Inside the Marketers Studio - David Berkowitz's Marketing Blog

You CAN Handle These SEO Truths - Interview with Author Rebecca Lieb

Image of Rebecca Lieb

Here's this week's colun from MediaPost's Search Insider. It's a Part 1 of 2. For Part 2, please share any other questions you have for Rebecca in the blog's comments, via email to marketersstudio @ gmail . com or Twitter at @dberkowitz . If there are too many, I will still run the answers on the blog. Please submit questions by Friday so I can run them in the Tuesday column.

You CAN Handle These SEO Truths

If you're looking to make sure you're covering all bases with search engine optimization, a good place to start is Rebecca Lieb's new book, "The Truth about Search Engine Optimization." You'll find 51 truths in this book, covering everything from link development to video optimization. They're bite-sized chunks, and if you feel well-versed in some areas but want some help with others, it's easy to flip around and read it in the order that matters most to you.

Lieb, vice president of U.S. operations for Econsultancy, was previously editor in chief of ClickZ Network and also ran Search Engine Watch during some of her tenure there, so she's seen quite a few truths emerge. You can find out more at RebeccaLieb.com.

Meanwhile, it's time to get to the truth behind "The Truth." We'll continue this interview next week, so if you have other questions, post them in the comments or e-mail me and I'll work some into the second round. (Thanks for your questions on Twitter, Anna Talerico (@annatalerico) and Matt McGowan (@matt_mcgowan).

Search Insider: How did you decide on these 51 truths and techniques? Were there any you left off that you really wanted to include? Or did you come across a point where you wanted to stop at, say, 37 and the publisher said, "Give me 51 or no book deal"?

Rebecca Lieb: I'm glad to say that not only is the book about organic search, but the chapter count is totally organic too. That is to say, in writing it, I sat down and made a list of the topics people need to be at least briefed on to approach the subject of SEO holistically. The list totaled 51, and no one at FT Press gave me any arguments -- and neither did the book's highly knowledgeable technical editor, Amanda Watlington.

SI: Who needs this book the most?

RL: Anyone who needs to wrap their head around SEO. This isn't a book about how to code a Web page; it's a book about the concepts of being found online. Tons of people behind a myriad of Web sites are interested in that, from solo bloggers to Fortune 100 companies. It's not a book that's going to throw coding skills or high levels of technical expertise at you, but it will help you understand what makes a Web site "findable." That's useful information for someone not directly involved in SEO, but who's running, say, a marketing department and in the course of their job must have semi-coherent discussions with the people who are doing the nuts-and-bolts SEO stuff.

SI: If you had to write a book called "The One Truth of SEO," what would that one truth be?

RL: Content is king. But content covers a whole lot of bases: there's copy, there are title tags and meta data, there's local and vertical content -- even links can be regarded as content. Behind every great SEO initiative is a solid and sustainable content strategy.

SI: If content is king, where do links fit in the kingdom?

RL: Links point to content, and do so contextually -- at least, the best ones do. Implicitly, links say, "Hey, think this is interesting? Want to know more? Then look over here." A publishing analogy might be that links are the table of contents and footnotes all rolled into one. And links don't just say that to users, they convey the same message to search engine spiders as well. Well-executed and strategically placed links help spiders to better understand and index content. Links also help pave the way for spiders to find related and relevant content. Links are critical to the way you surf the Web, and search engines follow those same paths.

SI: You've been involved in covering this field for some time now. Is there anything that was really new or surprising to you as you put all this together? 

RL: You're right -- I've lived in this space for quite a while, since people were wondering what Google's revenue model was going to be! In the book I've worked hard to underscore the fact that SEO is a continually evolving process that's never done. It can always be improved upon. And that, of course, is because search is new and rapidly evolving. While writing this book, I kept a close eye on developments in universal search, local, vertical, video, and the other newer forms of search that are gaining in importance, both on the Web and to SEO strategies.

What Books on Online Advertising Will Join the Top Ten Media and Marketing Books of All Time?

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

This post was inspired by the comments from a reader who wrote:

I was a bit surprised when I read Jonah Bloom’s column in Advertising Age about the ‘Top 10 Media and Marketing Books of All Time’ (http://adage.com/bookstore/post?article_id=134945) because I thought there was a glaring absence of any digitally-focused books. Though I agree that #1 ranked Positioning is a classic, and that they were looking for ‘all time’ rankings, I was surprised to see ‘Ogilvy on Advertising’ (I’ve read it) and not ‘Groundswell’ or maybe something by Seth Godin or ‘Cluetrain Manifesto’. I was also surprised to see so many ‘older’ publications on the list.

I realize that digital is still less than 10% of US ad spend and that network TV is still king, but (1) it’s growing, and (2) it’s influencing other categories. Do you agree with me that the list skews towards older readers?

He raised an interesting point, and I haven't read all of the books on the top 10 list (not quite half of them, for that matter), so I can't critique the list itself, but I also couldn't come up with any examples of anything with a digital focus that should be there. Groundswell is an important book, but it's too tactical to likely endure as a great one. Andy Sernovitz's Word of Mouth marketing and Rohit Bhargava's Personality Not Included might fall into the same group. One I'm reading now, Emanuel Rosen's The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited, could be a contender, even if the digital angle is just a part of it - albeit a big reason the original book needed to be revisited in the first place.

So, are there any great books on online advertising or digital marketing?

Have they just not been written yet?

Or are the best books on marketing and advertising inherently bigger than any one channel or medium, enough so that they apply to a broad range of marketing?

Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Amazon's Kindle: A Personal Review

Image by TheFemGeek via FlickrLast month, as a gift I received Amazon's Kindle Amazon's Kindle.I wasn't ready to get one just yet. I read about a book a week and love having them around, as the scores of books at my office and bountiful floor-to-ceiling bookshelves at home can attest.

My first Kindle experience was with my uncle's. I tried it for a bit and was impressed with the clarity and usability; it's a very short learning curve to get up to speed. But that was a number of months ago, and I've preferred the old-fashioned version.

Books are for me what widgets are for MySpace users. In many ways, they're a form of self-expression:

• There's the physical manifestations on my shelves, so a small number of people encounter them that way.
• Then there's the self-expression by reading books in public; I'm almost always reading on the subway and often when I'm walking I keep a book in my hand. Usually someone will look over to see what I'm reading. I've had some interesting discussions that way, such as when I spoke with a Starbucks barista about Tim Sanders' book Love is the Killer App, or the two people who commented on David Vinjamuri's Accidental Branding - one of whom knew the author.
• Lastly, there's the virtual manifestations - and no, I don't mean the Virtual Bookshelf Facebook apps and the like. I mean how books come up in conversation, and when I ask someone what they're reading and they ask as much as me, it says something about me. 

It's this more meta role - the concept of the book rather than its physical entity - that can still be served by the Kindle, and it's why it can augment rather than detract from my bibliophilia.

So, about the Kindle...

It's light, lighter than most books I read (not that the books I read are too dense). It feels twice as heavy in the cover that's included, which does a good job of protecting it (though if you're in a wet, sandy, or dirty area, you'll want to still keep it in a bag; it's not meant to totally shield it.

Downloading books takes less time than expected. It works on Sprint's wireless EVDO network, which Amazon calls the Whispernet. Full books take seconds to download.

Reading is really easy. You can set the text size to what works for you. The screen clarity's perfect. The buttons for flipping forward and back are easily accessible so you can read the book one-handed.

The weight and usability make it especially easy to read in the subway, even on the cramped Lexington line at rush hour where overcrowding is rampant. There's no need to fumble along to try to turn a page single-handedly or annoy others with newspapers getting in their faces.

Battery life is great - most of the time. If you keep the wireless access off, it can go for several days without a charge while using it frequently. An Amazon support representative told me that instead of turning it on and off, you can leave it on, where a static screensaver appears, and that takes even less energy. Apparently once the screensaver kicks in, it takes no additional power to keep displaying it.

I like taking notes in the back of books, and it's easy to write notes and create bookmarks on the Kindle. Also, there's easy access to a dictionary when you want to look something up.

There are a few negatives:

• You can't search the books or even get to the index. 
• You can tell roughly how far you're into the book, but I miss page numbers, and you can't see how far you are into a chapter. I'll often read a couple more pages in a sitting if it means finishing a chapter, so that doesn't work here.
• It's hard to flip around. In the book I'm reading now offline, William Dalrymple's The Last Mughal, it's sometimes helpful to flip back to the glossary, or flip to the front where the character descriptions are listed. You can set bookmarks in the Kindle, but's not as easy as keeping your thumb in a certain place.
• The battery life caused me my greatest frustration. When I went to Boston for a one-night trip, I didn't bother bringing my Kindle charger as it looked like the the battery was mostly full. Yet it died on me soon after I got to Boston. I may have had the wireless access on too much, but there was still no indication that the juice was about to run out. 
• While the Kindle is connected to my Amazon account, it's not connected to my Amazon shopping cart. I'd love to easily check to see which Amazon print books I've saved in my cart are available on the Kindle.
• The Kindle's a bit hard to hold without hitting buttons because the buttons take up so much space.
• You'll have to shut off the Kindle when a plane's taking off and landing. Those are my favorite times to read as a distraction. I guess there's always the seat pocket magazine.
• You can't get Kindle books autographed. I LOVE autographed books. Dang.
• Sharing books doesn't quite work either.

I read two books on the Kindle before writing this - Philip Roth's Indignation and Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea (both great reads and memorable stories. I'm not totally abandoning physical books thanks to the Kindle. I've got a few others, including Mughal, that I have around here and plan to read. I am really excited to have the Kindle with me when I travel (as long as I remember the charger); I'll be away at least 19 days between now and early January, and while I may take a physical book like Mughal that I'm in the middle of, I won't take any others; it's much easier to travel light now.

At some point, I'll have to make more conscious decisions about what I read in which format. Do I want something for the bookshelves? Will I need to flip around a lot? Or do I want the convenience of reading it, and the benefit of saving physical shelf space?

I'd imagine for some great books I'll buy them in both formats. I might download a Kindle version first and then wind up at a book signing where I'll buy a copy there, or I'll love it so much that I want to have the more permanent version.

While I'm a bit torn over some aspects of it, I will keep reading on the Kindle, and it is already changing how I read.

The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: Book Review

Image by Cameron Maddux via FlickrFeeling a little lost in this economy career-wise? Out of work, or in a dead-end situation? Not feeling the flow?

Then it might be time to check out The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need, the latest work from Dan Pink.

Pink offers six career tips, so in turn I'll offer six things you need to know about this book:

1) It's a manga (or do I just say "it's manga"?) - black and white comics, inspired by Japanese. It makes the book a really quick read. I heard from one author lately that publishers want readers to be able to get through a business book on a cross-country flight. You'd be able to get through this on a flight from New York to DC, and if you're leaving from a New York airport, you'll probably be able to finish it while you're on the runway.

2) The manga format also limits the audnece. It feels like a kids' book. I've read several graphic novels; I'm currently in the middle of Watchmen, which I borrowed from my 17-year-old nephew, and I don't think he should be able to read it until he's 40. I'm a big fan of comics as a form of storytelling. Yet used here, it makes it hard for me to recommend to anyone who's moved on beyond the mailroom, and even my nephew might think it's too simple for him.

3) It's all good advice [spoiler alert]:

1. There is no plan.
2. Think strengths, not weaknesses.
3. It's not about you.
4. Persistence trumps talent.
5. Make excellent mistakes.
6. Leave an imprint.

It's advice that anyone who's gotten any career advice will have heard before, but it's a good refresher to have it all in one place.

4) You can read the intro and the first 61 pages online for free. There's also more info at JohnnyBunko.com. If you're planning on getting this for yourself or anyone else, try before you buy. I've embedded the trailer below here too:

5) Okay, I was a little too ambitious. In sum, this is a good, fun refresher for those starting out or spinning their wheels, but most others can skip this one. I still think it would be better titled "the first career guide you'll ever need," not the last.

Saving the World at Work by Tim Sanders - Book Review

Tim Sanders first wrote about love in Love Is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends. The moral: get ahead at work by being a lovecat. It was one of the first business books I ever reread, and I still keep it on my desk.

Then he switched to being well liked in The Likeability Factor: How to Boost Your L-Factor and Achieve Your Life's Dreams. The moral: being likable is a great way to get along better in life. It's a good read, though perhaps a little more conventional and very Gladwell-esque once Gladwell became a household (or at least office) name to the point where you didn't even need to mention his first name (Malcolm).

Now he's on to saving the world in Saving the World at Work. The moral: any individual can be an agent of change at the workplace, and any workplace can be an agent of change in the world.

Sanders continues to be accessible, writing with memorable anecdotes and providing concrete steps for taking action. It's not just some do-gooders' guide; as a business book, he makes a case why environmental sustainability is a do-or-die cause businesses must take part in to retain and attract both employees and consumers.

Part One of Saving the World describes the five phases of business revolutions:

1. Circumstances change
2. A new values system arises
3. Innovators arrive
4. Disruption ensues
5. A new order arises

He applies these to other phenomena, such as the quality revolution that took hold mostly in the 1970s and 80s. As for sustainability, we've basically experienced the first two phases and the the next two are hitting (it gets a little messy so it's not all perfeclty linear).

Part Two lists the Six Laws of the Saver Soldier - you know, the people who are actually doing the whole world-saving thing. Yes, it's a little hokey. I was reluctant to read the Love book because of the whole lovecat thing. This time around, the term's a little too militaristic for my tastes. Still, it's all good advice here, and it's the part of the book centered on helping people get ahead, and not just relating to sustainability. For instance, the first law, The Law of the Ledger, states that everything one does at work must have a positive impact on the company's bottom line.

Finally, in Part Three, he lists actionable steps people and companies can take to improve one's workplace for everyone in it (mentor coworkers and partners, provide natural light, share your network), build greater bonds between your company and the community where it operates (sponsor community organizations, offer your office as a meeting place, buy local), and then save the planet (print less, recycle, and green up partners, products, and buildings).

The anecdotes may be the best part of the book. For instance, he describes the partnership between Timberland and the City Year service corps. While I knew nothing about City Year, I wound up meeting several people connected with them while covering the ServiceNation Summit last week (in the Flickr slideshow, you'll see several photos of Usher against a City Year backdrop). The book then became a fun topic of discussion (so it's clear, I was reading a pre-release galley of the book; it's also possible some things changed between my review of this galley and the book's publication this week).

Tim's books have a way of being conversation starters. When I was reading Love in advance of interviewing him, it led to a discussion about the book with a Starbucks barista. Maybe this one'll lead to a few conversations that wound up saving the world.

Managing Online Forums - One Sitting Book Review

Sometimes I get my hands on books that I know are good for certain audiences even if I'm not the right audience. In light of this, I'm initiating this blog's first One Sitting Book Review for books that I don't need to read all the way through but I'll skim and offer a quick review.

The book of the day here is Managing Online Forums: Everything You Need to Know to Create and Run Successful Community Discussion Boards by Patrick O'Keefe.

O'Keefe covers a ton of ground in the book's nearly 300 pages, including: evaluating forum technology, monitoring and censoring posts, staffing, monetization, and a few other topics. Some of the book's more technical, some more about business decisions, and others more focused on the content, but forum managers tend to wear a lot of hats so most of this should be useful to most such managers.

I've never managed a real online forum (outside of some listservs for alumni groups and events), so I haven't had to deal with most of the challenges in this book, and I'm not the target audience, but for anyone who has a forum or is thinking of starting one, this seems like a great resource to keep handy and thumb through regularly.

 

See ManagingOnlineForums.com for more info.

Now is Gone - Book Review

Earlier this month, in the column Search Marketing by the Book, I mentioned I hadn't read Geoff Livingston's highly acclaimed Now Is Gone: A Primer on New Media for Executives and Entrepreneurs. Geoff commented on the post and offered to send a review copy, and I was able to plow through it on my recent trip to Dallas.

I'm a big fan of the Now is Gone blog; I've been reading it for months, and it's one of the greatest sources of information for posts that I forward on to my colleagues (though admittedly I'm remiss about sharing my favorites here, on Twitter, or elsewhere).

As for the book, it's a great primer for public relations professionals and a good primer for marketers who don't have too much experience with social media marketing. As a starting point, it's one of the most accessible books I've read. As Geoff notes in the book, the focus is on strategy and not tactics, so it's not a how-to guide. There's more of that in Groundswell.

It's tough reviewing this book as someone who works in the social media space, as I'm not the target audience for the book. I already know most of the case studies in the book, from Coke's Virtual Thirst to GM's Fastlane blog, and the strategies are all familiar. Yet would I recommend this to a PR executive or client looking to get started? Absolutely. A friend of mine who's a PR consultant laments about how some execs at a firm he works with is years behind on all of this, and I'd easily recommend he use this book to educate them.

The other challenge with this book is Groundswell. That book is the most important book on social media I've read, one I can't recommend enough for people in so many different roles at so many different types of organizations. In some ways, this book is Groundswell Lite. That can also be an advantage though. For someone who needs a quicker read to wade into social media marketing, Now is Gone is the first book I'd recommend. Groundswell, though, has the strategy and case studies (far more of both), along with the first-hand research, plus the insights from two gifted analysts.

If you're only going to read one book on social media, go for Groundswell. If the whole notion of Groundswell intimidates the heck out of you, or you need a one-sitting airplane, pick up Now is Gone.

Search Marketing by the Book

I neglected to post last week's MediaPost column as it went up, but here it is at last. Tomorrow's will hopefully go up in a more timely manner.

Search Marketing by the Book

When planning search engine optimization strategies, what if you tried to promote your site like you're promoting a book?

It's a timely question, as some social media gurus have recently capitalized on SEO best practices when releasing their books. It's a great time to read many of your favorite bloggers in print, including Forrester's Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff (whose book is the best you can read on social media), Rohit Bhargava (whose book is next on my list), Joe Jaffe (whose book I panned - nothing personal, of course), Geoff Livingston (whose book I'll eventually order), and the 103 authors of  "The Age of Conversation "(I'm one of the hundred, so I'll refrain from a review).

An underlying theme in promoting these books is getting bloggers involved. Here's why:

Blogging Accidental Branding's Launch Event

Today I was at NYU for the launch event of Accidental Branding, which I recently reviewed (it's my favorite business book out right now along with Groundswell).

John Peterman, J. Peterman: Baseball taught him success - both how to fail (a .333 average - one hit and two outs gets you in the hall of fame) and how to dream. With his own business launching the J. Peterman catalog, he succeeded by breaking the rules, like putting only one product on the page, using longform copy, and using drawings instead of photographs.

Now: They just launched a website Peterman's Eye, full of his intellectual ideas from around the world. Interactive is a big focus for Peterman now. From there it's Peterman's Travel and then Peterman's Home. The sites don't sell anything. (They do have Google ads.)

What's funny with Peterman is that he comes off looking more like an old neighbor, not the worldly adventurer that he is. He's a good storyteller though.

Craig Newmark, craigslist: Now Craig gets up and he's wearing a blazer and tie, which seems off for craigslist's Craig.

Well into his talk, he went on this fun historical rift referring to reformers like Martin Luther, John Locke, and Thomas Jefferson bloggers. I'm not sure the syllogism holds up though. Bloggers may be part of this self-publishing reformist movement and thus revolutionary in some way, but that doesn't mean the reformers were all bloggers. Okay, it's a metaphor. I'll drop it. One last point though: Thomas Jefferson, to our knowledge, never wrote a blog in the voice of his dog.

Another fun fact: Craig shares his email freely, craig@craigslist.org, and doesn't use any spam filters. I'd love to know how he manages his inbox because mine's almost a lost cause. Craig's response time is ridiculous too. I wrote him after the event asking if there was anything people could do about the real estate scam I blogged about (and blogged about again). After a bit of an exchange, he wrote, "David, I've spoke with the Secret Service, no new advice or anything, really tough problem." I wish there was more I could do, but at least there's SEO.

Roxanne Quimby, Burt's Bees: Of major importance is monitoring how consumers interact with your products. She noticed, for example, that when people would check out a candle, they'd pick it up and look at the bottom. She never quite got why, but she made sure the bottom of the candle always looked as good as the top.

* * *
Congrats, author David Vinjamuri on the launch, and kudos to Thirdway and NYU for putting it together and to Carolyn Kepcher, best known for The Apprentice, for moderating and speaking.

Step into the Spotlight - Book Review

It's funny to see Al Ries giving one of the blurbs on the back of Step Into the Spotlight!- 'Cause ALL Business is Show Business! by Tsufit (at least the back of the review copy I read) as most of the book is ripped right from his handbooks (namely and TThe 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing). She takes Ries's advice for marketers and turns it into tips for self-improvement by self-promotion.

Then there's Ries's quote itself, which glimmers with irony. He says, "Read this book to turn yourself into another Donald Trump or Richard Branson." That quote can be read as either an endorsement -- or a warning. Yes, you could become this universally derided icon whose best business deal was inheriting (with his siblings) much of his father's $400 million fortune. Or you could become an innovator who radically tries to reinvent various industries' business models, succeeding in a big way often enough.

The book isn't bad. At times, I was even engaged with it. Yet Tsufit, as you can imagine from someone who chooses to ditch the last name, frequently vacillates between endearing and cloying. The cloying's in the majority.

I gather I'm not the target audience. It's not that I can't make use of many of Tsufit's recommendations - just about anyone can, whether for branding, public speaking, or confidence building. Yet I'm also not a big an of self-help books, or people who use themselves as every last example, or people who use way too many exclamation points; three of the seven chapters include exclamation points, and another adds one in the subhead. On a whim, I checked the dedication page, and there's even an exclamation point there. This is someone who thinks way too highly of what she's saying, so much of the book becomes noise.

Perhaps this isn't a book review so much as a warning. There's good, perhaps great advice here. But you have to be ready for all the shlock and rehashing and ego and hamming. It's like Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman - he's all about screaming and scenery chewing, but once you get past that, it's a decent flick.