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Google Maps Bugs: Terrain View Missing Labels & LBC Categories Wrong

On January 20, 2010, In SEO, by rustybrick

There are two bugs to report in the Google Maps space. The first is that the Google Maps Terrain view has removed the country labels from the maps. The second is that categories are being added to business listings without them being added by the business owner in the local business center.

The maps terrain issue was reported in the Google Maps Help forum. Here is a picture of what I see in the terrain view. As you can see, the country labels seemed to have disappeared:

Brian from the Google Maps team said, “Thanks for reporting. I made sure this issue was escalated to the appropriate folks and I’ll post an update here when I see it.”

The other bug has to do with the Google Local Business Center. Some are reporting that unwanted categories are being applied to their business listings automatically. A different Google Maps Help thread is tracking this issue. Google Maps employee, Linda said, “Thanks for starting this thread. I will gather some information and get back to you all soon.”

Hopefully both of these bugs will be resolved shortly.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

There are two bugs to report in the Google Maps space. The first is that the Google Maps Terrain view has removed the country labels from the maps. The second is that categories are being added to business listings without them being added by the business owner in the local business center.

The maps terrain issue was reported in the Google Maps Help forum. Here is a picture of what I see in the terrain view. As you can see, the country labels seemed to have disappeared:

Brian from the Google Maps team said, “Thanks for reporting. I made sure this issue was escalated to the appropriate folks and I’ll post an update here when I see it.”

The other bug has to do with the Google Local Business Center. Some are reporting that unwanted categories are being applied to their business listings automatically. A different Google Maps Help thread is tracking this issue. Google Maps employee, Linda said, “Thanks for starting this thread. I will gather some information and get back to you all soon.”

Hopefully both of these bugs will be resolved shortly.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Study on Google Personalized Search & Re-Ranking Shows Minor SEO Changes

On January 20, 2010, In SEO, by rustybrick

In December, Google announced they will be personalizing all Google results by default. SEOs rightfully were a bit on edge after that announcement, but we did link to an old study on how personalized results impact rankings, overall.

The study has been revised and posted at the Huomah Blog. I won’t go through all the points, but the conclusion is that currently, the personalized changes are so minor that it is not worth SEOs freaking out about them. The overall conclusion of this study stated:

We shouldn’t be changing how we approach things ultimately… Above the fold is the real estate that’s prime (what else is new?). It may be the measuring that we will have to adapt. You will need to find ways to check rankings from a few locales and discern a mean average instead of a definitive placement.

It is worth while reading the whole report at the Huomah Blog.

Forum discussion at Sphinn.

In December, Google announced they will be personalizing all Google results by default. SEOs rightfully were a bit on edge after that announcement, but we did link to an old study on how personalized results impact rankings, overall.

The study has been revised and posted at the Huomah Blog. I won’t go through all the points, but the conclusion is that currently, the personalized changes are so minor that it is not worth SEOs freaking out about them. The overall conclusion of this study stated:

We shouldn’t be changing how we approach things ultimately… Above the fold is the real estate that’s prime (what else is new?). It may be the measuring that we will have to adapt. You will need to find ways to check rankings from a few locales and discern a mean average instead of a definitive placement.

It is worth while reading the whole report at the Huomah Blog.

Forum discussion at Sphinn.

Q & A About Using Q & A Sites to Build Your Business & Reputation

On January 19, 2010, In SEO, by Gil Reich

Posted by Gil Reich

This post was originally in YOUmoz, and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author’s views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc.

Q&A sites are a great way to get your message across and to build your brand and reputation.

How many people use Q&A sites?

In a recent Business.com study, 49% of companies that use social media said they ask questions on Q&A sites. Only 29% said they use Twitter to find business-related information. The 49% doesn’t even include the many who get info from Q&A sites by Googling or Binging.
Answers.com (where I work) is now ranked (by comScore) as the 17th most visited site in the US. The vast majority of Answers.com’s traffic is to user generated Q&A pages. Yahoo! Answers gets even more traffic. Much of your potential market is already getting their answers from these sites.

Source: Social Media Best Practices: Question & Answer Forums. Business.com, December 14, 2009, http://www.business.com/info/social-media-best-practices-q-and-a

What’s in it for me?

Providing quality answers and links to relevant pages can help you in the following ways:

Direct your customers (and potential customers) to accurate information about your product.
Connect with people in your market, build your reputation, and generate leads.
Provide links back to your site. Some of these links are Follow links, and thus also provide SEO value.

How do I use these sites?

The general rules of social media apply here too:

Help others
Build relationships
Push your products and services when they answer somebody’s question or request.

Q&A sites work great for this, because people are already asking the questions. When I blog I hope my posts address questions that my readers want answered, but they may not. In Q&A sites, your starting point is that somebody asked the queston that you’re answering.

Specifically:

Search the Q&A sites for questions about your subject, and browse the relevant categories.
Answer questions fairly and accurately. If appropriate, mention your product or service, and / or link to a relevant page on your site.
Follow up & interact where appropriate. Use these sites’ message boards to see if you can be of further help, or to congratulate another contributor for a great answer.
Fill in your User Profile, showing why people should like and trust you. You can also usually link to your site from your User Profile.

In the example below, notice how the user provided a quality answer (much of which follows a template he uses in other answers as well) and adds a relevant link to his site.

What are the leading sites and how do they differ?

Yahoo! Answers: The biggest site in the industry, with 47 million US visits in November according to comScore (and that’s probably a very conservative estimate). It’s a broad horizontal site. Questions are open for 4 days. Users answer the question, and vote on the best answer. The best answer is selected by either the asker or by the community.
Answers.com / WikiAnswers: Answers.com has 41 million monthly US visitors according to comScore, making it second to Yahoo! but far larger than the other Q&A sites. It’s also a broad horizontal site. It’s key differentiators are:
- It’s connectd to a reference site, so if you ask "What is the abstention doctrine?" your answer will come from West’s Law and the Oxford University Press.
- It’s a wiki, so instead of multiple users providing multiple answers, users collaborate on one answer.
- In most cases Answers don’t get closed, so you can find questions asked more than 4 days ago and still contribute to the answer.
LinkedIn Answers & Business.com Answers: These sites are great for more targeted communication, lead generation, and reputation building. Think of Yahoo! Answers and Answers.com as more B2C, and these sites as more B2B. This is Q&A in the context of advanced professional networking sites.
Stack Overflow and its siblings: Stack Overflow is a great Q&A site for programmers. If you’re a software developer and you want to establish yourself as an expert and to network with your peers, this site’s perfect. The same technology is now powering other niche sites, most notably serverfault.com (for system administrators) and Answers on Startups, which Rand Fishkin just named one of the 10 Sources I’ve Come to Love.
Aardvark: Aardvark is more of a closed system where you ask questions to people in your network. This is great for well connected journalists and bloggers to get answers from their network, but may not be ideal for spreading your message beyond your social circle.

How is using them like doing a guest post on SEOmoz?

Answering questions on Q&A sites is exactly like doing a guest post on SEOmoz:

Find the sites where the people you need are getting their information.
Give them quality information that will benefit them.
Get your own message across, with full disclosure of who you are. You can be self-serving, but not too self-serving.
Build relationships, and establish your expertise.

Ultimately you need a win-win here. You need to serve the needs of the community with whom you’re interacting, in a way that also builds your business and reputation.

Where can I get more information on Q&A sites?

See the following excellent articles:

Or contact me (Answers.com user: Gilr)

Do you like this post? Yes No

Posted by Gil Reich

This post was originally in YOUmoz, and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author’s views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc.

Q&A sites are a great way to get your message across and to build your brand and reputation.

How many people use Q&A sites?

In a recent Business.com study, 49% of companies that use social media said they ask questions on Q&A sites. Only 29% said they use Twitter to find business-related information. The 49% doesn’t even include the many who get info from Q&A sites by Googling or Binging.
Answers.com (where I work) is now ranked (by comScore) as the 17th most visited site in the US. The vast majority of Answers.com’s traffic is to user generated Q&A pages. Yahoo! Answers gets even more traffic. Much of your potential market is already getting their answers from these sites.

Source: Social Media Best Practices: Question & Answer Forums. Business.com, December 14, 2009, http://www.business.com/info/social-media-best-practices-q-and-a

What’s in it for me?

Providing quality answers and links to relevant pages can help you in the following ways:

Direct your customers (and potential customers) to accurate information about your product.
Connect with people in your market, build your reputation, and generate leads.
Provide links back to your site. Some of these links are Follow links, and thus also provide SEO value.

How do I use these sites?

The general rules of social media apply here too:

Help others
Build relationships
Push your products and services when they answer somebody’s question or request.

Q&A sites work great for this, because people are already asking the questions. When I blog I hope my posts address questions that my readers want answered, but they may not. In Q&A sites, your starting point is that somebody asked the queston that you’re answering.

Specifically:

Search the Q&A sites for questions about your subject, and browse the relevant categories.
Answer questions fairly and accurately. If appropriate, mention your product or service, and / or link to a relevant page on your site.
Follow up & interact where appropriate. Use these sites’ message boards to see if you can be of further help, or to congratulate another contributor for a great answer.
Fill in your User Profile, showing why people should like and trust you. You can also usually link to your site from your User Profile.

In the example below, notice how the user provided a quality answer (much of which follows a template he uses in other answers as well) and adds a relevant link to his site.

What are the leading sites and how do they differ?

Yahoo! Answers: The biggest site in the industry, with 47 million US visits in November according to comScore (and that’s probably a very conservative estimate). It’s a broad horizontal site. Questions are open for 4 days. Users answer the question, and vote on the best answer. The best answer is selected by either the asker or by the community.
Answers.com / WikiAnswers: Answers.com has 41 million monthly US visitors according to comScore, making it second to Yahoo! but far larger than the other Q&A sites. It’s also a broad horizontal site. It’s key differentiators are:
- It’s connectd to a reference site, so if you ask "What is the abstention doctrine?" your answer will come from West’s Law and the Oxford University Press.
- It’s a wiki, so instead of multiple users providing multiple answers, users collaborate on one answer.
- In most cases Answers don’t get closed, so you can find questions asked more than 4 days ago and still contribute to the answer.
LinkedIn Answers & Business.com Answers: These sites are great for more targeted communication, lead generation, and reputation building. Think of Yahoo! Answers and Answers.com as more B2C, and these sites as more B2B. This is Q&A in the context of advanced professional networking sites.
Stack Overflow and its siblings: Stack Overflow is a great Q&A site for programmers. If you’re a software developer and you want to establish yourself as an expert and to network with your peers, this site’s perfect. The same technology is now powering other niche sites, most notably serverfault.com (for system administrators) and Answers on Startups, which Rand Fishkin just named one of the 10 Sources I’ve Come to Love.
Aardvark: Aardvark is more of a closed system where you ask questions to people in your network. This is great for well connected journalists and bloggers to get answers from their network, but may not be ideal for spreading your message beyond your social circle.

How is using them like doing a guest post on SEOmoz?

Answering questions on Q&A sites is exactly like doing a guest post on SEOmoz:

Find the sites where the people you need are getting their information.
Give them quality information that will benefit them.
Get your own message across, with full disclosure of who you are. You can be self-serving, but not too self-serving.
Build relationships, and establish your expertise.

Ultimately you need a win-win here. You need to serve the needs of the community with whom you’re interacting, in a way that also builds your business and reputation.

Where can I get more information on Q&A sites?

See the following excellent articles:

Or contact me (Answers.com user: Gilr)

Do you like this post? Yes No

Keyword Targeting: How to Employ Multiple Keywords for SEO & Conversions

On January 18, 2010, In SEO, by randfish

Posted by randfish

At some point during your University’s SEO 201: Advanced Keyword Research & Targeting class, they probably gave a few lectures and case studies on how to effectively split up your keyword research list across multiple pages and use those terms/phrases to maximum benefit. But, for those who might have missed that lesson (which would be, umm, all of us, since no formal education in SEO exists), a handy refresher might be in order.

Many SEOs struggle to answer questions like:

How many keywords can I target on a page?
Should I try to target all of my most important terms on my homepage (since it gets the most link juice)?
When I should try to target similar phrases together vs. splitting them up?

This post is meant to help with precisely those issues.

At the end of the keyword research phase you’ve established which terms and phrases are worthwhile. Now you’ll need to determine which keywords to target where, and how. This four-step process should make that easy (and apparently, checklists are awesome).

I’m using comic books both because they’re fun, and because a recently retired-from-Google friend opened his own comic shop in West Seattle, so I’ve got superheroes in tights on the brain. In the example above, I’ve sorted several high demand keywords into groupings that relate to their core subject – in this case, by superhero. You can do this with products, articles, blog post categories or any type of content.

Next, I need to segment the keywords in each group by the intent of a potential visitor. This is absolutely critical, because even if two keyword terms/phrases are very similar, putting them together can be disatrous if the goals of the searcher are different. It’s technically worse to rank 1st and convert visits at 0.1% than to rank 10th and get a conversion rate of 2%. By segmenting on intent, you can make sure to uniquely target searchers seeking a specific goal without cannibalizing or misdirecting traffic to the detriment of your site’s usability/conversion rate.

If possible, you’ll want to use the insight you gain from the keyword research and targeting process to help determine the site’s hierarchy and information architecture. Even if you’re deep down in the weeds on an already existing site, you can employ intelligent cross-linking to make sure visitors can find what they’re seeking from potential landing pages. The concept should be to make the primary content of the page the most likely target of the searcher’s intent, then provide navigation to secondary, tertiary or more specific needs.

You now have the keyword groups segmented to individual pages and a hierarchy for your site, so the final step is assigning the keyword targets to individual pages and providing recommendations on Titles, URLs, Meta Descriptions and page functionality. In the example above, I’ve employed multiple keywords in the page elements (plural and singular versions of "comic" as well as "dc comics" and "batman comics") to help attract that traffic. I’m also listing "detective comics" here, though technically, I might even have a separate subcategory for that individual series that’s linked-to on this page.

This planning process is key to getting the best results possible. Over time, your analytics data can help show you where assumptions have been incorrect and you can course correct. What’s important is understanding the basic rules for keyword targeting:

No page should target keywords just because it "can rank for them;" you need to also consider the visitor experience and whether the page’s content can serve as many "keyword masters" as you’re targeting.
Pages can target multiple keywords and phrases at once so long as the intent is the same. Don’t arbitrarily split up pages or make a new page for every permutation of a keyphrase simply so you can have "optimum" optimization. Remember it’s much easier to earn links to one page than to many (and much easier to build one good funnel than two).
Keyword targeted pages need to provide the content a visitor is seeking and the links to the detailed pages they might want. Search engines are pretty smart – if visitors aren’t getting value from your pages, they’re not going to link to them, not going to click them in the SERPs and not going to recommend them to others. Even if you manipulate your way to the top today, in the long run, the engines will identify methods to get relevant, quality content ranking.

I’d also suggest checking out previous posts on:

Hopefully this has been valuable and I’d certainly appreciate examples and suggestions from the community on how you employ keyword targeting for maximum benefit.

p.s. I may have overstated when I said there’s "no" formal education. Market Motive offers some great online classes and certification as does Search Engine College. And yes, SEOmoz has a video training series, too – the metaphor was meant tongue in cheek

Do you like this post? Yes No

Posted by randfish

At some point during your University’s SEO 201: Advanced Keyword Research & Targeting class, they probably gave a few lectures and case studies on how to effectively split up your keyword research list across multiple pages and use those terms/phrases to maximum benefit. But, for those who might have missed that lesson (which would be, umm, all of us, since no formal education in SEO exists), a handy refresher might be in order.

Many SEOs struggle to answer questions like:

How many keywords can I target on a page?
Should I try to target all of my most important terms on my homepage (since it gets the most link juice)?
When I should try to target similar phrases together vs. splitting them up?

This post is meant to help with precisely those issues.

At the end of the keyword research phase you’ve established which terms and phrases are worthwhile. Now you’ll need to determine which keywords to target where, and how. This four-step process should make that easy (and apparently, checklists are awesome).

I’m using comic books both because they’re fun, and because a recently retired-from-Google friend opened his own comic shop in West Seattle, so I’ve got superheroes in tights on the brain. In the example above, I’ve sorted several high demand keywords into groupings that relate to their core subject – in this case, by superhero. You can do this with products, articles, blog post categories or any type of content.

Next, I need to segment the keywords in each group by the intent of a potential visitor. This is absolutely critical, because even if two keyword terms/phrases are very similar, putting them together can be disatrous if the goals of the searcher are different. It’s technically worse to rank 1st and convert visits at 0.1% than to rank 10th and get a conversion rate of 2%. By segmenting on intent, you can make sure to uniquely target searchers seeking a specific goal without cannibalizing or misdirecting traffic to the detriment of your site’s usability/conversion rate.

If possible, you’ll want to use the insight you gain from the keyword research and targeting process to help determine the site’s hierarchy and information architecture. Even if you’re deep down in the weeds on an already existing site, you can employ intelligent cross-linking to make sure visitors can find what they’re seeking from potential landing pages. The concept should be to make the primary content of the page the most likely target of the searcher’s intent, then provide navigation to secondary, tertiary or more specific needs.

You now have the keyword groups segmented to individual pages and a hierarchy for your site, so the final step is assigning the keyword targets to individual pages and providing recommendations on Titles, URLs, Meta Descriptions and page functionality. In the example above, I’ve employed multiple keywords in the page elements (plural and singular versions of "comic" as well as "dc comics" and "batman comics") to help attract that traffic. I’m also listing "detective comics" here, though technically, I might even have a separate subcategory for that individual series that’s linked-to on this page.

This planning process is key to getting the best results possible. Over time, your analytics data can help show you where assumptions have been incorrect and you can course correct. What’s important is understanding the basic rules for keyword targeting:

No page should target keywords just because it "can rank for them;" you need to also consider the visitor experience and whether the page’s content can serve as many "keyword masters" as you’re targeting.
Pages can target multiple keywords and phrases at once so long as the intent is the same. Don’t arbitrarily split up pages or make a new page for every permutation of a keyphrase simply so you can have "optimum" optimization. Remember it’s much easier to earn links to one page than to many (and much easier to build one good funnel than two).
Keyword targeted pages need to provide the content a visitor is seeking and the links to the detailed pages they might want. Search engines are pretty smart – if visitors aren’t getting value from your pages, they’re not going to link to them, not going to click them in the SERPs and not going to recommend them to others. Even if you manipulate your way to the top today, in the long run, the engines will identify methods to get relevant, quality content ranking.

I’d also suggest checking out previous posts on:

Hopefully this has been valuable and I’d certainly appreciate examples and suggestions from the community on how you employ keyword targeting for maximum benefit.

p.s. I may have overstated when I said there’s "no" formal education. Market Motive offers some great online classes and certification as does Search Engine College. And yes, SEOmoz has a video training series, too – the metaphor was meant tongue in cheek

Do you like this post? Yes No

Martin Luther King, Jr Logo from Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask, Dogpile & Othersin 2010

On January 18, 2010, In SEO, by rustybrick

Every year, the search engines post special logos for Martin Luther King, Jr. This year is no different, we have logos from Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com, Dogpile and others. MLK, Martin Luther Kind, Jr needs no explanation. It is a legal US holiday today and a day celebrated by many around the world. Here are the logos:

Google’s MLK Logo:

Yahoo’s Flash MLK logo:

Bing’s MLK Theme:

Ask.com’s MLK Theme:

DogPile:

Search Engine Roundtable:

Also see the 2009 MLK logos and 2008 MLK logos for a bit of the history with these logos and doodles.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

Every year, the search engines post special logos for Martin Luther King, Jr. This year is no different, we have logos from Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com, Dogpile and others. MLK, Martin Luther Kind, Jr needs no explanation. It is a legal US holiday today and a day celebrated by many around the world. Here are the logos:

Google’s MLK Logo:

Yahoo’s Flash MLK logo:

Bing’s MLK Theme:

Ask.com’s MLK Theme:

DogPile:

Search Engine Roundtable:

Also see the 2008 MLK logos for a bit of the history with these logos and doodles.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

10 Professional Development Tips to Boost Your SEO Career

On January 17, 2010, In SEO, by Tom_C

Posted by Tom_C

So it’s a new year (doesn’t 2010 feel like the future?!) and it’s a new you. As Pete blogged last week plenty of new year’s resolutions are being set. For many this may involve getting a better or job or getting paid more money. This post is for you. Hopefully by the time you’ve read this post you’ll have some ideas to turbocharge your career.

First, I present you with a brief personal history. There was some interest in reading this on twitter so hopefully it’s useful to you.

How I Became Head of Search at Distilled

I started out a few years ago stuck in a pretty mundane job working as a project manager. Actually, I wasn’t even a project manager I was a project assistant. My alternative job title may as well have been project manager’s tea-boy. It was reasonably well paid but mentally about as stimulating as being punched in the eye.

About this time Will & Duncan were just setting up the company that would eventually become Distilled and obviously Will was raving to me about this thing called the internet. Believing this to be the future, I decided to get a job working for the internet.

Account Executive is a good entry level job for those wanting to get into SEO.

At this time, I didn’t really have any internet skills except hanging out in forums and playing poker online. Thankfully that seemed to be enough for me to get a job as a Digital Account Executive at a digital agency. This role involved doing account management for both web build projects but also SEO and PPC projects. Although I wasn’t actually doing any SEO, speaking to clients every day about their SEO and PPC campaigns quickly got me interested in what SEO was and how one did it. As I’m sure a lot of you can relate to, once bitten by the SEO bug there was no turning back. I started reading SEOmoz and other blogs and, if I’m honest, got a little bit obsessed.

This was a good thing for the company I was working for however as I started actively becoming involved in running the SEO projects for some quite big name clients. This was fun but ultimately I was still doing a fair amount of account management and my aim was to concentrate on doing SEO so I started looking around. By this time Distilled had taken shape, Will and Duncan had hired their first employee and had even got themselves some nice offices so it was (with hindsight) quite a natural time for them to start think about offering SEO. I jumped ship from my old agency and came to work for Distilled. Tally ho!

Now, technically, at this point I became Head of Search for Distilled, but with only 4 employees and a handful of small clients this wasn’t really too much to brag about. Still, I was able to immerse myself in SEO which was what I wanted and I was enjoying myself.

There was still much to learn at this stage – and although my job title hasn’t changed over the years my job role has changed quite dramatically and I feel like I’ve actually had several different jobs at Distilled as my role has evolved.

As Distilled grew up we hired Rob and Lucy to be SEOs alongside myself. Along with a little bit of hands-on work from Will and Duncan we functioned well as a close-knit team and we all managed our own SEO projects within Distilled, working together but as a pretty flat team. At this point, my

Although my job title hasn’t changed my role has changed several times since I’ve been working at Distilled.

role as "Head of SEO" didn’t involve doing anything much different from Rob and Lucy. That said, the whole company was growing and we started to get on board bigger clients and do more consulting rather than just hands-on SEO for small businesses. This naturally involved more formal reporting, delivering client-side training sessions and putting together high-level reports that our clients could take to their board to influence decisions regarding their online strategy. Good times. Around this time I started to attend a few industry conferences and shortly after I started speaking at industry conferences.

So already my role has changed from managing small-time SEO projects to doing consulting for large companies. Recently, my role has changed again within Distilled – we’ve hired some more staff for our SEO team and I’ve started spending more time on managing a team as well as doing hands-on SEO and consulting.

Anyway, that’s my (far too long) personal story. Hopefully it’s helpful to get a glimpse at how to make the progression within this industry. Although I’ve been lucky that Distilled has provided a new role for me at every step of my career I could easily have taken those 3 separate roles within different companies.

10 Tips To Boost Your SEO Career

And now, without further ado, I present my 10 tips for professional development within the SEO industry. Note that I’m assuming you’re already working in SEO at some level. If you’re not, then I suggest you read Danny’s posts on learning SEO.

While you’re reading through this list you might want to motivate yourself by reminding yourself what you can earn at different job levels within the SEO indsutry.

1) Get Qualified

Although I’m not a huge fan of qualifications generally and certainly in the SEO industry they’re few and far between, but nevertheless – getting either GAIQ or Adwords qualified will look good on a CV and give you some valuable skills. Not to mention they’re pretty easy and cheap so totally learnable in your spare time!

2) Learn Some Secondary Skills

SEO, or more broadly internet marketing, covers such a wide range of topics, skills and industries that it never hurts to have more strings to your bow than just linkbuilding. Try teaching yourself some PHP or CSS. I recently learned a few CSS bits and pieces and they come in handy for styling blog posts (Rob gives a good intro to learning CSS for styling blog posts here).

A side project is a great way of polishing up all your secondary skills, in fact a side project looks great on a CV too as Judith demonstrates here: if your SEO is not moonlighting, fire them.

3) Craft a Kick-Ass CV

When thinking about applying for a job it’s crucial to create an astounding CV, but SEO doesn’t offer too many transferable skills does it? Think again. Instead of putting things like "linkbuilding" on your CV, take a look at Rand’s post on skills that have served him well. All those skills would stand out on a CV. Also worth taking a look at is Rand’s whiteboard friday on how to get an SEO job.

4) Do Some Agency Time

If you’re working in-house then that’s great and I’m in no way trying to suggest that SEOs who work at agencies are better at SEO. But, it has to be said that working agency side you get to work on many more industries than you would otherwise. You can work on news websites, ecommerce websites, lead gen websites and a whole lot more! Getting experience working on a broad range of sites can really help make sure you’re up to speed on all the different niches of SEO – whether it’s local, image search, video search or product search.

On the flip-side, if you’re working agency side then consider working in-house for a bit. You’ll get experience in reporting to a board as well as having to experience first-hand the challenges of getting buy-in from other departments. All useful experience.

5) Immerse Yourself in Excel

I’ve raved about Excel a lot in the past so I won’t do so again here. That said, there are two crucial skills that will help you get a better job and Excel can help both of them. They are reporting and data analysis. Reporting is essential whether you’re working at an agency and need to report to clients or are working in-house and need to report to a board or your boss. Data analysis is essential to ensure that your report is always positive (I’m only half joking here…!).

In summary, if you don’t know how to put graphs and charts into your reports then you won’t get very far, as this chart shows:

6) Present At A Conference

Presenting at conferences is good for so many different reasons. Networking, making friends, having fun, experience in public speaking etc etc. I really love speaking at conferences and you should too. Having it on your CV can really make you look like an expert. And actually speaking is easy – just watch out for the speaker submission forms at SES, SMX, Adtech and all the rest of the conferences and come up with an appealing pitch.

If that’s too daunting, then consider speaking at a smaller conference. I spoke at the first ThinkVisibility in the UK last year and it was only small but lots of fun. This year I’m speaking again and it’s going to be a fair size bigger! How did I get to speak? Simple, I saw Dom twitter about wanting speakers for his conference and sent him a DM. If you apply yourself it’s that simple.

Once you’ve been accepted to speak you’ll want to take a look at these presentation skills for SEO.

7) Make Friends (aka Networking)

Networking used to be something I hated doing. The idea of making small talk with others in your industry filled me with dread. Then I realised what an awesome bunch of people the SEO industry is and decided that actually it was fun to hang around them, swap emails, twitter etc etc and before I knew it I was networking. So get involved in the local SEO scene wherever you are. In London, that means getting yourself down to LondonSEO. By networking you’ll get to know who’s hiring, and more importantly whether they’re worth working for!

If you want to network slightly more officially then check out LinkedIn – you’ll be able to see upcoming job opportunities as well as raising your personal profile. Which brings me neatly to:

Build A Personal Brand

Building a personal brand is essential to getting a decent job, especially in the SEO industry. This xkcd sums it perfectly. There’s some great blog posts on this topic:

WBF – building a personal brand
The Layman’s Personal Branding Platform
SEO Tips for Building Your Personal Brand
The Ever-Snarky Rebecca Kelly’s Personal Branding + Networking = Job

In summary, get twittering and blogging with a username that’s recognisable and consistent.

9) Get Some Management Experience

Here’s where you might want to take your career to the next level. If you’re looking at trying to transition from an SEO consultant to someone who manages a team you’ll need to get some management experience. If there’s no opportunity for managing a team where you are right now then a great way to get a bit of experience is to get an intern. It’s an easy sell to your boss since you don’t need to pay them and it can look great on your CV.

For anyone who’s looking to try and up their game as an SEO manager then these two posts from Rich Baxter are essential reading:

10) Add More ROI To Every Project You Work On

As the internet grows and as the industry evolves we’re all moving towards becoming "online marketers" rather than just "SEO"s. Many of the skills that we know and love from SEO are applicable to other areas that can bring a client ROI. Two classic examples are email marketing and conversion rate optimisation. Get proficient at both of these and you’ll make yourself an all-round expert and hard to turn down for any kind of online marketing position. Here’s a few primers:

Learning a little about email marketing
WBF email marketing and SEO
Google Website Optimizer 101 (the best page on CRO I know)

Conclusion

In conclusion I just thought I’d mention two things. Firstly, I’m not looking for a job so please hold the recruitment calls – I love working at Distilled and am extremely grateful to Will and Duncan for giving me the opportunity to make it through several iterations of "head of search", here’s to the next iteration! Secondly, everyone’s different but I strongly believe that it’s not all about the money. If you’re applying for a new job then please please try and work for a fun company and make sure that you’ll enjoy it. Your own enjoyment is far more important than just the $$/££ you’ll get paid. Seriously.

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