Pittsburgh SEO Etiquette For Blog Commenting

Note To Self: Be A Better Neighbor On The Web

Blog commenting spam still carries weight in the rankings

It would cease to be such a prolific tactic for comment spammers if it didn’t. Below are a few points about being a better citizen of the digital community. We are not immune to these either. We are identifying these traits and making concerted efforts to be better citizens and neighbors of the digital world.

Refrain from Hijacking the Conversation

Stay On Topic. If there is some other direction you would like to explore with a blog topic, write about it yourself. We see it all the time; blog comments that hijack the conversation of a well written post. It has become so commonplace that few even take notice. It’s the ADD of the Internet. Someone creates an awesome post, then the comments turn into “look at me”, “look at our post”, “our post is better”, or they manipulate the conversation to suite their own ends. Pure laziness.

Solid debate drives ingenuity

Respect yourself enough to read the post you are commenting on. This way you don’t end up looking foolish for getting the whole point mixed up. Or worse yet, parroting points the author has already made. Take the time to read the post. Your reputation and standing in the community will benefit. If you have a genuine beef with the writers’ post or opinions, simply state it. That’s the beauty of the Internet; it is a celebration of diversity and like minded people all in one.

With all the aggregating websites designed to produce and repurpose content out there, the Internet is becoming filled with trash. Useless sites spewing out endless volumes of unreadable and duplicate content for the sake of links and ads are everywhere. The search engines are finally looking and penalizing these sites. Kudos to them for identifying the problem and taking action.

Value Your Own Credibility

This boils down to reputation management in my eyes. If you continuously spam posts with “Well Done” and “Nice Site” comments it shows weakness in your game. It says to anyone who reads, writes, or administers blogs that you just are an also ran tagging along and riding the wave of their toil and sweat. Bloggers will react and either delete your comments through a spam filter or report you to comment spam reporting sites to do the whole blogging community a service.

Give Credit Where Credit is Due

Want to increase your online status and credibility? Link to the original post that stirred your creative juices. Mention the author or blog site that made you pause and think of a better mousetrap. Then you can comment on the original blog in a meaningful and substantive way. You could even add a link like this one for the Yoast.com article on spamming blog comments with anonymity that became the trigger for this article.

At Blackball Online Marketing we try to inform, infuse, and enlighten.  We have fun; it’s in our mission statement. Pittsburgh Internet Marketing for small business is our game.

What do Libraries, the Internet, Search Engines and your Website have in Common?

Think of your Website like a book in the library

Well, just about everything. Search Engines index and organize information with the goal of fulfilling a particular search request. A library provides a structure for the organization of books, publications and other hard copy materials which makes it easier and more efficient for us to search and find what interests us. We enter the library, locate (search) the general subject matter we’re interested in by looking at the category title headings on top of the book cases, asking the librarian, or digging through the card catalog. We then filter our way through to our category of interest to the specific subject we want.

A book grabs our interest based on the title and cover, we then do a browse of the flaps or covers to learn a bit more from the description, then a peek at the author,  and if we like what we’ve read so far we flip through some pages and move on from there.

Here’s how it goes in a nutshell; we locate a structure, either digital or brick and mortar, which organizes and stores what we feel is the information or content we’re looking for, we then conduct our search, then we act on those search results.

Ok, so what? If you’ve been around a bit nobody really needs a primer on how we interact with a brick and mortar library, it’s automatic. So tell me something I might not know. Well here it is; Your Website, the Internet and Search Engines work just like a library, and your Website is a “book” in a global digital library.

Let’s say you happen to have a really great book in the library, but you don’t have a title, a brief description about your book, etc., etc., how’s anybody going to spot it much less get an idea on what your book is about? Right of the bat the library can't catalog or put your book anywhere because you didn't give the library anything to catalog your book with. It’s like a 6 year old walked into the library, hid your book, making your great book meaningless because nobody can find it even if they’re specifically looking for it.

We’re broaching this subject because of the vast number of Websites that we see daily which don’t contain the bare-bones basics necessary to be part of the party when somebody is using a Search Engine to locate a particular good or service which you may supply. Just like that book in the library with no title, flap, cover or back cover description and all those other things that initially define a book to a person with the intent of capturing interest. Think of the Search Engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo etc.. like a giant digital card catalog.

On the Web, content is king as they say, but the content has to be defined and organized in the background as well as on page. This provides the support which gives content its best shot at being seen as king. And history has proven that kings like to be seen.

Fundamentally, the point is to treat your Website just like a book in a library. This will give yourself the best chance at being found and included in the decision making by consumers when they look for your specialty.

Here are some basics to start with:

-          Title your Home page with what you’re about, not your company’s name, that’s not a title, that’s authorship, you can squeeze your name in at the title’s end.

-          Describe your primary offerings briefly in the Home page description.

-          Define each interior page like a chapter in a book with its own title and brief description.

-          Treat your menu / navigation items as a table of contents.

-          Treat keywords as your index.

In the overall scheme of things, think of what will resonate with the people you want to reach and talk to. Speak your customers’ language and they should respond.

Oh, as a side note, most of the nerds that devised these Search Engines we use today were very involved students of library sciences.

Think of Internet Marketing Companies in Pittsburgh like Blackball Online Marketing as your research librarian that help the search engines, and ultimately your customers, find you online.

SOCIAL NETWORKS: No Pushing Please

Won’t You Be My Friend – And Please Buy Something

For those taking their goods or services to market it’s a wrap that the traditional ad campaign approach, (pre-Internet) isn’t enough. It just doesn't enjoy the "king of the hill" status it once did. It is simply part of a much bigger pie since the Internet and its extended family - à la Social Networks and Apps have come to play. Traditional advertising maintains its prominence in the delivery of a brand, and probably always will. It’s impractical to believe we’ll ever see the demise of ”well, I saw that ad…” or “I heard this ad…” but more and more the traditional ad venues are not the primary source that consumers use when the actual decision to purchase will be made. Digital is becoming the gateway, or the 800 lb. gorilla, when it comes down to sealing the deal - one way or another. In most cases anymore people see an ad, if it peaks enough interest you go check out their Website.  Traditional advertising delivers the brand, with digital the instrument for giving the brand meaning and a reason to maybe buy from that brand. So, I guess you could say advertising hands out the invites, and the Web and Social is where the party is.

With the current state of the Internet what does all this mean in terms of taking your best shot at marketing success? First, buying your audience only through print, TV, billboards, etc. like in the "old days" is just "so 90s," it’s a trick that just doesn't work like it used to. People demand the brands they associate with to be "social" now. And second, those who have products or services to take to market and sell need to be involved at the deepest of levels now – a relevant community voice needs to be found based on the brand message, with ad/communication agencies helping that voice to be found and nurtured, and everybody has to work harder, dig deeper, and give up on that cozy illusion of control.

It goes without saying if you are not interactively present with a relevant voice, and consistently so (and we can't over emphasis "consistently so") you will not be part of a consumer’s decision making when it happens, you simply become "persona non grata" – you’re just another ad pushed out with no voice – lacking any real or perceived substance, rendering any “shaking of the hand” to start a rapport which could lead to a sale nonexistent.  And if you think this kind of thing is to far removed from your direct sales to bother spending time on, it would behoove you to think again - because things aren’t what they used to be.

There's been a duesy of an axis shift; it seems to be going something like this:

- Brand Message gives way to Voice...whatever that "Voice" may be.

- Promotional gives way to being Social and Community oriented.

- Promotion gives way to Attraction...promotion kinda' happens along the way.

- Effective gives way to Relevant, Credible and Meaningful.

- Behind the Curtain gives way to Transparency.

It’s an unprecedented time. Digitally consumers are opening their doors to brands 24/7. If this isn’t a brand’s dream I don’t know what is. (But we do have another thing in mind.)
Translation: Your customers live Online - give them a reason to invite you in.

Of course all this doesn’t mean diddly if your product or service isn’t on par with what you say it is.

Blackball Online Marketing provides Web Design, Pittsburgh SEO, and Social Media Optimization; we actually think about your clients.

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