At BarCamp this weekend, I sat in on a half-hour presentation on what the presenter, Jason Billingsley (can’t find his name on his site he dropped by to comment, below) called Seo and the Long Tail (with a nod to Chris Anderson).

His message was pretty simple: You have access to only a few meta-tags and description for SEO, so make them count for you. Then, fill in ALL of the gaps with content, by becoming an expert on the topics that are related to your business. And wherever possible, those that are unique to your business. An example he used was that a search time like “digital camcorder” would be impossible (and extremely expensive) to rank #1 on, but a “long tail” term like “the best digital camcorder for scuba diving” will not only be easier to own, but will convert better than the more broad terms.

Just to explain that really quickly, the concept is simple: If someone searches for “digital camcorders,” it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what they want, so there is a snowball’s chance in hell that the first site they look at will have what they’re looking for. Whereas a search term like “how do I get people to tell ten friends about my company” is several steps closer to being a perfect match for the searcher. (Heheh)

At the presentation, there was much discussion among the brains there about the science of SEO, but I think his point was to not lose sight of the “art” of search: use words, publish relevant content, and people will come.

A few examples:

My Alabama buddy Mack Collier is #1 for the search term “why companies should blog.” Lucky devil.

Here’s some terms people used to find me this week:

1. “breakfast social networking toronto” -Huh? Qu’est-ce que c’est?

2. “meet pr guys” -Okay, this one is cool, and proves my point some.

3. “need glasses myspace” -They were searching for a video, and found me. Who knew?

4 “tell friends about products through myspace” -Not a topic I’ve covered, but certainly words I’ve used.

5. “friends of katherine mcphee” -I can’t help but think this one has more to do with my friendship with JD than anything else, (I was a closet Soul Patrol member, after all) which reinforces the importance of links too.

Anyway, I think you begin to get the point. Speak, dear friends, and the world will listen. And I do mean the world. This week, my humble rag saw traffic from Meeandah, Rome, Istanbul, Contern, Theux, Wolfsheim, Alameda, Brittania and one of “the other” Surreys, just to name a few. And I’ve never heard of most of those places. If you’re reading and you hail from any of these wonderful locales (or something equally obscure to a West Coast Canadian), leave a comment and tell us more about your corner of the earth. We’d love to hear from you.

Update: Andre took better notes from Jason’s presentation than I did, and Jason has done a follow-up on his blog as well.

Namely, because their name is mentioned in it. But I use that simply as an example, to point out the importance of keywords and headlines when it comes to ranking at the top of the search engines.

Please, don’t get me wrong: Value to your site visitors and potential customers in your content is number one. But they will never be exposed to that value if you do not make some attempt at positioning yourself in the search engines. What this means is that you have to take a bit of extra time to be sure that your headlines, topic, and content all jive with your keywords, and the overall message of your writing. This is true of your site content, and it is true of your blog posts as well.

It’s a bit more work, and some would argue that this advice infringes on the natural creative process. Alas, you are not alone in this quest to publish both for your readers and for the various search engine “spiders” that crawl through your data and give you a ranking based on the now most homogeneous word in the English language, “relevance.” The evolving meaning of that term is a topic for another day, but the short version is that Google ranks sites based on several criteria with an algorithm that is top secret, ever changing, and very difficult to outsmart without cheating, which will subsequently get you unlisted.
Imagine for a second: The grey, old, daily newspaper reporter, who is charged with the task of composing the perfect headline in each piece he writes. He used to have just one criteria: “What will make people want to keep reading?” Now, he too has to consider whether the headline matches the story, and whether he words in said headline are likely to find their way to the top of the search engines. It’s not impossible, it just takes a bit more effort, and adding a dash of science to your already delicious recipe of creativity.

Now imagine the progressive blogger who crafts each post with such precision as to have it attached to the popular tags of the day, and hopes that each of her posts will be “dugg,” on digg, resulting in a landslide of traffic and popularity for her site.

If you’re just starting out, you don’t need to have that kind of diligence, or even have to understand everything I just said in that sentence. (If you did understand all of that, then you should know that to my knowledge , I have never been “dugg,” and this is the first post EVER where I included Technorati tags) I too am learning as I go, and having a lot of fun in the process.

Blog on, friends. Blog on.

Taggy, taggy bo-baggy: SEO, digg, content, blogging

One of the many blogs that I check in on (daily) is by David Meerman Scott.

David and I share a lot of beliefs when it comes to how to build a great website, and successfully promote your business with it (read: make sales). Simply put, we’re both fans of content first; give your readers some value on your site, and they will become your customers. The biggest mistake you can make as a business is not having suitable information on your site to match your search terms, especially when there’s a bulky ad-spend on the line.

Today I read a post by David that made me say “Yes! Eureka! Tell the world, David!” Okay, all I actually did was click over to write this post right away, but I do emphatically support the logic he’s throwing down. Here’s a quick excerpt:

“Remember, driving people to a site or landing page is just the start of a sales process. Compelling web content drives people to action.”

If you haven’t already, go to David’s home page and download “The New Rules of PR,” and that should convince you to buy “Cashing in with Content.”

Keep up the good work, David.

Okay Mack, I’ll bite.

A while back, I talked about how blogs are becoming more and more influential, and as a result, smart PR people would start pitching bloggers in the same way they’ve pitched traditional media for eons. I know this, because I’m one of those PR guys contacting bloggers, and occasionally someone deems me worthy of being one of those bloggers with a suitable audience, and I’ll get pitched.

Well, in the world of movie marketing, they don’t get any more influential that Chris Thilk. Chris is a MySpace friend, and I’ve been a subscriber to his Movie Marketing Madness for some time, although the guy posts so frequently that I’ll have to admit, I can’t keep up. But Chris’ efforts have not gone unnoticed by the likes of Universal Studios, who contacted him and offered all of the info on how they’re marketing the upcoming feature length remake of Miami Vice.

Back to business: To some, this might not sound all that odd. Doesn’t it make sense that the most popular movie marketing blog would be the target of studios trying to get a bit more “press” for their films? Yes, it makes perfect sense, but the precedent thus far has been anything but cooperative from the studio side. Summary: Paramount Pictures doesn’t get it…and if you must see Transformers the movie, download it!

And so today we applaud Universal Studios, and remind the world that not all bloggers are evil critics, waiting to lash out at any business willing to put themselves out there (I applaud Dell for finally starting a blog, especially when they knew they were going to be shell-shocked for the first few weeks).

Keep up the good work Chris, and big thanks to Mack for this post, too. Although writer’s block isn’t a problem these days, it’s nice to sink my teeth into a story/cause where I can feel like I’m making a difference.

Update:: Chris is keeping a running tally on bloggers that have sank their teeth into this item. We look forward to his column on Miami Vice!

Update #2:: So is Mack. This is a perfect example of viral marketing at its best. Universal, you are setting a good example, and reaping the benefits of “getting it.”