying to your self how and what type of content should I be writing? It’s simple. For instance if you’re a restaurant, you can post your weekly menu and specials and highlight them on your homepage. If you’re a doctor or physician, you can have a weekly top list of preventative medicine routines, or best stretches for posture, best antioxidant foods. The list goes on. Having a constantly updating homepage is not as difficult as you think. You just need to be consistent and provide useful content as you would when consulting with your customer/clients or patients.

Social Media is Your Friend

Integrating a simple twitter feed is a great way to have current content on your website. Or depending on what type of business you are, adding a commenting section to allow your clients to leave feedback or ask questions is an option. This is not only good for fresh content, but for user engagement that encourages repeat visits and gives your users a feeling that they are being heard and valued by your business.