Ahoy there. It's been a while between drinks. But I have finally got my ass in to gear and written another post. And it may just be my bravest yet. It's a confession you see. And one that I'm not proud of. But to find out what it is you'll have to head on over to Search Engine People, where it was recently published.

Here's we go again. Despite the recent debacles of Wave and Buzz, Google is back on the social bandwagon with the new '+1' button. And you've just got to admire their persistence. If there's one thing Google is not afraid to do, it's fail. Which is a good thing. I'd love to work for a company with that sort of courage. Nevertheless, their latest social product seems destined to become another punch line for nerds and search geeks.

To find out why, you'll need to head over to Search Engine People for my latest guest post – Why Google +1 (probably) won't work

Enjoy!

The following is a guest post by David Murton. David has been helping companies build and maintain their online relationships with customers since 2006. He is also a professional writer and blogger, with a particular interest in the open source Drupal platform.

When it comes to online marketing, there's almost too much information and advice to comprehend. If it's not the importance of social media, it's how 2011 is the year of online video. But one thing many experts tend to forget in amongst rapid technological change are the basics. What follows below is an A to Z list of tips that are sure to improve your site navigation, your website optimization, and as a result, your conversion rate.

A is for Anchor Text

Your anchor text should utilize keywords. For example, if you are a hosting reseller, phrases like "resell hosting" should be turned into links, just like we did here. Using keywords for anchor text is a classic and effective SEO trick.

B is for Buttons Instead of Text

Your call to action should be more than a boring text link buried inside marketing copy. Use a bold, bright button instead when you say "Get 15% Off Today!"

C is for Colors that Don't Kill the Eyes

Colors are very important when it comes to site navigation. Colors that are too jarring, too bright, or too contrasting will encourage visitors to navigate away as quickly as possible before an emergency trip to the optometrist becomes necessary. Use bright colors sparingly and effectively, such as in call-to-action buttons.

D is for Descriptive Text

"Click here" makes for horrible anchor text. A keyword phrase that describes where the click will take the user is much more effective, both from the point of view of user experience as well as SEO.

E is for Experimentation is Good

Experiment with your website navigation. See what happens to your web statistics when you introduce a new button or change your layout. You might also find out that one small tweak to your navigation vastly improves conversion rates.

F is for Flash is Bad for the Main Navigation

We think that using Flash for the main navigation structure is a bad idea. Instead, stick to simple, easy to read navigation bars that rely mainly upon text links.

G is for Ghost Directories

Avoid ghost directories. For example, if your website includes MyWebsite.com/pictures/madonna, then MyWebsite.com/pictures should also exist.

H is for Homepage

Your homepage is the most important page on your site. It should be easy to skim, with compelling information above the fold that encourages browsers to stay on your site.

I is for Interlinking

When you interlink, visitors will find more and more content, keeping him on the website longer. The longer he's on the website, the more likely he is to eventually make a purchase.

J is for "Just Don't Make Me Think"

As letters N, O, and P point out, website users don't want to have to think too hard on your website. Don't force them to wonder where content is, or they will get frustrated and leave quickly.

K is for Killing Conversions with Slow Load Times

If it takes your website longer than a few seconds to load, you've already lost your customer.

L is for Links that are Visible

We think it's a good idea that you stay old-school with your link colors and decorations, using classic blue, underlined links and purple visited links. If old-school blue and purple are good enough for Google, it should be good enough for you.

M is for Mobile-Friendly Design

More and more website users are going mobile, accessing your site from their mobile devices. Make sure your website is mobile friendly – reduce the amount of content, minimize text entry, and test, test, test.

N is for Navigation Should be Simple and Easy

You'll get more sales with a rudimentary website design that's laid out simply and is easy to navigate than with a fancy website design where it's impossible for the user to find what he's looking for.

O is for Organization

As with N: your website should be well-organized. If your navigation is overly complicated, visitors will leave without giving you a chance.

P is for "Pay Now"

"Money" pages should be linked to from nearly every page on the site. The potential customer should never have to wonder where they click to make a purchase.

Q is for Quick Glance

Put your website to the "quick glance" test: can you get the gist of a page with one quick glance?

R is for Readability

It's amazing that in 2011, people are still designing websites that are difficult for the average person to read or skim. Use dark text on a white or light background, and break up text with bold headers, bullets, and numbered lists that appeal to short attention spans.

S is for Search Box

Especially if you have a large site with a lot of pages, don't frustrate your visitors. On every page, include a search box that's prominently displayed as part of the site navigation.

T is for Track the Results

As you work to improve your site navigation (see letter E), track results and make a determination if changes are improving sales or decreasing them. Learning to use traffic analysis tools properly is crucially important when it comes to improving your website and your conversion rates.

U is for Unusual is Usually a Bad Idea

Some web designers try hard to make their websites stand out from the crowd by using clever, artsy designs. For the standard blog, business, or retail site, an unusual design will lose money rather than make it.

V is for Video Length

When using online videos, make sure that they are short and to the point. Hardly anyone will stick around to watch an extremely long video about your products; three minutes or less should be enough.

W is for "Where Am I?"

Some websites wisely include at the top of each page a brief outline for the visitor of where he is on the site. For example: "Home > Products > Shoes." Each part of the "Where Am I?" description is linked so that the user can easily go up or down a level in the site.

X is for X-Ray the Website Skeleton

Your main navigation is like your website's skeleton – the basic structure around which your website is built. The main "bones" of your website should be as crystal clear as a femur on an x-ray for visitors.

Y is for You Should Pay Attention to Your Own Experience

As you think about how you want to improve site navigation on your own site, pay attention to your own browsing habits on other websites. Watching how you react to site navigation will teach you a lot about what works and doesn't work on your own site.

Z is for Zealous Improvement

Go back to letters E and T again and again, and take the Japanese "kaizen" approach to your website. That is to say, you should continuously improve your website based upon what you learn from experimentation and tracking the results.

A couple of months ago I put a call out looking for SEO peeps to work with. I interviewed a bunch of people, five of which came from the same local SEO agency. And after speaking with each of the candidates, one thing was clear… that agency sucked. Bad! Time after time I heard stories of practices that went against everything I believed in SEO and business in general. To me it was clear that these guys were crappy operators. But the general lack of understanding of good SEO practice means many others can't make this assessment. So with that in mind, I put together a list of 5 signs of SEO agencies that suck.

Check it out over at Search Engine People – Five signs your SEO agency sucks

If there's one thing that makes every SEO sweat, it's the fear of getting a site slapped out of Google's index. It's widely believed that duplicate content is one of the quickest ways to meet that fate. Or is it? I recently came across one of the more blatant examples of content being duplicated across multiple domains within a high profile industry. And Google's response… not to penalise one of the sites, but to reward it with the top 3 rankings for a high volume keyword. Which begins to make we wonder why I've been worried about duplicate content all along. After all, if they can't pick up this high profile case, what chance do they have of detecting it elsewhere.

Check out the full post over at Search Engine People – Duplicate content penalty: Myth or fact?

A couple of weeks back I wrote about how search was increasing turning social with the integration of Facebook 'Like' data into Bing's search results. And yesterday we took another big step forwards into the inevitability that is social search. Indeed, we may look back upon December 1 as a historic date in the evolution of search engines, with two distinct cases emerging to validate the role that social will play in the future of search…

Case 1: Search engines confirm they use social signals

Many within the search industry have suspected that search engines have been utilising social signals as part of their algorithm for some time. Darryl King presented a compelling case study at SMX Melbourne recently on how social signals drove astonishing organic search results for the My Politician site during the Federal Election. Darryl contended that social signals had to be a significant factor, because there was simply no other way his new site could be outranking others with far superior traditional SEO signals.

Yesterday Google confirmed this to be true. In an interview on Search Engine Land, Google and Bing verified that they both analyse of the following social signals within their existing algorithm:

1. How many times a link is shared in social media
2. The authority of the person sharing the content

Perhaps most interestingly, both search engines indicated that they gave more credence to sharing behaviour on Twitter, as they had superior mechanisms for determining user authority within the microblogging platform. Personally, when consulting on social media I consistently advise organisations to invest in Facebook first, given its monopoly of the Australian social media landscape. However, this insight gives greater cause to consider Twitter as a serious social media channel for business.

Case 2: Google changes algorithm to penalise negative reviews

A few days back a rather large story broke on the NY Times regarding a businessmen who actively sought negative consumer reviews as they enhanced his Google rankings. Naturally this was a bad news story for Google. Any situation that brings into question the credibility and quality of their search results is a bad outcome for Google. So they  revised their algorithm to penalise businesses that generate poor publicity and bad customer experiences. While they stopped short of saying online customer reviews directly impact search rankings (because how easy is that to game), there's no question they want to integrate consumer driven reviews as an algorithmic signal in the future (look at Google Places as a clue).

Why this is a big deal for social media

The documented chain of events should be music to the ears of anyone providing social media consultancy services. Within Australia at least, social media can still be a relatively tough sell outside any industry targeting the youth demographic. In a country where many of the largest retailers still haven't transitioned to ecommerce, there are plenty who are still hesitant towards social media. Conservatism reigns supreme at the big end of town…

However, few organisations question the effectiveness of search. It is consistently nominated (along with email) as the most effective marketing channel in the arsenal. AIMIA's recent Australian Retail Industry study found Australian marketers rank search their second most important marketing channel. Thus, the fact that social media will assert an increasing influence over search engine rankings is significant. While it seems not all marketers see the value in communicating with their customers, there's no question they see the value of the SERPs. Every social media consultant should be working this into their PowerPoint presentations.

The exciting part is that they have only just begun! Social search technologies are only in their infancy. Google clearly hasn't nailed it just yet and have admitted as much. But they will continue trying. And… if there's one thing we know about Google, it's that they give weight/credence to age and history (domain age anyone?). You can be sure that if/when they nail social search, they'll be rewarding those brands with a proven track record and strong signs of authority and credibility.

The message should be loud and clear by now. If you're not in social media already, it's time to get your feet wet. Because your future search engine rankings will depend on it.

2010 is fast coming to an end. Which can only mean one thing… bold predictions from marketers about what may transpire in 2011! Last year my predictions were a little left of centre, so this time round I've taken the topic a little more seriously. In particular, I've focused my attention towards the questions of what Google may do in the next 12 months. I identified five trends around which I expect them to focus extensive energy – local search, mobile search, social search, integrated search & search speed. Hardly crystal-ball gazing, I know, but I have taken a stab at where I think the big G may take each facet of search in 2011.

If that sounds like a whole lot of fun, check out What Would Google Do? over at Search Engine People

Content marketing is a bit of a buzz word in the SEO industry at the moment. Which isn’t a great surprise with prominent authors such as Lee Odden and David Meerman Scott evangelising it. Yet many clients still struggle with the concept of producing regular content for their own business. To help clients implement the principles of content marketing , I developed a basic framework, which I like to call the 5 A’s of content marketing. It provides a structured and systematic approach to the production of quality content that feeds both search engines and customers alike.

Check it out at Search Engine People – The 5 A’s of content marketing

It’s been a huge couple of weeks in the search industry. Even in an industry renowned for constant innovation, the past couple of weeks have brought about two monumental changes. First came Google Instant. And while the concept sounded reasonable in theory, it added little to the search experience in my opinion. It kinda made me feel like I’ve got ADD (moreso…). But while Google was busy trying to convince the world that Instant revolutionised the search experience, Bing casually stole their thunder by announcing a change that truly could change search. And that was the integration of Facebook data into their search results! Which meant that for the first time, we have a serious social search product on our hands…

Social search buzz

Social search has been a buzzword within the industry for a couple of years now. It first gained momentum back in 2008 when Yahoo announced that they would integrate Delicious data into their search results. Of course, the Yahoo/Delicious initiative ultimately failed for a number of key reasons:

• Delicious lacked the scale and usage of the larger social networks
• Significant discrepancy existed between a user’s Delicious network, and their true circle of influencers (aka their social graph)
• Delicious data was too easy to game

Late last year Google also attempted to enter the market with its own social search product. Yet it failed for the similar reasons (not scale in this case, but an inability to create a relevant social graph). Despite the failures, search professionals continued to salivate at the true potential of social search. The reason is simple. People trust people. More than they’ll ever trust an algorithm.  Even in the age of Google, friends & family are still the most trusted source of information (even if they aren’t the most qualified):

So imagine the power of a search engine that considered the content your friends and family Like alongside the standard algorithm-driven results. Bing took the first steps towards delivering that outcome last week via the integration of Facebook’s ‘Like’ data into their search results.

How does Bing’s social search work?

Well… if I run a search for ‘running shoes’, Bing will return a standard set of results, as per normal. However, at the same time, it will scan my social graph to determine whether any of my friends have Liked content related to running shoes. If my pal Chris Liked a pair of Asics cross trainers, it’s likely that content would be integrated into the search results. Suddenly, search is able to expose content from the people I trust most. Content that would otherwise have been invisible to me. Pretty cool huh?

Of course, the key reason Bing’s social search product actually stands a chance of success is their partnership with Facebook. Because when it comes to social data, Facebook is the only kid on the block. No other network has the scale to power a search engine in a meaningful way. Delicious certainly couldn’t. And even Facebook has a long way to go yet. While ‘Liking’ behaviour is common, it probably needs to increase by a factor of 1,000 before it can truly influence search in a meaningful way. But nevertheless, the seeds are in place for a powerful social search experience in the future. And Facebook has shown time and time again that they have the ability to influence user behaviour.

What Bing’s social search means for digital marketers

The implications for the digital marketing industry are incredibly profound. In particular, three digital channels seem particularly affected:

• SEO: Of course, the SEO industry will be significantly affected if/when social search truly takes off. While many SEOs have long used social media to help spread content and generate indirect links, social search could mark the era when social media becomes a mandatory element of every SEO program. With Bing offering up two slots for social content on the precious page one real estate, it’ll be a brave SEO that continues to ignore Facebook. Much like universal search created a demand for image and video optimisation, so too will social search necessitate a unique skill set.
• Social Media – Naturally, social media marketing will also be strongly affected by the emergence of social search. More budget will surely flow into social media as a result. And I’d also expect a far greater emphasis on Facebook above all other social networks (even moreso than now). Suddenly, the value of a powerful Facebook community increases significantly. While a Facebook ‘Like’ is a nice little engagement metric at the moment, it gains a whole lot more value and credibility when it directly influences search results for related search terms. An army of fans with a tendency to ‘Like’ branded content will become a real corporate asset.
• Content Marketing - Like social search before it, content marketing tends to be another buzz word within the industry. Yet it too could become become a beneficiary should social search take flight. The ability to create content that people ‘Like’ will become a critical skill. Indeed, linkbait will be joined in the SEO arsenal by Face-bait. Organisations will dedicate time and resource into the production of content primarily for the purpose of gaining  Facebook ‘Likes’.

Before we get too carried away, it must be said that we’re still at least a couple of years away from having a social search product of any real value. Until the ‘Liking’ of external content becomes a regular habit for the average Facebook user, we simply won’t see social search have anything other than a menial impact of search results. But personally, I suspect we may look back at this in a few years as the moment when search took its next major evolution!

A couple of weeks back I wrote a post outlining five signs that a prospective SEO client may suck. It proved to be pretty damn popular. But I did feel a little guilty about taking the sledge hammer to our beloved SEO clients. So I decided to even the ledger and published a new post today identifying five signs of a kick ass client over at Search Engine People. I can only hope that evens up the karmic alignment.

Check out ‘Five signs your SEO client kicks ass‘